Cairo & St. Louis Railroad v. City of Sparta

Citations

• 77 Ill. 505

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal subscription—proposition voted different from that authorized. Where a city was authorized to subscribe to the capital stock of a railway company, upon an affirmative vote of the people, to be paid for in corporate bonds to run not exceeding ten years, and to bear not exceeding ten per cent interest, a proposition submitted and voted that the bonds to be issued should be made payable in not less than twenty years, and bear interest at the rate of eight per cent per annum, was held to be materially variant from that authorized by law in respect to the time they had to run before due, and that the submission was in excess of the power conferred, and the vote thereon without any binding authority, and that the issue of the bonds voted could not be coerced.</p> <p>2. Constitutional law—compelling a municipal corporation to incur a debt. Under the constitution of 1848, the legislature could not compel a municipal corporation to incur a debt for merely local purposes against its own wishes.</p> <p>3. Same—power of legislature to validate a void vote to incur an indebtedness. When a municipal corporation submits an unauthorized proposition to issue its corporate bonds in aid of a railway company, which is carried, and which therefore imposes no liability on the corporation, it is not within the constitutional power of the legislature to validate such vote, so as to compel the issue of the bonds voted. Under such a law, the body might issue its bonds, if it so desired, but can not be compelled to do so.</p>