People Ex Rel.Am. Cent. Ry. v. the Supervisor

• Decision Date: 30 September 1869
• Citation: 51 Ill. 191,1869 WL 5300
• Parties: THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS ex rel.AMERICAN CENTRAL RAILWAYv.THE SUPERVISOR AND TOWN CLERK OF OHIO GROVE TOWNSHIP, MERCER COUNTY.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

51 Ill. 191

1869 WL 5300 (Ill.)

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS ex rel.AMERICAN CENTRAL RAILWAY

v.THE SUPERVISOR AND TOWN CLERK OF OHIO GROVE TOWNSHIP, MERCER COUNTY.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

September Term, 1869.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

This was an application to this court, for a writ of mandamus in the name of the people, upon the relation of the American Central Railway, against the Supervisor and Town Clerk of Ohio Grove Township, Mercer county, to compel the respondents to execute, issue and deliver to the relator, certain bonds of said township, agreeably to the terms of subscription to the capital stock of said railroad, made by said township. The respondents were served with the writ, but a return was made only by the supervisor, to which return, the relator filed a demurrer, and the cause was submitted upon the writ, the return of the supervisor and the demurrer thereto.

The opinion of the court contains a full statement of the grounds upon which it was based.

Messrs. GOUDY & CHANDLER, for the relator.

Mr. B. C. TALIAFERRO, and Messrs. BLANCHARD & SILVER, for the respondents.

Mr. JUSTICE WALKER delivered the opinion of the Court:

This was a relation by the American Central Railway, in the name of the people, against the Supervisor and Town Clerk of Ohio Grove Township, in Mercer county, and an alternative writ was prayed for and granted. The alternative writ was served. The town clerk makes no return to the writ, and the supervisor has filed a return to which relators have demurred.

The alternative writ alleges that the relator was a corporation authorized by, and organized under, an act of the general assembly of this State, with power to construct and operate a railway in and through Mercer county in this State; that on the 21st day of February, 1859, the general assembly passed an act by which the several townships through which the road was or might be located, and the townships on each side of the railroad line, any portion of which might be within four miles of the road, might subscribe, in their corporate capacity, to the capital stock of the road, such amount each as they might severally determine, not exceeding sixty cents per acre on the land embraced in such township at the time of voting on the proposition to subscribe, and might issue their bonds for the amount thus subscribed, bearing interest at the rate of ten per cent. per annum, making the principal and interest payable at such time as the township might provide, but requiring the sanction of a majority of the votes cast at such election; that Ohio Grove Township, or a portion of it, is within four miles of the railroad, as the same was located and constructed, and is now being operated; that the requisite number of legal voters required the town clerk to call an election, for the determination of whether the township would subscribe the sum of seven thousand dollars to the capital stock of the road, the bonds to bear ten per cent. interest per annum, to be issued for one hundred dollars each, payable ten years after date, and to be delivered to the company when the iron should be laid on the track of the road from the town of Galva to Aledo, in this State, provided the iron should be laid by the 1st of July, 1869.

It is further alleged, that in accordance with the requirement, and under the act, the clerk called an election, which was held on the 23d day of June, 1868, on the terms specified in the requirement of the legal voters, which resulted in a majority in favor of subscription; that it thereby became the duty of the supervisor of the township to make a subscription of seven thousand dollars to the capital stock of the road, and to execute in the corporate name of the township the bonds thereof in accordance with the terms of the subscription; that the company had complied with the terms and conditions named in the proposition, by laying the iron on the track of the road from Galva to Aledo within the time proposed; that Wm. M. Hays, who was then supervisor of the township, on the 4th day of July, 1868, made the subscription of seven thousand dollars to the capital stock of the road, which was accepted; that the railroad company, by its president, on the 21st day of April, 1869, made a written demand on the supervisor of Ohio Grove Township to issue the bonds; that the supervisor had neglected and refused to...