Town of Mahomet v. Quackenbush
Decision Date | 05 April 1886 |
Citation | 6 S.Ct. 858,29 L.Ed. 982,117 U.S. 508 |
Parties | TOWN OF MAHOMET v. QUACKENBUSH. Filed |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
John McNulta and John J. Weed, for plaintiff in error.
T. C. Mather, for defendant in error.
The facts of this case are identical with those of Anderson v. Santa Anna, 116 U. S. 356, ante, 413, except that here the bonds were issued by one township on the line of the Danville, Urbana, Bloomington & Pekin Railroad, and there, by another. The bonds in the two cases are the same in form, and the statutory authority for their issue the same. All questions actually decided in the other case are concluded in this; but one point is made now that was not presented then, and it arises on these facts:
Artice 3, § 23, of the Illinois constitution of 1848, which was in force when the statutes on which the case depends were passed, contained this provision: 'And no private or local law which may be passed by the general assembly shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title.' The act of 1867, under which the bonds were issued, was a private or local law, with the following title: 'An act to amend the articles of association of the Danville, Urbana, Bloomington & Pekin Railroad Company, and to extend the powers of, and confer a charter upon, the same.'
The parts of the act pertinent to the present inquiry are sections 1, 12, and 13. These are as follows:
etc.
The point now made is that the statute, so far as it undertakes to authorize municipalities to subscribe to the capital stock of the corporation, is unconstitutional, because it embraces two distinct subjects,—one the incorporation of the railroad company, and the other an enlargement of the corporate powers of municipal corporations,—the first of which alone is expressed in the title. This objection, it seems to us, is fully disposed of by the case of Supervisors of Schuyler Co. v. Rock Island & Alton R. Co., 25 Ill. 182, decided by the supreme court of Illinois in 1860. There the title was 'An act to incorporate the Rock Island & Alton Railroad Company,' and the act, besides incorporating the company, authorized counties to subscribe to the stock. As to this the court said, speaking through Chief Justice CATON:
In states where constitutional provisions like that now under consideration have been decided to be mandatory, and not directory only, it has generally been held that the requirement is satisfied if the law has but one general object, and that is clearly expressed in the title. It is enough if the body of the act is germane to the title. This is certainly the well-establed rule in Illinois, where, as was said by Mr. Justice BREESE, dissenting in O'Leary v. County of Cook, 28 Ill. 543, decided in 1862, the 'court has leaned rather in favor of the validity of private acts, when the subjects of the acts are multifarious.' In that case a provision in a law entitled 'An act to amend an act entitled 'An act to incorporate the Northwestern University," which prohibited 'the sale of spirituous liquors within four miles of the university, under a special penalty to be recovered by the county of Cook,' was held by a majority of the court not to be repugnant to this provision of the constitution; and it was said, (page 538:) ...
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