Knox County v. Ninth National Bank

Citations

• 147 U.S. 91
• 13 S. Ct. 267
• 37 L. Ed. 93
• 1893 U.S. LEXIS 2146

Syllabus

<p>The question under what statute of Missouri the bonds were issued which form the subject of this controversy was properly determinable in a suit on the bonds.</p> <p>An order of court, directing a notice of an election which was to take place in thirty-four days to be given by publication in a designated newspaper for five weeks, piust be construed to mean a publication in each of the five weeks.</p> <p>Where an act is done which can be done legally only after the performance of some prior act, proof of the later carries with it a presumption of the due performance of the prior act.</p> <p>Decisions of state courts upon the requirements of state statutes for validating issues of municipal bonds in the State, when made subsequent to an issue of such bonds, are not controlling in litications in Federal courts, involving the validity of such issue.</p> <p>When the matter in dispute is whether a particular issue of municipal bonds was made under one statute of the State in which the municipality is situated or under another, the whole conduct of the municipality, both before, at the time and after the issue of the bonds, may be shown to aid in determining the question.</p> <p>In a subscription by a municipal corporation to aid in the construction of a railroad, it is sufficient if the route is designated, leaving to the municipal authorities to designate the particular corporation to be the recipient of the subscription.</p> <p>The bonds issued by Knox County, Missouri, to the Missouri and Mississippi Kailroad Company, were issued in pursuance of the general laws of the State, and not under the act of the legislature of Missouri, of February 20, 1865, to incorporate that company, and the county powers of taxation are not limited by the provisions of section 13 of the act incorporating the company.</p>