People ex rel. Effingham & Southeastern Railroad v. Town of Bishop

Citations

• 111 Ill. 124

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal aid to railroads — whether a vote thereon was prior to the adoption of the separate prohibitory article. The separate article of the constitution of 1870, prohibiting municipal aid to railroads or private corporations, took effect from and after its adoption by the people on July 2, 1870, which was at the moment the polls were closed and the voting ceased.</p> <p>2. Where a township election was duly called, in pursuance of a statute, in'June, 1870, upon the question of a donation of $10,000 in aid of a railway company, to be paid in bonds when the railroad should be completed to a certain place, and the election was set for and held on July 2, 1870, the same day the constitution and the separate article prohibiting municipal aid to railroads or private corporations were submitted to the people, the election officers using, however, a separate ballot box, and both polls were closed at the same time, about sun set, it was held, that it could not be said the vote for the donation was had prior to the adoption of the article of the constitution prohibiting such donations.</p> <p>3. In determining whether the election in respect to the proposed municipal aid to the railroad, held under such circumstances, was or was not prior in point of time to the adoption of the separate article prohibiting such aid, the court declined to enter upon the inquiry as to the difference in time between sun set at the particular locality where the municipal election was held, and sun set at other voting places in the State west of that locality, holding that the term “sun set,” as used in the schedule to the constitution, requiring the polls to be kept open on the day of the election in respect to the adoption or rejection of that instrument and the separate article, until that time, was not used in the precise, mathematical sense, but.rather in a more practical sense, requiring only a reasonable approximation to that time.</p> <p>i. Municipal bonds — in aid of railroads —