Bonham v. Needles

• Decision Date: 01 October 1880
• Citation: 26 L.Ed. 451,103 U.S. 648
• Parties: BONHAM v. NEEDLES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

103 U.S. 648

103 U.S. 648

26 L.Ed. 451

BONHAM v. NEEDLES.

October Term, 1880

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Illinois.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

Mr. Thomas J. Henderson for the appellants.

Mr. George A. Sanders for the appellees.

MR. JUSTICE HARLAN delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a suit commenced in the Circuit Court for Wayne County, Illinois, by Needles and others. Bonham and the other complainants are taxpayers and real-estate owners suing in behalf of themselves and all other like persons in Big Mound Township of Wayne County. The original defendants were the auditor of state, the treasurer of state, the clerk and the treasurer of the county, the collector of the township, the First National Bank of Springfield, and the unknown holders and owners of certain bonds (with their coupons),—five in number and of $1,000 each,—issued, under date of April 1, 1870, in the name of the township, and payable, twenty years after date, to the Illinois Southeastern Railway Company or bearer, with interest at the rate of ten per cent per annum. The bonds purport to have been issued 'by the township to aid in the construction of the Illinois Southeastern Railway, in pursuance of the authority conferred by an act of the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, entitled 'An Act to incorporate the Illinois Southeastern Railway Company,' approved Feb. 25, 1867, and an act amendatory thereof, approved Feb. 24, 1869, and an election of the legal voters of the aforesaid township, held on the tenth day of November, 1868, under the provisions of said act.' Upon each bond was indorsed, under date of April 21, 1870, a guaranty of payment by the Springfield and Illinois Southeastern Railway Company, and the certificate of the State auditor, under date of July 19, 1870, stating that it was that day registered in his office pursuant to the provisions of 'An Act to fund and provide for paying the railroad debts of counties, townships, cities, and towns, in force April 16, 1869.'

After the township had for nearly ten years regularly, by an annual levy and collection of a tax for that purpose, paid the interest on the bonds as the same became due,—the order for such being made by the auditor of state,—the present bill was filed. It questioned the validity of the bonds, and asked a decree restraining the officers, who were made defendants, from the assessment or collection of taxes to meet them. Kernochan, one of the appellees, a citizen of Massachusetts, n d the owner, by purchase in good faith, for value, of all the bonds, appeared in the State court, and upon his petition and bond the cause was removed to the Circuit Court of the United States, where upon the pleadings and proofs the bill was dismissed. The complainants appealed.

The controlling questions in the...