Self v. Jenkins
| Decision Date | 18 June 1874 |
| Citation | 6 Chi.Leg.N. 397,71 N.C. 578,1 Hughes 23,21 F.Cas. 1033,1 Am. 368 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | SELF v. JENKINS. |
In equity.
*1033 WAITE, Circuit Justice.
Article 5, § 5, of the constitution of North Carolina is in these words:
Article 5, § 8, is in these words: ‘Every act of the general assembly levying a tax shall state the special object to which it is to be applied, and it shall be applied to no other purposes.’
Railroad Company was incorporated in 1855, to construct a railroad from Wilmington to Rutherford. This railroad was unfinished at the time of the adoption of the constitution. By an act of the general assembly, passed on the 29th January, 1869, the capital stock of this company was increased to seven million dollars, and, in order to complete the road, the public treasurer was directed to subscribe four millions of dollars to the stock. Payment of this subscription was to be made in the bonds of the state having thirty years to run, the interest, at six per cent., being payable semiannually. To provide for the payment of the interest and the principal at its maturity, the act imposed an annual tax of one-eighth of one per cent. upon taxable property of the state, to be levied, collected, and paid into the treasury as other public taxes. This authorized subscription was made, and bonds to the amount of $3,000,000 delivered to the president of the company in part payment thereof. The special tax provided for was levied in 1869, and $151,491.13 collected therefrom and paid into the treasury. Out of this, $29,400 was paid on account of the interest accruing upon the bonds; but on the 20th of January, 1870, a resolution was adopted by the general assembly instructing and directing the treasurer not to pay any more until authorized by the general assembly, and he thereupon suspended the payment. On the 8th March, 1870, the general assembly repealed the act making appropriations to the railroad company, and directed all the bonds in the hands of the president to be returned to the treasurer. On the 12th of the same month, the general assembly, by a law duly enacted, directed the treasurer to use $150,000 of the special tax funds, in payment of the ordinary expenses of the state government, and to pay advances theretofore made by the board of education, and authorized him to replace the same out of the first moneys which might come into his hands by way of dividends of corporations or of taxes theretofore or thereafter to be livied. By another act, passed December 21st, 1870, he was directed to use $200,000 more of the same funds in payment of the ordinary expense of the state government, and the appropriations for the charitable and penal institutions, and to replace the same from the first moneys paid into the state treasury from dividends or taxes levied and collected for general purposes. In obedience to these directions the treasurer used $122,091.13 of the fund collected to pay interest on these bonds for the purposes specified in the acts. On the 20th December, 1871, the treasurer was forbidden by the general assembly to apply any money collected under the revenue act of 1871 to the repayment of any moneys borrowed under the act of December, 1870. On the 3d of March, 1873, another act was passed, entitled ‘An act to raise revenue,’ and by its terms the taxes therein levied were applied to defray the expenses of the state government, and to pay the appropriations for charitable and penal institutions. A similar act, with similar application of the funds to be raised, was passed in 1874.
The plaintiff is the holder of certain of the bonds issued to the above-named railroad company, on which no interest has been paid, and in this bill he asks that the treasurer may be restrained...
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