The President v. Frick

• Decision Date: 30 April 1864
• Citation: 34 Ill. 405,1864 WL 2998
• Parties: THE PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF THE TOWN OF KEITHSBURGv.CHARLES A. FRICK.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

34 Ill. 405

1864 WL 2998 (Ill.)

THE PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF THE TOWN OF KEITHSBURG

v.CHARLES A. FRICK.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

April Term, 1864.

ERROR to Circuit Court of Mercer County.

Debt by defendant in error against plaintiffs in error, upon certain coupons for interest alleged to be due upon certain bonds dated June 1, 1857, and executed by plaintiffs in error to the Warsaw & Rockford Railroad Company, of which bonds the defendant in error was the holder. These bonds and the coupons thereto attached were issued in pursuance of the following ordinance of May 4, 1857:

“Whereas, by virtue of an ordinance of a board of trustees of the corporation of the town of Keithsburg, heretofore made, said corporation then being duly authorized under a general act of the legislature of the state of Illinois, providing for the incorporation of towns and cities, an election was held in said town by the citizens, legal voters thereof, to vote for or against said corporation subscribing to the capital stock, in a sum not exceeding $20,000, to the Warsaw and Rockford Railroad Company, on the 4th day of November, 1855, in pursuance of public notice duly given by the clerk of said board of town trustees, which said election was conducted in the usual form, and which resulted in a unanimous vote in favor of taking said subscription; and whereas, afterwards, on the 16th day of February, A. D. 1857, a special charter was granted, incorporating the said town of Keithsburg, whereby the subscription taken as aforesaid was legalized by the provisions following, to wit:

‘Sec. 17. The subscription heretofore made by said corporation to the capital stock of the Warsaw and Rockford Railroad Company of a sum not exceeding twenty thousand dollars, to be paid for in town bonds to run for twenty years at an interest not exceeding ten per cent., is hereby legalized and confirmed to the full extent and for the purpose for which such subscription was made; and the president of said corporation is hereby fully authorized and empowered to execute and issue said bonds, under his hand and the corporate seal of said town, and for the payment of which bonds and the interest accruing thereon as the same becomes due, the faith of said corporation shall be fully pledged and bound, and whenever said bonds shall be issued, a lien is hereby declared to be created against all the real estate within the bounds of said corporation, to secure the faithful payment thereof and the interest that may accrue thereon. The said president and trustees are hereby vested with full power to make provisions for the payment of the same by levying a special tax, to be collected as other taxes are, herein provided for.’

Now, therefore, be it ordained, by the president and trustees of the corporation of the town of Keithsburg:

SEC. 1. That the president of said board is hereby authorized, empowered and directed to subscribe in the sum of twenty thousand dollars to the capital stock of the Warsaw and Rockford Railroad Company, on the behalf and in the name of said corporation, by which said act of its executive officer the faith of said corporation shall be irrevocably pledged to said company in the sum of twenty thousand dollars; that for the assessments or estimates heretofore made, and hereafter to be made, on that portion of said Warsaw and Rockford Railroad between the stations at or near the town of Keithsburg, in Mercer county, and the town of Oquawka, in Henderson county, including the first five per cent. to be paid upon subscription, the president and clerk of said board, for the time being, shall execute the bonds of said corporation for the sum of one thousand dollars each, for the amount so assessed upon the stock so subscribed by the said corporation of Keithsburg, signed by the president as provided for by the act of incorporation aforesaid, and also that the same bonds be attested by the clerk of said board, which said bonds shall be dated when...