Folsom v. Ninety-Six TP.

Citations

• 131 F. 496
• 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4923

Syllabus

<p>1. Railroad — Issuance of Bonds — State Statutes — Constitutionality— Obligation of Contracts — Impairment.</p> <p>Act S. C. 1882 (IS St. at Large, p. 216), chartering the G. & P. R. R. Co., authorized, townships interested in such construction to subscribe for stock and issue bonds in payment therefor, and section 9 (page 217) thereof provided for the payment of interest on such bonds by authorizing the county auditor to assess and the county treasurer to collect such tax on the property of the township as should be necessary to pay such interest. By Act S. C. 1885 (19 St. at Large, p. 240) the former act was amended so as to provide that all counties and the townships in such counties along the line of such railroad or interested in its construction were created bodies politic and corporate, with necessary powers to carry out the provisions of the act, and subject to all liabilities growing out of the same, and the county commissioners of the respective counties were declared the corporate Agents of the counties and townships so incorporated and situated within the limits of such counties. By constitutional amendment (23 St. at Large S. C. p. 1227), the state Constitution of 1895, art. 7, § 11, providing that the several townships of the state should constitute a body-politic and corporate, etc., was amended so as to provide that such section should not apply to certain townships which had issued bonds in payment of stock in the railroad under the acts of 1882 and 1885, and that “the corporate existence of such townships be and the same is hereby destroyed and all officers of such townships are abolished and all corporate agents removed.” Held, that such constitutional amendment was intended to impair the means provided by law for the payment of the bonds so issued, and to that extent was obnoxious to Const. U. S. art. 1, § 10, as Impairing the obligation of contracts.</p> <p>2. Same — Construction.</p> <p>Since the county auditor and treasurer, authorized by A