Low v. Mayor & Common Council of Marysville

Citations

• 5 Cal. 214
• 1855 Cal. LEXIS 82

Syllabus

<p>The amendments to the Charter of the City of Marysville provide that the Common Council shall not take any stock “ in any public improvement, or effect a loan for any purpose, without first obtaining the consent of the people, at an election held for the purpose.” Held, that this could not be extended to improvements other than municipal in their character, and the Legislature did not intend to invest the City with authority to embark in speculative enterprises of improvement.</p> <p>Under this provision, the City has no power to subscribe stock in the Citizens’ Steam Navigation Company.</p> <p>The words public improvements, when applied to a municipal government, must betaken in a limited sense, as applying to those improvements which are the proper subjects of police and municipal regulation—such as gas. water, almshouses, hospitals, etc.—and can not be extended to subjects foreign to the object of the incorporation, and beyond its territorial limits.</p> <p>The powers of municipal corporations are limited to the express grant of their charters ; and the object of their creation is governmental, and not commercial.</p> <p>The thirty-first section of the fourth article of the Constitution, provides that Corporations may be formed under general laws ; but shall not be created by special act, except for municipal purposes.” Held, that the term municipal is limited to governmental, and can not be extended to commercial purposes.</p> <p>If the term public improvements, in the amended Charter, could be construed to extend to commercial speculations, then it would be in violation of said section of the Constitution : as it would be granting powers to a corporation by a special act for other than municipal purposes.</p>