Atchison Board of Education v. De Kay

Citations

• 148 U.S. 591
• 13 S. Ct. 706
• 37 L. Ed. 573
• 1893 U.S. LEXIS 2256

Syllabus

<p>An error of a single word in the title of a statute in copying it into a municipal bond does not vitiate the deliberate acts of the proper officers of the municipality, as expressed in the promise to pay which they have, issued for money borrowed.</p> <p>It is a general rule that, where a municipal charter commits the decision of a matter to the council of the municipality, and is silent as to the mode of decision,'it may be done by a resolution, and need not necessarily be by an ordinance; and the decision in Newman v. Emporia, 32 Kansas, 456, is not in conflict with this rule.</p> <p>When municipal bonds have been issued in reliance upon a consent of the proper municipal authorities, as shown by the municipal records, and for years thereafter, interest had been duly paid upon such bonds, the courts will not, after the lapse of twenty years, in a suit upon the bonds, pronounce them invalid on purely technical and trivial grounds.</p> <p>An express power conferred upon a municipal corporation to issue bonds bearing interest, carries with it the power to attach interest coupons to • those bonds. -</p> <p>This action is properly brought against the Board of Education of the city of Atchison, which is a distinct corporation, and the proper one to be sued for a debt like this.</p>