State ex rel. Traders' National Bank v. Winter

Citations

• 15 Wash. 407
• 46 P. 644
• 1896 Wash. LEXIS 206

Syllabus

<p>MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS — ASSUMPTION OP ILLEGAL INDEBTEDNESS — POWER OP LEGISLATURE TO AUTHORIZE — DELEGATION OP POWERS.</p> <p>Indebtedness incurred by a void municipal organization may be assumed as a valid indebtedness by a duly organized municipal corporation subsequently incorporated within the same territory under a statute providing for the re-incorporation of such towns and legalizing contracts and obligations theretofore made or entered into by such void corporations.</p> <p>It is competent for the legislature to direct the payment by a municipal corporation of a claim that the law does not recognize as a legal obligation, and to ratify any act which it could have authorized to be done.</p> <p>An ordinance providing for the surrender to, and filing with, the mayor and clerk of a town of certain warrants issued by the town under a void incorporation thereof and directing the issuance of new warrants by such officers is not a delegation to them of power belonging to the council, when the ordinance itself shows that the council had audited and allowed such warrants by expressly recognizing the validity of the claims upon which they were issued.</p>