Cook County v. Mccrea

• Decision Date: 30 September 1879
• Citation: 93 Ill. 236,1879 WL 8608
• Parties: COOK COUNTYv.SAMUEL H. MCCREA.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

93 Ill. 236

1879 WL 8608 (Ill.)

COOK COUNTY

v.SAMUEL H. MCCREA.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

September Term, 1879.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

This was an application for a mandamus, by Cook county, against Samuel H. McCrea, treasurer of Cook county.

Mr. CONSIDER H. WILLETT, for the petitioner.

Messrs. STILES & LEWIS, for the respondent.

Mr. JUSTICE SHELDON delivered the opinion of the Court:

This is an original application to this court for a writ of mandamus to compel the county treasurer of Cook county to invest moneys in his hands of a certain sinking fund, in certain bonds of said county.

The facts are these: Under the act of February 23, 1872, (Rev. Stat. 1874, p. 314,) Cook county issued and sold $1,500,000 of bonds, known as “fire bonds” or “new indebtedness.” Of these, $1,389,000 are now outstanding and mature May 1, 1892. From year to year the Board of County Commissioners of Cook county have levied taxes “to establish a fund to pay the principal of said bonds when the same should mature,” and there is now in the hands of the defendant, who is treasurer of Cook county, the sum of $111,216.59 belonging to said fund.

In 1879, the issue of $750,000 of the bonds of said county was duly authorized, for the purpose of building a court house in said county. Of these, $150,000 are yet in the hands of the county, undisposed of. The county board of the county, by resolution of March 31, 1879, directed the defendant to take $111,200 of said fund in his hands and invest it in said new bonds at par, and hold the same until the maturity of the fire bonds, or until otherwise ordered by the board. This the defendant refused to do, believing the county board had no power in the premises. The county now seeks by mandamus to coerce a compliance with the said resolution.

The case turns upon the power of the county board to make the order in question.

The statutory provisions the more especially bearing upon the subject, are the following:

The county boards of the several counties shall have power to manage the county funds and county business except as otherwise specifically provided. Rev. Stat. 1874, chapter “Counties,” sec. 25.

Whenever a tax is levied for the payment of a specific debt, the amount of such tax collected shall be kept as a separate fund in the county treasury, and expended only in the liquidation of such indebtedness; provided, that any surplus remaining in the treasury after full payment of such indebtedness shall be transferred to the common fund of the county. Ib. sec. 39.

The county treasurer shall receive and safely keep the revenues and other public moneys of the county, and all money and funds authorized by law to be paid to him, and disburse the same pursuant to law. Ch. “County Treasurer,” sec. 4.

It is a general and undisputed proposition of law, says Dillon, that a municipal corporation possesses and can exercise the following powers, and no others:

First, those granted in express words; second, those necessarily or fairly implied in or incident to the powers expressly granted; third, those essential to the declared objects and purposes of the corporation--not simply convenient but indispensable. * * * Of every municipal corporation, the charter or statute by which it is created is its organic act. Neither the corporation nor its officers can do any...