Mix v. Illinois Central Railroad

Citations

• 116 Ill. 502
• 6 N.E. 42

Syllabus

<p>1. Statutes—title of an act—expression of the subject of an act in the title. Section 13, article 4, of the constitution, requires to be expressed in the title to an act only the general subject thereof. It does not require that all the legal effects of the act, such as repeal by implication, shall be expressly stated in the title.</p> <p>2. Same—sufficiency of the title of an act relating to fencing and operating railroads. The provisions of the act of June 19,1885, entitled “An act to amend sections twelve (12) and thirteen (13) of an act entitled ‘An act •in relation to fencing and operating railroads,’ approved March 31,1874, ” are fairly covered and embraced in.the title of such act.</p> <p>3. Same—repeal of statute—effect of the amendatory act of 1885 as to stopping railway trains before crossing other railroads. The amendatory act of 1885, of sections 12 and 13 of the act relating to the fencing and operating of railroads, changing the law as to the duty of railway companies to stop their trains before crossing other railroads, etc., and the penalty for a failure to perform such duty, does not have the effect to repeal sections 2 and 4 of chapter 131 of the Revised Statutes. The amendatory act only took out of the operation of sections 12 and 13 of the amended act, all violations of those sections of the old act.</p> <p>4. Same—effect of repeal or amendment of a penal statute upon pending suits and preexisting causes of action. A private person acquires no vested right in a penalty under a penal statute, by merely suing for it, and a repeal of the statute imposing a penalty, even after suit is brought to recover it, extinguishes the right of action.</p> <p>5. In 1885 the legislature amended the statute requiring railroad trains to come to a stop before crossing another railroad, and changed the penalty and the form of action, and the time for bringing suit for violations, and provided in the amendatory act that its provisions should extend to and govern al