Gage v. City of Charleston
| Decision Date | 14 August 1872 |
| Citation | 3 S.C. 491 |
| Parties | GAGE v. CHARLESTON. |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
The decision in Copes vs. Charleston , 10 Rich 491, that the City Council of Charleston has the power, under the city charter, to subscribe to the stock of railroad companies within and without the State, and tax the inhabitants of the city to raise money to pay the subscriptions, sustained upon the principle of stare decisis .
BEFORE GRAHAM, J., AT CHARLESTON, APRIL TERM, 1872.
Action by Alva Gage and seven other named persons, " inhabitants and property holders of the city of Charleston for themselves and others, inhabitants and property holders of said city," plaintiffs, against the Mayor and Aldermen of the city of Charleston, constituting a corporation known as the City Council of Charleston, John S. Riggs, John Phillips and George I. Cunningham, defendants.
The complaint alleged:
First . That the plaintiffs are inhabitants and property holders of the city of Charleston, and that the said City Council are a body corporate by Act of the General Assembly of said State, ratified the 15th day of August 1783, and altered and amended by Acts subsequent thereto, which said Act and amendments appear in the Ordinances of the city of Charleston, published in 1844, and here shown to the Court.
Second . That by the said Act and amendments the said body was appointed to the office of municipal government in said city. That the functions of said office are specifically indicated, in said Acts and amendments, to be the charge of streets, lanes, public buildings, workhouses, markets, wharves, public houses, carriages, wagons, carts, drays, pumps, buckets, fire engines, the poor, the seamen, disorderly people and negroes; and therein they are vested with the power to make such by-laws and regulations as shall appear to be requisite and necessary for the security, welfare and convenience of said city, but without express power to take, hold or create for itself a corporate capital, without the designation of any commercial object upon which a corporate capital could be expended; without express power to make investments of individual capital, or to borrow money, or to make any form of security for the performance of any moneyed obligation, or to raise money in any form whatever, but by assessments on the inhabitants of Charleston, and those holding taxable property therein, nor by assessment, but for the safety, convenience, benefit and advantage of the said city.
Third . That under the said Act and amendments, the City Council for the time being of said city, at various times from the year 1818, to within a period shortly preceding the filing of this complaint, transcending their office of municipal government, have assumed large obligations to objects not indicated in the said Acts, and to meet these obligations have issued securities or acknowledgments thereof, in the form of stock, whereon they have borrowed large sums of money, which sums of money it is declared in the said stock, that at distant dates and with certain rates of annual interest, shall be paid by the said city of Charleston.
Fourth . That of the obligations to which these several securities have been issued, some have not been specifically indicated, and a very large part have been declared to be in the construction of certain railroads, some beyond the limits of the State of South Carolina, and all beyond the limits of said city of Charleston, and beyond the jurisdiction of the said municipal body, as follows:
1st. In the year A. D. 1837, to the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad, by way of an investment in the stock thereof, $700,000, bearing interest at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum. Also, in the same year, by way of loan thereto, $100,000, with like interest, which said road was intended to commence at Branchville, in the State of South Carolina, and extend through the State of Tennessee to Louisville, in the State of Kentucky.
2d. In the year A. D. 1850, to the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, $500,000, interest 6 per cent. A road commencing at Nashville, in the State of Tennessee, and extending to Chattanooga, on the Tennessee River.
3d. In the year 1853 to certain other Railroads, to wit: the Blue Ridge Railroad, the Northeastern Railroad, the Cheraw and Darlington Railroad. The first of which roads was to extend from Anderson, in this State, through Georgia and North Carolina, to Knoxville, in the State of Tennessee, and the last from Florence to Cheraw, in this State; and also to certain public expenditures, $1,000,000.
4th. In the year A. D. 1854, to the Northeastern Railroad, a road extending from beyond Charleston to Florence, in the State of South Carolina, $150,000, interest 6 per cent.
5th. In the year 1854, to the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, a road extending from Chattanooga, Tennessee, through parts of Alabama and Mississippi, to Memphis, in Tennessee, $250,000, interest 6 per cent.
6th. In the year A. D. 1855, to the Blue Ridge Railroad mentioned above, $400,000, interest 6 per cent.
7th. In the year 1856, to the Blue Ridge Railroad mentioned above, and the Charleston and Savannah Railroad, a road beyond the limits of Charleston to Savannah, in the State of Georgia, and to other purposes, $1,163,055, 6 per cent. interest.
Fifth . That the said municipal body is the creature of its said charter of incorporation, and can exercise no power not conferred on it by its charter; and cannot exercise the powers conferred on it by its charter in any other form than is therein specifically indicated; and in assuming powers not conferred by its charter, and proceeding upon forms not warranted therein, its acts are null and void, and utterly without the efficacy to charge the inhabitants and holders of property of the said city; and that the construction of railroads beyond the limits of the said city is not an object indicated in the charter, and it is not vested with power to issue any such securities as aforesaid; and in entering into obligations to the construction of said railroads, and the executing such securities for moneys applied, or pretended to be applied, to those or to any other objects, not within the office of said municipal body, the said body has broken the trusts of its office, and therein has not imposed a charge for the payment of either the principal or interest of such securities upon the plaintiffs, and others, inhabitants of said city and holders of property therein, as aforesaid.
Sixth . That of the said securities to issued to the construction of railroads, as aforesaid, some are outstanding in their original form, and some have been funded under provisions of an ordinance ratified August 11th, 1857, to arrange the time for the payment of the city debt, for which, in exchange, other securities in the form of stock were then issued, but are of the securities to the objects aforesaid, in their original or altered form, and are still outstanding in the hands of persons who assert these are valid claims upon the said City Council, and through that, upon the property of these plaintiffs and others.
Seventh . That these securities...
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