45 160 84 245 84 247 45 160 We think the court erred in ruling against the tax title arising on the sales for taxes after 1859 on the facts as found, and that judgment ought to have been given for the defend ant. Claims for valuations were filed under the statute, (Comp. L. §§ 6252, 6253, amended in 1873; 1 Sess. Laws 1873, p. 472,) and the circuit judge made the necessary findings on them. But the view taken of the case leaves them without utility. The judgment must be reversed and one entered here in favor of the defendant with the costs of both courts. The record will be remanded however to enable the plaintiff to proceed under the statute for a new trial as he may be advised and as shall be agreeable to law. The other Justices concurred. 90 30 45 160 91 513 JOHN SHERBURNE RELATOR V. ROBERT J. HORN, FRED DENNY LARKE ET AL. Mandamus to issue certificates of election. Mandamus to compel a county clerk to issue a certificate of election to a person shown by the returns to have been legally elected, was denied when it would not have given substantial relief, and the question might be raised again in an issue as to the accuracy of the returns or by proceedings in the nature of quo warranto. Mandamus to compel the board of county canvassers to canvass certain votes which they had rejected, and to issue a certificate to the relator of his election as sheriff. Motion for the order to show cause submitted and denied Jan. 7, 1881. J. C. Shields and Turnbull & McDonald for the motion. MARSTON, C. J. Relator asks for an order requiring the respondent Denny Larke, clerk of the county of Presque Isle, to show cause why he should not issue and deliver to relator a certificate of his election as sheriff of said county, it appearing, as claimed, that the returns on file in the clerk's office. show him to have been legally elected, it farther appearing that a certificate has been issued and delivered to another person. Were it clear that this matter could be disposed of from an inspection of the returns we should be disposed to grant the order. The party who has received the certificate may deny the correctness of the returns, and thus an issue would be raised which would have to be sent down for trial. Or if an opportunity were not given him in the present case to do so, and a certificate were given the relator, still the controversy would not necessarily be ended, and a resort to proceedings in the nature of a quo warranto would inevitably follow. Under such circumstances the only benefit relator would gain by the present proceedings would be a certificate of election prima facie entitling him to the office:-in other words a shifting of the burthen of proof. It is not advisable to resort to mandamus unless substantial if not final relief can be given, and under all the circumstances, as the issuing of such a writ is discretionary, we think it best not to grant the order. The other Justices concurred. AUDITOR GENERAL, RELATOR V. STATE TREASURER. Constitutional construction-"Extinguishment" of debt. The Michigan Constitution provides that certain revenues shall be applied to paying the interest upon educational funds and the interest and principal of the State debt "until the extinguishment of the State debt" when they shall constitute a part of the Primary School Interest Fund (Art. xiv., § 1). Held that for the purposes of the requirement, the debt is to be considered "extinguished" when there is 45 MICH.-11 money enough in the State treasury, not subject to other claims, to pay it, even though it has not matured and has not been actually paid. Mandamus to the State Treasurer to transfer the surplus of specific taxes in the treasury to the Primary School Interest Fund. Submitted Oct. 20, 1880. Granted Jan. 7, 1881. Ashley Pond for relator. Attorney General Otto Kirchner for respondent. GRAVES, J. This is an amicable application to the Court to obtain an interpretation of an important part of Article 14 of the Constitution.* The question raised is whether that portion of the pledged specific taxes not required for interest on the educational funds, and which the treasury is to collect and hold for State indebtedness, and which has now outgrown that indebtedness, is so controlled by the words of the Constitution that it must hereafter be allowed to keep accumulating in the treasury, not only until the whole debt is due in 1890, but until it is entirely extinguished, however remote the event, and notwithstanding the amount of accumulation may prove to *ARTICLE XIV. SECTION 1. All specific State taxes, except those received from the mining companies of the Upper Peninsula, shall be applied in paying the interest upon the Primary School University, and other educational funds, and the interest and principal of the State debt, in the order herein recited, until the extinguishment of the State debt, other than the amounts due to educational funds, when such specific taxes shall be added to and constitute a part of the Primary School Interest Fund. The Legislature shall provide for an annual tax, sufficient, with other resources, to pay the estimated expenses of the State government, the interest of the State debt, and such deficiency as may occur in the resources. SEC. 2. The Legislature shall provide by law a sinking fund of at least twenty thousand dollars a year, to commence in eighteen hundred and fifty-two, with compound interest at the rate of six per cent per annum, and an annual increase of at least five per cent, to be applied solely to the payment and extinguishment of the principal of the State debt, other than the amounts due to educational funds, and shall be continued until the extinguishment thereof. The unfunded debt shall not be funded or redeemed at a value exceeding that established by law in one thousand eight hundred and forty eight. be many times larger than the debt for the satisfaction of which the provision was intended. In October last the State debt was $905,149.97 and the balance to the credit of the sinking fund was $1,208,895.27, and should the present practice continue of adding the residuum of the specific taxes, the amount in 1890 will probably exceed $3,000,000. The attorney general, speaking on the side of the State treasurer, argues that the words of section one must be taken literally, and that they unavoidably require that the specified annual residuum of these taxes shall be added without interruption or abatement to the fund for the discharge of the State debt and interest, whether needed therefor or not, until they are extinguished. The relator's counsel, admitting the literal sense of the provision to be as represented, yet strongly contends that there are insuperable objections to the adoption of a literal meaning. He argues that an attempt to carry out such a construction can end only in rendering the article hopelessly impracticable; that the case is one where it is indispensable to deviate from the literal import and to seek for and accept that ulterior sense which is called for by the end intended; that if this rule is observed all difficulties will disappear, and it will be found that the real object was to make sure provision for meeting the public obligations by means of a scheme imbedded in the Constitution, and that there was no ground or motive for a regulation to gather and impound a fund of indefinite amount, and which could not be put to any use connected with the object of the provision, and would most likely, under the theory of literal interpretation, be screened from any other, and that an intention to effectuate such a state of things ought not to be imputed. The question is one of high practical importance, but the ground of discussion is very narrow. It is fully opened by the statement of the points. Neither the condition of the finances nor the state of public opinion in 1850 will facilitate a solution. It might be expected that the proceedings of the Convention would give some clue to the precise manner in which it was understood this section (§ 1, Article 14) should actually operate in the contingency which has occurred, but they do not. True, a member suggested that a surplus might arise, but the remark was made and understood evidently as a mere casual observation in the course of debate and too fanciful to be noticed, and it seems not to have been noticed. There was much difference of opinion relative to the proper disposition of the specific taxes. Some thought they ought to be used exclusively to pay the interest on the State debt, and to cancel the principal. Others believed they should be devoted wholly to the primary school and other educational funds. A further question was whether specific taxes from corporations in the Upper Peninsula should be included in the general disposition, or be so left that the legislature might, if it was deemed best, appropriate them, or a part at least, to local objects of necessity in that territory; and lastly, it was strenuously urged by several gentlemen, that certain corporations paying specific taxes and holding large amounts of property in particular localities, ought to be subject to municipal taxation in common with other property holders in the same vicinity. The entire Convention was earnestly in favor of placing the educational system on a high and sure foundation, and the plan of free schools had the support of a large majority. It was believed by many of its supporters that full operation of the scheme would be much hastened by a liberal application of these taxes in favor of education, and they were anxious to make that the chief, if not the exclusive purpose to which they should be devoted. But this was resisted. by those who contended that the State debt was to be preferred, and also by others who wished to leave the subject to legislation. The result was in effect a compromise. It was ruled by the majority that the specific taxes on mining companies in the Upper Peninsula should be left to legis ion, and that for the time being the interest accruing on the educational funds should be first paid out of the other |