Zeiler v. Central Railway Co.

Citations

• 84 Md. 304
• 34 L.R.A. 469
• 35 A. 932
• 1896 Md. LEXIS 107

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations—Rules of Procedure of the City Council of Baltimore—Ordinance Passed in Conformity Therewith—Indefinite Postpostmentofa Subject—Quorum— Two-thirds of a Quorum is Two-thirds of a Branch of the City Council—Ordinance Granting Street Railway Franchise.</p> <p>An ordinance of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore authorized the defendant to lay railway tracks upon certain streets. Plaintiff filed a bill for an injunction to restrain the construction of the same, alleging that certain rules of procedure of the two Branches of the City Council had been violated in the passage of the ordinance and that it was consequently void. The rules in question were substantially as follows : Rule 20. When a question shall have been indefinitely postponed, the same subject shall not be acted on again during the session. Rule 9. Every ordinance shall have two readings on two separate days, unless two-thirds of the members of the Branch shall by vote otherwise direct. Rule 15. Any standing rule may be suspended upon the assent of three-fourths of the members present except Rule 9. On May 18th, two ordinances were reported to and read in the Second Branch, the first authorizing the defendant to lay its tracks on certain streets on certain conditions, and the other authorizing the defendant to lay its tracks on other streets upon other conditions. On May 25th, the matter of the first ordinance was, by vote, indefinitely postponed. On June 8th, the second ordinance was passed after the adoption of an amendment by which the streets mentioned in the first ordinance were included, with some others. On the same day, the ordinance so passed was brought up in the First Branch, where it was passed under a suspension of the rules, which was ordered by the affirmative votes of fourteen members, which was two-thirds of the members present but not two-thirds of the entire body. Held,</p> <p>1st. That although the second ordinance, which was passed, possessed some features