Blaylock v. Incorporated Town of Muskogee

Citations

• 117 F. 125
• 54 C.C.A. 639
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4416

Syllabus

<p>L Municipal Corporations—Extent of Power and Liabilities Question of Local Law.</p> <p>The extent of the powers and liabilities of municipal corporations under the statutes of a state is generally a question of local law, upon which the decisions of the courts of the state are authoritative in the-national courts.</p> <p>2. Statute—Adoption—Prior Construction.</p> <p>The enactment or adoption of a statute, which has been elsewhere In force, is presumed to be the adoption of the construction which had been previously given to that statute by the judicial tribunals whose duty it was to interpret it.</p> <p>8. Municipalities in Indian Territory—Defects in Streets or Sidewalks-—Liability.</p> <p>On May 2, 1890, congress made chapter 29 of Mansfield’s Digest of the Laws of Arkansas, which governs municipal corporations, a part of the laws of the Indian Territory (chapter 15, Ind. T. Ann. St. 1899). Prior to that time the supreme court of Arkansas had twice held that municipalities subject to that chapter were exempt from liability to individuals for negligence in the construction, maintenance, or repair of their streets, ffeld, the legal presumption is that, when congress adopted the statute of Arkansas as the law of the Indian Territory, it also adopted the construction of this statute which the supreme court of that state had previously put upon it, and a municipality in the Indian Territory governed by this chapter 29 (chapter 15) is not liable to individuals for defects in its sidewalks or streets, notwithstanding the fact that the-more reasonable rule, which is sustained by the greater weight of authority, is otherwise.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>