City Of Greensboro v. Stringfellow

• Decision Date: 18 April 1905
• Citation: 138 N.C. 181,50 S.E. 589
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: CITY OF GREENSBORO. v. SCOTT & STRINGFELLOW.

138 N.C. 181

50 S.E. 589

CITY OF GREENSBORO.

v.SCOTT & STRINGFELLOW.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

April 18, 1905.

MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS—BOND ISSUE—SUBMISSION TO POPULAR VOTE—NECESSITY.

Bonds issued in pursuance of the act of 1903 (Priv. Laws 1903, p. 133, c. 80), authorizing a certain city to issue and dispose of bonds to provide the city with a waterworks plant and sewerage system, and to enable it to grade and pave its streets, are issued for necessary expenses, and are not within the provision of Const, art. 7, § 7, requiring a popular vote for the creation of a debt other than for the necessary expenses of a municipal corporation.

Appeal from Superior Court, Guilford County; Shaw, Judge.

Controversy, submitted without action, between the city of Greensboro and Scott & Stringfellow. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendants appeal. Affirmed.

Appeal by defendants from judgment of Shaw, J., at chambers, upon a controversy submitted without action. By chapter 80, p. 133, Priv. Laws 1903, the city of Greensboro was authorized to issue its bonds for an amount not exceeding $250,000, to run not less than 30 years and not more than 50 years, and to bear no greater rate of interest than 5 per cent, and containing a provisionthat the bonds should not be sold, hypothecated, or disposed of for less than their par value. It was further provided in said act that the proceeds of said bonds should be used for the following purposes, and none other: Building, constructing, and enlarging a waterworks plant to furnish water for the use of the city and its citizens; building, constructing, and maintaining a sewerage system; grading, paving, and macadamizing the streets of the city. Said act was not to become operative until after it had been submitted to an election of the voters of the city of Greensboro, and approved by a majority thereof. The act authorizing said issue of bonds was read on three separate days in each house of the General Assembly, and the ayes and noes entered upon the journals, as required by the Constitution. Subsequent to the passage of this act the board of aldermen of the city of Greensboro passed a resolution by which it was decided that said bonds should run for 50 years, and bear interest at the rate of 4 per centum per annum; and, for the purpose of authorizing said issue, an election was called to be held in accordance with the laws of the state of North Carolina and the charter of the city of Greensboro. Thereafter notice of election was published as required by law and the charter of the city of Greensboro, which said notice stated the time and place of holding said election, and the amount of bonds to be issued for each purpose, but made no reference whatever to the rate of interest said bonds should bear. Thereafter the Legislature of North Carolina, at its session of 1905, passed an act, the preamble of which set forth the provisions of the act of 1903 in regard to the selling of the said bonds at not less than their par value, and further recited that it was impossible for the city of Greensboro to sell said bonds at par unless said city pay a commission brokerage to the party effecting said sale, but that, by paying a commission brokerage...