Onstott v. Penwarden

• Decision Date: 20 January 1888
• Citation: 15 N.E. 34,123 Ill. 489
• Parties: ONSTOTT v. PEOPLE ex rel. PENWARDEN, Collector.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

123 Ill. 489

15 N.E. 34

ONSTOTT

v.PEOPLE ex rel. PENWARDEN, Collector.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

January 20, 1888.

Appeal from Perry county court; S. G. PARKS, Judge.

The people ex rel. Thomas Penwarden, collector of Perry county, applied for judgment for taxes. Don Onstott filed objections, which were overruled, judgment entered, and defendant appeals.

Thomas J. Layman, for appellant.

CRAIG, J.

This was an application by the collector of Perry county at the May term, 1887, of the county court for judgment against lands and townlots for delinquent taxes. Don Onstott, the owner of certain lots described in the record, appeared and filed objections to the application for judgment for taxes levied to pay interest on 97 bonds of $1,000 each, which had been issued by Perry county to the Belleville & Southern Illinois Railroad Company. Onstott also filed objections to the rendition of judgment against his lots for taxes levied to pay interest on 100 bonds of $1,000 each, issued by Perry county to the Chester & Tamaroa Coal & Railroad Company. On the hearing, the court overruled the objections, and rendered judgment against the lands and lots for the taxes remaining due and unpaid. To reverse the judgment, Onstott appealed.

We will first consider the objections to the taxes levied to pay the interest on the 97 bonds of $1,000 each issued to the Belleville & Southern Illinois Railroad Company. It appears from the evidence introduced on the trial that on the twenty-fourth day of May, 1869, the county court of Perry county entered of record an order providing for an election to be held in the various voting places in the county on the third day of July, 1869, to ascertain whether the county court should subscribe $150,000 of stock to the Belleville & Southern Illinois Railroad Company. The order for an election contained the following conditions: ‘And be it further ordered that no bonds be issued or stock subscribed by said court to the Belleville & Southern Illinois Railroad Company unless twelve hundred and thirty legal voters of said county shall have voted in favor of the same at said election; nor until said company shall have built a railroad, and put the same in operation, from Belleville to Duquoin, through the town of Pinckneyville, with depot and depot buildings at said town; nor unless said road shall be in operation from Belleville to Duquoin on or before the first day of January, A. D. 1871, and shall locate their machine-shops at said Duquoin.’ It also appeared from the evidence that the railroad company never located its machine-shops at Duquoin, but, on the other hand, it erected its machine-shops at East St. Louis; that the cost of the shops so erected, amounted to the sum of from $100,000 to $150,000. But, disregarding the failure of the company to perform the condition upon which the people voted the bonds on the fifth day of December, 1870, the county court of Perry county made an order directing the judge and clerk of the court to issue 100 bonds of $1,000 each to the railroad company, bearing date January 1, 1871, payable January 1, 1891, with interest at 7 per cent. per annum. After the adoption of the constitution of 1870, a county had no power to become a stockholder in any railroad corporation, or make donations to or loan its credit in aid of such corporation, except where subscriptions had been authorized under existing laws by a vote of the people of such county prior to the adoption of the constitution. In the case under consideration, there was a vote of the people of the county before the adoption of the constitution, but the authority conferred upon the county by the vote was upon condition that the railroad company should locate its machine-shops at Duquoin. The county had no right to take stock and issue bonds except upon the terms and conditions specified in the vote of the people.

Middleport v. Insurance Co., 82 Ill. 562, is an authority in point. It is there said: ‘The obligations assumed under existing laws cannot, since the adoption of the constitution, be enlarged or materially changed, either by the action of the people of the township or its corporate authorities. All power is taken away, and the utmost that can be done is to make and complete the subscription...