State ex rel. City of Moberly v. Ferguson

• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: WAGNER
• Citation: State ex rel. City of Moberly v. Ferguson, 62 Mo. 77 (Mo. 1876)
• Decision Date: 31 January 1876
• Parties: THE STATE OF MISSOURI, ex rel. CITY OF MOBERLY, Relator, v. A. J. FERGUSON, Treasurer of Randolph County, Respondent.

62 Mo. 77

THE STATE OF MISSOURI, ex rel. CITY OF MOBERLY, Relator,

v.A. J. FERGUSON, Treasurer of Randolph County, Respondent.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

January Term, 1876.

Petition for Mandamus.

Priest, for Relator.Hockaday, Att'y Gen'l, with J. R. Christian, for Respondent.

WAGNER, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

The relator asks this court to issue a writ of mandamus against the defendant, who is treasurer of Randolph county, to compel him to pay over a certain sum of money in his hands, which he claims belongs to the State revenue.

From the record it appears, that in 1872 the city of Moberly issued its bonds to the amount of sixty-two thousand dollars, to aid and assist the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railway in the erection and building of their machine shops in said city, and the money now in the hands of the county treasurer arose from assessments made on the machine shops for State taxes, prior to the act of March 27th, 1875.

The only question is, whether that act is to be construed as having an exclusively prospective operation, or whether it was intended to apply retrospectively. The act (Sess. Acts 1875, p. 128) is amendatory of section 55 of the railroad corporation law, and provides, that, “in all cases hereafter, when a railroad or branch railroad or machine shop in this State, shall be built in whole or in part by subscriptions to its capital stock by counties, cities or...