Block v. Commissioners Commissioners v. Block

• Decision Date: 01 October 1878
• Parties: BLOCK v. COMMISSIONERS. COMMISSIONERS v. BLOCK
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

99 U.S. 686

25 L.Ed. 491

BLOCK v. COMMISSIONERS.

COMMISSIONERS

v. BLOCK.

October Term, 1878

ERROR to the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Kansas.

This was an action brought, March 17, 1875, by Block, against the board of commissioners of the county of Bourbon, Kansas, upon overdue coupons, amounting in the aggregate to $16,800, detached from bonds issued by that county.

A copy of one of the bonds and coupons is as follows:——

'No. ___.] STATE OF KANSAS. [$1,000.

'Stock Bond of Bourbon County.

'Thirty years after date, the County of Bourbon promise to pay to the Tebo and Neosho Railroad Company, a corporation organized by authority of the laws of the State of Missouri, and by virtue of an act of incorporation passed by the legislature of the State aforesaid, and approved the sixteenth day of January, 1860, or bearer, the sum of one thousand dollars, for value received, with interest at the rate of seven per cent per annum, payable semiannually, at the New York National Exchange Bank, in the city of New York, from and after the first day of January, 1871.

'City of Fort Scott, Kansas, July 1, 1870.

'By order of the board of county commissioners of the county of Bourbon, Kansas, dated March 8, 1867.

[SEAL.] 'D. GARDNER,

'Chairman, Board of County Commissioners, Bourbon County.

'Attest: C. FITCH, Clerk.'

'FORT SCOTT, KANSAS, July 1, 1870.

'Treasurer of Bourbon County will pay bearer thirty-five dollars, at the New York National Exchange Bank, in the city of New York, being semi-annual interest due on the ___ day of _____, 18__, on the bond of the county of Bourbon, No. ___, to the Tebo and Neosho Railroad Company, issued in pursuance of an order of the board of county commissioners of said county, dated March 8, 1867.

D. GARDNER,

'Chairman, Bourbon Board of County Commissioners.

'C. FITCH, County Clerk.'

Under its charter, granted Jan. 16, 18 0, the company had power to construct a road between certain points, and to extend and operate it or its branches beyond the limits of Missouri. It transferred, in October, 1870, by authority of a statute of that State, its franchises, rights, and privileges, 'including subscriptions,' south of a designated point, to the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway Company, a Kansas corporation. The latter company assumed all indebtedness incurred for the construction or otherwise of the line between Sedalia, Mo., and Fort Scott, the county seat of said county, and constructed in due time the road through that county, via Fort Scott, to Texas. The road is now in full operation.

The said board, March 8, 1867, adopted an order, which was duly entered on its minutes, as follows:——

'Be it ordered by the county commissioners of Bourbon County, Kansas, that there be subscribed, in the name and for the benefit of the county of Bourbon, in the State of Kansas, $150,000 to the capital stock of any railroad company now organized or that shall hereafter be organized that shall construct a railroad commencing at a point on the Tebo and Neosho Railroad, running westward via Fort Scott, and that the bonds of said county be issued to said company for the same, said bonds to be payable within thirty years from the date thereof, and bearing interest at the rate of seven (7) per centum per annum: Provided, that said bonds shall not be issued until the question shall have been submitted to a vote of the qualified electors of the county of Bourbon, and shall have received a majority of the votes cast in favor of the same, in pursuance of the provisions of an 'Act to authorize counties and cities to issue bonds to railroad companies,' approved Feb. 10, 1865; and that said question shall be submitted to said electors at a special election on the seventh day of May, A.D. 1867.

'At said election the votes shall be cast 'For railroad bonds' and 'Against railroad bonds;' and if it shall appear, upon a canvass of said votes by the proper officers, according to law, that a majority of the votes cast are in favor of the said subscription, then the above order shall be carried into practical operation by the issuing of said bonds to said company whenever the county commissioners of Bourbon County are satisfied that the road-bed of the Tebo and Neosho Railroad is completed to such a point that the amount of said bonds shall be sufficient and adequate to construct the road-bed and connect the said point with the city of Fort Scott.'

Said order was duly published, and the election held pursuant thereto. On canvassing the returns, the board declared, May 10, 1867, that there was a majority of twenty-six votes 'for railroad bonds,' and that there was no evidence that an election had been held in the township of Franklin.

The poll-book from that township did not arrive at the clerk's office until after the commissioners had adjourned.

The board, July 23, 1869, made a further order, providing for a special election on the twenty-fourth day of the following August. The election was duly held accordingly, and on canvassing the votes, the board declared that a majority of them had been cast in favor of the proposed subscription.

The board thereupon appointed an agent to subscribe, in the name and for the benefit of the county, $150,000 to the capital stock of said Tebo and Neosho Railroad Company, upon the express condition, 'which was made a part of said subscription,' that the county bonds should not be delivered to the company, nor the county become liable to pay any portion of its subscription, until the road-bed of the company should be completed to such a point that the amount of bonds should be sufficient to complete the road from Sedalia, Mo., to Fort Scott. There was a further condition that the subscription should be void unless the road-bed was completed to Fort Scott, Jan. 1, 1872.

The board, July 2, 1870, ordered that the bonds bearing date July 1, 1870, of the tenor and effect of the foregoing copy, be ssued, and deposited with a certain person as trustee of the county, for delivery to the company when the conditions upon which they had been voted should be complied with.

The board, Jan. 2, 1871, upon a report made to it, approved the delivery, on the fifth day of November, 1870, of the bonds to the company, the coupons covering interest from July 1 to Sept. 1, 1870, having been detached therefrom.

The board, June 27, 1872, ordered that the poll-book of Franklin Township of the election held May 7, 1867, which had remained sealed since it had been delivered by the messenger of the township, should be opened. The board declared, after inspecting said book, that if the vote then cast by that township had been computed in canvassing the county vote, the proposition to vote the bonds would have been rejected.

The board thereupon ordered the treasurer of the county to withhold the payment falling due on said bonds July 1, 1872, and to notify the New York National Exchange Bank of the City of New York, as the fiscal agent of the county, that no more interest would be paid on them, and that the principal would not be paid at maturity.

The county levied and collected taxes for 1870, 1871, and 1872, to pay interest on the bonds in suit, and paid the first three instalments of interest thereon.

Certain coupons, on which this suit was brought, numbered four, originally attached to said bonds, from one to one hundred, had been in controversy in a mandamus proceeding in the Supreme Court of Kansas, instituted by one Lewis, then and still the real and beneficial owner of them. They were in possession of Block for collection.

The remaining facts are stated in the opinion of this court. The Circuit Court gave judgment in favor of the county on the coupons in suit which were attached to the bonds numbered from one to one hundred, inclusive, and against it for the remaining coupons, being on bonds owned by Block, numbered one hundred and thirty-one to one hundred and fifty.

Each party sued out a writ of error.

Mr. John D. Stevenson for Block.

Mr. J. E. McKeighan, contra.

MR. JUSTICE STRONG delivered the opinion of the court.

These are writs of error complaining of one judgment. The plaintiff, Blcok, brought suit against the board of commissioners of the county of Bourbon, Kansas, to recover the amount of $16,800 alleged to be due him upon past-due interest coupons detached from bonds made and issued by that county. From the findings of fact made by the court below it appears that the plaintiff is the bona fide owner of twenty of the bonds from which part of the coupons in suit were taken, and that he purchased them in open market without actual notice of any defence the county now sets up against them. The remaining coupons are the property of one William J. Lewis, delivered by him to the plaintiff to be collected, not for the benefit of Block, but for that of Lewis, the true owner. Whether, in view of such a finding, a recovery for them can be had in this suit, if there were no other objection to it, we do not now determine. There is another and graver question to be considered. The Lewis coupons had been in litigation before this suit was commenced. In January, 1873, he applied to the Supreme Court of the State for a a mandamus, suggesting that he was the owner of bonds of the county, one hundred in number, and numbered from one to one hundred, and of the coupons attached to the same; that he was the holder, bearer, and owner of the one hundred coupons due and payable July 1, 1872, part of the coupons now in suit; that a tax had been levied and collected amply sufficient to pay those coupons, but that the county had refused to pay them. The suggestion further represented that the proper officers of the county had neglected and refused to take the necessary steps to make provision for the payment of the coupons falling due in 1873, in January and July, and by an alternative writ the board of commissioners of the county were commanded to pay the coupons due in 18...