Mercantile Trust & Deposit Co. v. City of Columbus
Citations
- 203 U.S. 311
- 27 S. Ct. 83
- 51 L. Ed. 198
- 1906 U.S. LEXIS 1593
Syllabus
<p>Where the bill of the trustee of bondholders of a water company, claiming an exclusive contract with a municipality, shows that an act of the legislature and an ordinance of the city have been passed under which the city shall construct its own water works, and that during the life of the contract the source of the ability of the water company to pay interest on, and principal of, its bonds will be cut off, a case is presented involving a constitutional question, and irrespective of diverse citizenship, the Circuit Court of the United States has jurisdiction to determine the nature and validity of the original contract and whether the subsequent legislation and ordinance impaired its obligations within the meaning of the Federal Constitution.</p>
How courts have described this case
Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.
- holding that the constitutional provision prohibiting a state from enacting any law impairing the obligation of contracts also prohibits a municipality's enactment of an ordinance impairing a contractual right
Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).
Judges: Peckham
Read full opinion on CourtListenerSourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).
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