Harding v. Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis Railroad

Citations

• 65 Ill. 90

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal subscription in aid of railroad—strict compliance. Municipal corporations, such as counties, being created for governmental purposes, where they exercise the function of subscribing in aid of railways under statutes, the power to do so must not only be clearly conferred, but strictly pursued.</p> <p>3. Same—notice of election. Where county authorities are authorized to subscribe, in behalf of their county, to the capital stock of a railroad company, upon an election resulting in favor of the same, if the general or special statute controlling the election requires the publication or posting of a notice thereof for thirty days prior to the holding of the election, and this is not done, the election will be invalid, and the expression of the will of the voters thus obtained will confer no authority upon the board of supervisors either to make the subscription, or to issue the bonds of the county.</p> <p>3. Where an act of the legislature authorized any county through which a certain railroad might pass, to subscribe to its capital stock to a limited amount, upon a favorable election, and required thirty days prior notice to be given, a later act was passed authorizing subscriptions under certain other limitations, which also required the submission of the question to a vote of the people, “ in such manner as the county authorities ” might de. termine, but specified no particular time as to notice of the election: Held, that the latter act did not repeal, by implication, the prior acts requiring thirty days notice of an election, to be given; and that the words “in such manner as the county authorities may determine,” in the last act, did not necessarily refer to the time of the notice, but had relation to the conditions to be inserted in the notice as to the amount of the subscription, the time the bonds should run and their rate of interest.</p> <p>4. But even if the board of supervisors had the power to fix the time of the notice of the election, it