Norton v. Shelby County

Citations

• 118 U.S. 425
• 6 S. Ct. 1121
• 30 L. Ed. 178
• 1886 U.S. LEXIS 1944

Syllabus

<p>This court follows the decisions of the highest court of a State, in construing the Constitution and laws of the State, unless they conflict with or impair the efficacy of some principle of the Federal Constitution, or of a Federal statute, or a rule of commercial or general law.</p> <p>The decisions of State courts on questions relating to the existence of its subordinate tribunals, and the eligibility and election or appointment of their officers, and the passage of its laws are conclusive upon Federal courts.</p> <p>Following the decision of the highest court of the State of Tennessee in Pope v. Phifer, 8 Heiskell, 691, and other cases, this court holds that the Board of Commissioners of Shelby County, organized under the Act of March 9, 1867, had no lawful existence; that it was an unauthorized and illegal body; that its members were usurpers of the functions and powers of the justices of peace of the county; that their action in holding a county court was void; and that their acts in subscribing to the stock of the Mississippi River Railroad Company and issuing bonds in payment'therefor were void.</p> <p>While acts of a de facto incumbent of an office lawfully created by law and existing are often held to be binding from reasons of public policy, the acts of a person assuming to fill and perform the duties of an office which does not exist de jure can have no validity whatever in law.</p> <p>An unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights ; it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is, in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed.</p> <p>The action of a minority of the justices of the peace of the County Court of Shelby County, Tennessee, prior to May 5,1870, did not operate as a ratification by the County Court of the previously invalid subscription of the county to stock in the Mississippi River Railroad Company: and on and after that day, on which the new constitution of Tennessee.took