Edwards v. Bates County

Citations

• 117 F. 526
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 5115

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal Bonds—Innocent Holder—Burden of Proof.</p> <p>To entitle a holder of municipal bonds who purchased after maturity to protection as an innocent purchaser for value, where it is shown that the bonds were issued illegally or without consideration, he must prove that he acquired title through a prior holder, who took them before maturity for value and without notice of their invalidity.</p> <p>2. Same—Requisites and Validity—Conditions Precedent to Issuance.</p> <p>Under a statute authorizing a county court to call an election in a township to vote on the issuance of railroad bonds on a petition of 25 “taxpayers and residents” of the township, and to issue bonds on behalf of the township in case of a two-thirds vote in favor thereof, an affirmative finding by the court that the petitioners were taxpayers and residents of the township is a condition precedent essential to confer jurisdiction upon the court to take further action; and the failure to make such a finding is not cured by a mere recital in an order made at a subsequent term that the action then taken was in pursuance of the petition of taxpayers and residents of the township theretofore filed.</p> <p>8. Same.</p> <p>Under a statute which made the certificate of the county clerk the only evidence of the result of an election in a township to vote on a proposition to subscribe for stock in a railroad company and to issue bonds in payment therefor, and where the county court was authorized to make the subscription and issue the bonds in case of a favorable vote, the clerk’s certificate was a jurisdictional fact; and a recital in the record of the court of the filing of a certificate showing the result of an election by “the qualified voters of the county” is insufficient to support a finding by the court that two-thirds of the voters of the township voted in favor of the subscription.</p> <p>4. Same—Missouri Statute.</p> <p>Laws Bio. 1868, p. 92, authorized townships to subscribe to the stock of