Acker v. State

Injunction Counties Incurring Indebtedness in Excess of $10,000 Without Approval of Electors Constitution Leasing Private Property for County Purposes Power and Discretion of Board of Commissioners Validity of Contracts not Affected by Expiration of Terms of Office of Commissioners Options. Counties Incurring Indebtedness Constitution Limitation of $10,000 Without Approval of Electors What Constitutes "Single Purpose." 1. To constitute a "single purpose" within the meaning of section 5, Article XIII, Constitution, declaring that no county shall incur any indebtedness for any single purpose in excess of $10,000 without the approval of a majority of the electors thereof, the elements which enter into it must be so related that, when combined, they constitute an entity, something complete in itself but separate and apart from other objects. Same Power of Commissioners to Provide Necessary County Buildings Construction of Statute. 2. Held, that the provision of subdivisions 7 and 8, section 4465, Revised Codes 1921, as amended by Chapter 38, Laws of 1929, granting power to the board of county commissioners to provide suitable rooms "when there are no necessary county buildings" refers to a present proprietorship of such buildings by a county and not to property temporarily held and used under lease for county purposes. Same Matter of Leasing Privately Owned Property for County Purposes Addressed to Discretion of Board of Commissioners. 3. The matter of leasing privately owned property under power granted the board of county commissioners by subdivision 7 of the above section, is one addressed to the sound judgment and discretion of the board. Option Contracts Definition. 4. An option to purchase real property is simply a right conferred by contract whereby its owner agrees with another person that the latter shall have the right to purchase it at a fixed price within a definite time on terms stated; it is unilateral in the sense that while the optionee may compel specific performance, the optionor has no such right. Page 437 Counties Leasing Building for Courthouse Purposes Four-year Contract Held not Illegal as Calling for Expenditure in Excess of Constitutional Limitation of $10,000 Option to Purchase not Part of Lease. 5. The board of commissioners of a county having no courthouse, entered into a contract of lease with the owner of a building, the term of the lease being four years at a rental of $2,400 per annum, with the privilege in the county of renewal for a like period. The lease contained an option giving the county the right to purchase during the existence of the contract at the price of $31,000. Held, in an action to enjoin the carrying out of the contract, that the lease portion thereof calling for an expenditure of only $9,600 during a period of four years did not come within the constitutional prohibition referred to in paragraph 1 above; that the option portion, separate and apart from that relating to the lease, did not bind the county (see par. 4) and was presumably entered into with the understanding that before the option could be exercised the question would have to be submitted to a vote of the electors, and that therefore the court erred in granting the writ. Same Validity of Contract not Affected by Expiration of Term of Office of Member of Board of Commissioners Before Term of Contract Expires. 6. The board of county commissioners functions for the county as a continuous body while the personnel of its membership changes, the public corporation the county continues unchanged, and its contracts are the contracts of the board, not of its individual members; hence the fact that the term of office of a member of the board which enters into a contract for the county may expire before the term of the contract, does not in any manner affect its validity.