Northern Bank of Toledo v. Porter Township Trustees

Citations

• 110 U.S. 608
• 4 S. Ct. 254
• 28 L. Ed. 258
• 1884 U.S. LEXIS 1722

Syllabus

<p>Estoppel — Municipal Bonds — Statutes of Ohio.</p> <p>The act of the legislature of Ohio of March 21st, 1850, as amended March 25fh, 1851', authorized county commissioners to submit to the people at special elections the question whether the county would subscribe to the stock of a railroad company and issue bonds in payment thereof; and if the subscription should not be authorized by the county, then that the question of subscriptions by township trustees might be submitted to the people of the respective townships. Held, That until refusal by the counties to subscribe, either by direct vote or by failure within a reasonable time to call an election for the purpose, the townships were without legislative authority to subscribe, or to issue township bonds in payment of subscriptions.</p> <p>A municipal corporation which issues a bond reciting on its face that it is issued in part payment of’a subscription to the capital stock of a railroad made by the corporation in pursuance of the several acts of the general assembly of the State and of a vote of the qualified electors of the corporation taken in pursuance thereof, is estopped thereby from denying that an election was held, or that it was called and conducted in the mode required by law; but it is not estopped from showing that the corporation was without legislative authority to issue the bonds.</p> <p>The facts which a municipal corporation, issuing bonds in aid of a railroad, is not permitted, against a bpnafide holder, to question, in face of a recital in the bonds of their existence, are those connected with or growing out of the discharge of the ordinary duties of such of its officers as were invested with authority to execute them, and which the statute conferring the power made it their duty to ascertain and determine before the bonds were issued. The cases relating to this point examined and reviewed.</p>