Folsom v. Ninety Six

Citations

• 159 U.S. 611
• 16 S. Ct. 174
• 40 L. Ed. 278
• 1895 U.S. LEXIS 2329

Syllabus

<p>When a township has been created by law as a territorial division of a State, with no express grant of corporate powers, aud with no definition or restriction of the purposes for which it is created, it is within the power of the legislature, at any time, to.declare it to be a corporation, and to confer upon it such corporate powers, appropriate to be vested in a territorial corporation for the benefit of its inhabitants, as the legislature may think fit.</p> <p>Notwithstanding the decision of the Supreme Court of South Carolina in Floyd v. Perrin, 30 So. Car. l, the statute of South Carolina of December 24,-1885, which authorized townships (already defined by names and boundaries) to subscribe for stock in a railroad company, and county officials to issue bonds accordingly in their behalf, and to assess and levy taxes upon the property in the township for the payment thereof, and declared the townships to be bodies politic, and corporate for the purposes of this act, with the necessary powers to carry out its provisions, ' and with rights and liabilities in respect to any causes of action growing out of its provisions, must be held by the courts of the United States, as to bonds issued and purchased in good faith before that decision, to be consistent with art. 9, sect. 8, of the constitution of South Carolina, authorizing the corporate authorities of townships to be vested with power to assess and collect taxes “ for corporate purposes.”</p>