People ex rel. Cairo & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Dupuyt

Citations

• 71 Ill. 651

Syllabus

<p>1. Trustees of schools have no power to levy tax for raib'oad purposes. A township not under township organization has no power to become, through the trustees of schools, a stockholder in a railroad company, with power to issue bonds and levy and collect taxes on the property in the township to pay the bonds.</p> <p>2. Same—scope of their powers. Trustees of schools are a corporation, or, more strictly speaking, a quasi corporation, for the purpose and with the sole and only power of acting in matters pertaining to the public schools of the township, and all other business is foreign to the object for which they were created a body corporate.</p> <p>3. Municipal corporations—power to levy and collect taxes. Section 5, article 9, of the constitution of 1848, authorizing corporate authorities of counties, townships, school districts, etc., to assess and collect taxes for corporate purposes, is a-limitation on the taxing power of the State, and under it taxation can not be imposed by a corporation, except for lo'cal or corporate purposes.</p> <p>4. Same—not bound by contracts beyond thescope of their powers, or foreign to the purposes of the corporation. The agents, officers, or even the city council, of a municipal corporation, can not bind the corporation by any contract which is beyond the scope of its powers or entirely foreign to the purposes of the corporation, or which, not being, in terms, authorized, is against public policy.</p> <p>5. Constitutional law. A statute which authorizes the trustees of schools of a township, in a county not under township organization, to order an election in the township for the purpose of voting upon the question of a subscription or donation to a railroad, and to make such subscription, and issue bonds, and to levy and collect taxes for the purpose of paying them, is in violation of section 5, article 9, of the constitution of 1848.</p>