Inhabitants of the Township of Montclair, County of Essex v. Ramsdell

• Citation: 2 S.Ct. 391,107 U.S. 147,27 L.Ed. 431
• Parties: INHABITANTS OF THE TOWNSHIP OF MONTCLAIR, COUNTY OF ESSEX v. RAMSDELL
• Decision Date: 05 March 1883
• Court: United States Supreme Court

107 U.S. 147

2 S.Ct. 391

27 L.Ed. 431

INHABITANTS OF THE TOWNSHIP OF MONTCLAIR, COUNTY OF ESSEX v. RAMSDELL.

March 5, 1883.

The judgment below was in accordance with the verdict in an action brought by the defendant in error on certain bonds, payable to Samuel Holmes or bearer, and coupons thereof payable to the holder, all dated March 17, 1870, and alleged to have been issued by the township of Montclair, Essex county, New Jersey. They are negotiable in form and purport to have been executed in pursuance of an act approved April 9, 1868, entitled 'An act to authorize certain townships, towns, and cities to issue bonds, and to take the bonds of the Montclair Railway Company'—a corporation created with authority to construct a railway from the village of Montclair to the Hudson river at Pavonia or Hoboken ferries or between those points. On the margin of each bond is the certificate of the county clerk of Essex county that it is registered in his office.

The first section of the foregoing act—which was declared to be a public act to take effect immediately upon its passage provides:

'Section 1. That on the application in writing of 12 or more freeholders, residents of any township, town, or city along the route of the Montclair Railway Company, or at the terminus thereof, (except the township of Bloomfield, in the county of Essex, which township is hereby excepted from the operation of all the provisons of this act,) it shall be the duty of the judge of the circuit court of the county wherein such freeholders shall reside, within 10 days after receiving such application, to appoint under his hand and seal not more than three freeholders, residents of such township, town, or city, to be commissioners thereof, to carry into effect the purposes and provisions of this act; said commissioners shall hold their offices respectively for the term of five years, and until others shall have been appointed.'

The second and third sections are as follows:

'Sec. 2. That it shall be lawful for said commissioners to borrow, on the faith and credit of their respective township, towns, or cities such sums of money, not exceeding 20 per centum of the valuation of the real estate and landed property of such township, town, or city, to be ascertained by the assessment rolls thereof, respectively, for the year 1867, for a term not exceeding 25 years, at the rate of interest not exceeding 7 per centum per annum, payable semi-annually, and to execute bonds therefor under their hands and seals respectively. The bonds so to be executed may be in such sums, and payable at such times and places as the said commissioners and their successors may deem expedient; but no such debt shall be contracted or bonds issued by said commissioners of or for either of said townships, towns, or cities, until the written consent of the persons owning or representing as agent or president at least two-thirds of the real estate and landed property of such township, town, or city, borne on the last assessment roll thereof, at the valuation thereon appearing, shall have been obtained.

'Such consent shall state the amount of money authorized to be raised in such township, town, or city, and that the same is to be invested in the bonds of said railway company, and the signatures shall be proved by one or more of said commissioners. The fact that the persons signing such consent own or represent, as aforesaid, at least two-thirds of the taxable, real, and landed property of such township, town, or city shall be proved by the affidavit of the assessor of such township, town, or city, indorsed upon or annexed to such written consent, and the assessor of such township, town, or city is hereby required to perform such service. Such consent and affidavit shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county in which such township, town, or city is situated, and a certified copy thereof in the office of the clerk of such township, town, or city, and the same, or a certified copy thereof, shall be evidence of the facts therein contained, and shall be received as evidence in any court of this state, and before any judge or justice thereof.

'Sec. 3. And be it enacted that the said commissioners, authorized by this act, may, in their discretion, dispose of such bonds, or any part thereof, to such persons or corporations, and upon such terms as they shall deem most advantageous for their said townships, towns, or cities, but not for less than par, and the money that shall be raised by any loan or sale of bonds shall be invested in the bonds of the said railway company for the purpose of building the railway thereof; and said money shall be applied and used in the construction of said railway, its buildings, equipments, and necessary appurtenances, and for no other purpose. The commissioners, respectively, in the corporate name of each of their said townships, towns, or cities, shall subscribe for and purchase bonds of said railway company to the amount that they severally may have borrowed as aforesaid.'

After providing that the commissioners shall execute their official bonds, with security to be approved by the judge, (all of which was done in this case,) and that they shall be a board to act for their respective townships, towns, and cities, with power, by a majority, to do any business authorized by the act, the twelfth and fourteenth sections declare:

'Sec. 12. That all bonds issued in accordance with the provisions of this act shall be registered in the office of the county in which the township, town, or city so issuing is situated, and the words 'registered in the county clerk's office' shall be printed or written across the face of each bond, attested by the signature of the county clerk when so registered, and no bonds shall be valid unless so registered.

'Sec. 14. That in case any new township, town, or city shall have been created, or the boundaries of any township, town, or city shall have been enlarged on the routes of the said railway, or at the termini thereof, so that there is no assessment roll for the year 1867 for such township, town, or city so created or enlarged, the said commissioner for such new or enlarged township, town, or city shall cause to be prepared an assessment roll for the purposes of this act, by extracting from any assessment roll or rolls for said year all that relates to any assessment of persons or property in the territory embraced in the said new township, town, or city so enlarged or created, or in said enlargement.'

On the fifteenth day of April, 1868, the legislature of New Jersey passed another act, the provisions of which are important. It is entitled 'An act to set off from the township of Bloomfield, in the county of Essex, a new township, to be called the township of Montclair.' The first section defines the boundary of the new township, and the second constitutes its inhabitants a body politic and corporate in law by the name of The inhabitants of the township of Montclair,' with all the rights, powers, privileges, and advantages, and subject to all the regulations, government, and liabilities to which the inhabitants of the other townships in said county of Essex are or may be entitled or subject by the laws of the state.

The third section, after prescribing the time and place at which the first town-meeting of Montclair should be held, and that the voting thereat should be by ballot until otherwise determined by law, declares:

'That all the provisions and restrictions of an act entitled 'An act to authorize the inhabitants of the several townships of this state to vote by ballot at their town meetings,' approved March 22, 1860, and of the supplements thereto, shall apply to the inhabitants of the said township of Montclair, and all acts and parts of acts in force in the said township of Bloomfield at the time of the passage of this act are hereby extended to and shall be in force in the said township of Montclair; but the provisions of any act or acts from the operation of which the township of Bloomfield has, by any proviso or exception contained therein been specially excepted, shall apply to and be in force in said township of Montclair from and after the time this act shall go into effect, the same as if the township of Bloomfield had not been specially excepted therein.'

Thos. N. McCarter and Wm. M. Evarts, for plaintiff in error.

Rastus S. Ransom and Jno. F. Dillon, for defendant in error.

HARLAN, J.

In behalf of the township of Montclair it is contended that the bonds and coupons in suit were executed and issued without legislative authority, and consequently are not enforceable. This proposition being fundamental in the case will be first considered.

It has been observed that the first section of the act of April 9, 1868—the one referred to in the bonds—expressly excepts from its operation the township of Bloomfield. The circuit court was of opinion, and so ruled, that Montclair, upon being set off from Bloomfield township and made a separate municipal corporation, with all the rights, powers, and privileges of other townships in the same county, was no longer embraced in the exception of Bloomfield township made by the act of April 9, 1868, but, as a distinct independent body politic and corporate, became entitled, in virtue of the fourteenth section of that act, (and without reference to the proviso in the third section of the act of April 15, 1868,) to take advantage of all the provisions of the original or bonding act. Some of the members of this court prefer not to rest the determination of the question of legislative authority upon that interpretation of the original act. But we are of opinion that the proviso of the third section of the act creating the township of Montclair—declaring in force, as to that township, 'the provisions of any act or acts from the operation of which the township of Bloomfield has by any proviso or exception contained therein been specially excepted'...