Eddy v. People ex rel. Nolen

Citations

• 127 Ill. 428
• 20 N.E. 83

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal subscbiption and bonds—original conditions not to be changed. A subscription by a city to the capital stock of a railway company prior to the time the constitution of 1870 took effect, is subject to the conditions upon which the same was voted by the people of such city.</p> <p>2. In 1869 the legal voters of a city voted in favor of a subscription of $25,000 to the capital stock of a railway company, on condition that the same should be paid in city bonds at par, to be delivered to the company when the railroad should be completed to another road and a train of cars had run thereon, and also upon the condition that said railroad should be completed within the county on or before October 1, 1870, otherwise the subscription to be void. On September 21,1870, the city council made an order changing the time for the completion of the railroad within the county, and extending it to January 1, 1871,—and this was done without any vote of the people. The road was not completed by October 1,1870, and the bonds were issued in February, 1872: Held, that the bonds were issued in violation of the condition upon which they were voted, and were therefore void, no matter in whose hands they may have come, and that a tax levied to pay interest thereon could not be collected by law.</p> <p>3. After the present constitution took effect, a city or municipal corporation had no power to make any new contract in respect to a corporate subscription in aid of a railway company, orto waive any condition upon which such subscription was voted before that constitution was adopted, or extend the time for the performance of a material condition.</p> <p>A Same—burden of proof as to ils validity. Where bonds of a city are issued since the present constitution took effect, in payment of a subscription in aid of a railway company, under a vote of the people had before that time, the burden rests upon those affirming the validity of the bonds to show that they were lawfully issued, pur