Citations
- 58 S.W.2d 34
Full opinion text
HARVEY, Presiding Judge.
This is a suit by the city of Odessa against the defendant in error, George D. Elliott, to recover city taxes for the years 1927, 1928, 1929, and 1930, and to foreclose the statutory lien. The trial court rendered judgment in favor of the city for the taxes claimed for the year 1927, and for a portion of the taxes claimed for the years 1928 and 1929, and denied recovery for the taxes claimed for the year 1930. The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed that judgment.
The trial court and the Court of Civil Appeals correctly held that the city was entitled to recover the taxes for the year 1927, and what follows herein has reference to taxes for the other years. The controversy in this respect goes entirely to the manner in which: the tax levies for those years were made. The defendant in error contends that such levies mostly are invalid because not made by ordinance.
The city is incorporated, under the general statutes, as a city of less than five thousand inhabitants. In December, 1927, the city, by ordinance, duly issued refunding bonds, known as water and sewer bonds, in the sum of $157,000, bearing interest at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum, payable annually. Thei bonds wore for $1,000 each, and were in groups maturing at different dates. The first group consisting of three of the bonds, matured in 1929, and other groups, varying from four to fourteen bonds, were to mature at two-year intervals up to the year 1967. In the ordinance, it was expressly provided, in substance and effect, that a tax be, and “same is hereby,” levied for each year from 1927 to 1967, inclusive, sufficient to pay the bonds and interest as same fell due.
In 1928 the city, by ordinance, duly issued bonds in the sum of $55,000 for street paving. The bonds were for $1,000 each, and were to mature, some singly and others in groups, on. May 1st of each year beginning with the year 1930 and ending in 1968. Interest at the rate of 5½ per cent, per annum, on all the bonds, was payable annually as it accrued. In the ordinance providing for the issuance of the bonds, it was provided: “That to pay the interest on said bonds and create a sinking fund sufficient to redeem them at maturity, a tax of thirty cents (30