People ex rel. Chicago, Pekin & Southwestern R. R. v. Town of Clayton

Citations

• 88 Ill. 45

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal subscription—condition in vote, how construed. The language in a condition upon which a subscription to a railway company is voted by the legal voters of a township, is to be construed according to its ordinary and popular meaning,—in other words, as it would be understood by the voters.</p> <p>2. Same—condition construed. Where a township voted a subscription to a railway company, with a condition it was not to be paid until the company should run their first locomotive “over their projected line of road, and from Pekin, Ill., or from Morris, Ill., through Clayton township,” it was held, that the condition contemplated a substantial completion of the road for the movement of trains from either Pekin or Morris to and through the township, and that it was not intended that any of the subscription should be used in constructing any part of the road through such township, or between it and Pekin or Morris.</p> <p>3. In such case the running of the company’s trains over the road of another company for the distance of five or six miles, under a lease from such other company, liable to he terminated by either party thereto upon one year’s notice, and by that means connecting the township with Pekin, is not a substantial compliance with the condition of the subscription. A purchase of such other road, or procuring a perpetual lease of such part of it, and adopting it as a permanent part of the projected road, no doubt would have been a substantial compliance with the condition.</p>