Co of Otoe v. Baldwin Baldwin v. Co of Otoe

• Decision Date: 17 March 1884
• Parties: CO. OF OTOE v. BALDWIN. BALDWIN v. CO. OF OTOE
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

111 U.S. 1

4 S.Ct. 265

28 L.Ed. 331

CO. OF OTOE v. BALDWIN.

BALDWIN

v. CO. OF OTOE.

March 17, 1884.

John C. Watson, for County of Otoe.

J. M. Woolworth, for Baldwin.

BLATCHFORD, J.

>>On the first of April, 1882, John T. Baldwin brought a suit at law, in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Nebraska, against the county of Otoe, in the state of Nebraska, to recover the amount due on sundry coupons cut from bonds issued by that county, the coupons being payable, some January 1st and others July 1st in each year, from and including 1870 to and including 1881, and January 1, 1882. On the eleventh of August, 1882, Baldwin brought another suit at law, in the same court against the same defendant, to recover the amount due on sundry other coupons, cut from some of the same bonds, the coupons being payable, some January 1st and others July 1st in each year, from and including 1878 to and including 1882. The bonds were issued by the county, while Nebraska was a territory, to the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad Company, the principal being payable January 1, 1887, with interest from January 1, 1867, at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum, payable on July 1st and January 1st in each year. The amount of the principal of the bonds was $40,000, they bore date November 12, 1866, and were signed by the chairman of the board of county commissioners, and the treasurer, and attested by the county clerk, and bore the seal of the county, and were payable to the company or its assigns, and each bond was assigned by it, by an assignment under its seal, to the bearer, indorsed on the bond, and dated November 18, 1869. Each bond contained the following statement: 'This bond is one of a series of one hundred and sixty, of the like tenor and date, one hundred of which are for one hundred dollars, and sixty of which are each for five hundred dollars, in the aggregate amounting to the sum of forty thousand dollars, executed and issued, or to be issued, from time to time, as the wants of said county shall require, to pay to the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad Company, as an appropriation made by said county to said railroad company, to aid in the construction of the railroad of said company, to be located in Fremont county Iowa, through a point most convenient to Nebraska City. This debt is authorized by a vote of the legal voters of said county of Otoe, taken at an election held under and by virtue of an order of the county commissioners of said county, on the seventeenth day of March, 1866, in pursuance with the several acts of the legislature of the territory of Nebraska, in such cases made and provided, and a resolution of the board of county commissioners of said county granting such aid.'

Nebraska City is in the county of Otoe, on the west bank of the Missouri river. Fremont county, in Iowa, adjoins Otoe county on the east, being separated from it only by the Missouri river. Council Bluffs is in Iowa, on the east bank of the Missouri river, above Fremont county, and 40 to 50 miles above Nebraska City. St. Joseph is in Missouri, on the east bank of the Missouri river, below the other places named.

On the sixth of January, 1860, the legislative assembly of the territory of Nebraska passed an act (Laws 1859-60, 6th Sess. p. 112) entitled 'An act to authorize Otoe county to subscribe and take stock in any railroad located or to be located in Fremont county, in the state of Iowa.' This act contained the following provisions: 'That the board of county commissioners for Otoe county may, at any time, by an order of said board, cause an election to be held for the purpose of ascertaining the will of the people of Otoe county, as to the propriety of said county subscribing stock for any amount, not exceeding seventy-five thousand dollars, to any railroad company, for the purpose of constructing any railroad now or hereafter to be located in Fremont county and state of Iowa. Section 2. If a majority of the legal voters of said county shall vote in favor of such proposition, then the board of county commissioners of Otoe county shall issue the bonds of said county, for whatever amount of stock it may have been decided upon by such vote, to any such railroad company, which bonds shall not bear any greater interest than ten per cent. per annum.'

On the eleventh of January, 1861, the legislative assembly of the territory passed an act (Laws 1860-61, 7th Sess. p. 146) entitled 'An act to define the powers and duties of county commissioners and county clerk.' This act created in each county a board of county commissioners, consisting of three persons. It also provided as follows:

'Sec. 24. The said commissioners shall have power to submit to the people of the county, at any regular or special election, the question whether the county will borrow money to aid in the construction of public buildings, the question whether the county will aid or construct any road or bridge, or to submit to the people of the county any question involving an extraordinary outlay of money by the county; and said commissioners may aid any enterprise designed for the benefit of the county as aforesaid, whenever a majority of the people thereof shall be in favor of the proposition as provided in this section.

'Sec. 25. When county warrants are at a depreciated value, the said commissioners may, in like manner, submit the question whether a tax of a higher rate than that provided by law shall be levied, and in all cases when an additional tax is laid in pursuance of a vote of the people of the county, for the special purpose of repaying borrowed money, or of constructing or ordaining to construct any road or bridge, or for aiding in any enterprise contemplated by the twenty-first section of this act, such special tax shall be paid in money, and in no other manner.

'Sec. 26. The mode of submitting the questions to the people, contemplated by the last two sections, shall be the following: The whole question, including the sum desired to be raised, or the amount of tax desired to be levied, or the rate per annum, and the whole regulation, including the time of its taking effect or having operation, if it be of a nature to be set forth, and the penalty of its violation, if there be one, is to be published at least for four weeks in some newspaper published in the county. If there be no such newspaper, the publication is to be made by being posted up in at least one of the most public places in each election precinct in the county, and in all cases the notices shall name the time when such question shall be voted upon, and the form in which the question shall be taken, and a copy of the question submitted shall be posted up at each place of voting during the day of election.

'Sec. 27. When the question submitted involves the borrowing or expenditure of money, the proposition of the question must be accompanied by a provision to lay a tax for the payment thereof, in addition to the usual taxes under section sixteen of this act; and no vote adopting the question proposed shall be valid, unless it likewise adopt the amount of tax to be levied to meet the liability incurred.

'Sec. 28. The rate of tax levied in pursuance of the last four sections of this act shall, in no case, exceed more than three mills on the dollar, of the county valuation, in one year. When the object is to borrow money to aid in the erection of public buildings, as provided, the rate shall be such as to pay the debt in ten years. When the object is to construct, or aid in constructing, any road or bridge, the annual rate shall not exceed one mill on a dollar of the valuation; and any special tax or taxes levied in pursuance of this act, becoming delinquent, shall draw the same rate of interest as ordinary taxes levied in pursuance of the revenue laws of this territory.

'Sec. 29. The said commissioners being satisfied that the above requirements have been substantially complied with, and that a majority of the votes cast are in favor of the proposition submitted, shall cause the same to be entered at large upon the book containing the record of their proceedings; and they shall then have power to levy and collect the special tax in the same manner that the other county taxes are collected. Propositions thus acted upon cannot be rescinded by the board of county commissioners.

'Sec. 30. Money raised by the county commissioners in pursuance of the last six sections of this act is specially appropriated and constituted a fund district from all others in the hands of the county treasurer, until the obligation assumed is discharged.'

The records of the commissioners of Otoe county, and the records of that county, show the following facts: The county clerk called a meeting of the commissioners of Otoe county, to be held February 24, 1866, 'to take into consideration the question of submitting to the people of said county the issuance of the bonds of said county, not exceeding $200,000 in amount, to be used in securing to said county an eastern railroad connection.' The meeting was held on that day, two commissioners being present, and it was ordered that an election be held on the seventeenth of March, 1866, in and throughout the county of Otoe, 'for the purpose of ascertaining whether the commissioners of Otoe county shall issue bonds, not to exceed $200,000, for the purpose of securing an eastern railroad connection for Nebraska City, N. T.' The election was held on the day named, and the vote was 1,362 for, and 201 against, 'the issuing of two hundred thousand dollars for the purpose of securing an eastern railroad connection for Nebraska City.' On the ninth of November, 1866, the commissioners, three being present, made the following order: 'Ordered that ($40,000) forty thousand dollars be donated to the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad Company, provided that said railroad company locate their road within one and a half miles of the ferry landing at Nebraska...