Townsend v. Lamb

• Decision Date: 22 May 1883
• Citation: 14 Neb. 324,15 N.W. 727
• Parties: TOWNSEND v. LAMB AND OTHERS.
• Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

14 Neb. 324

15 N.W. 727

TOWNSEND

v.LAMB AND OTHERS.

Supreme Court of Nebraska.

Filed May 22, 1883.

Appeal from Gage county.

Mason & Whedon, for appellants.

Colby & Hazlett and Poppleton & Thurston, for appellees.

MAXWELL, J.

This is an action brought by the plaintiff, for himself and all other tax-payers of Beatrice precinct, in Gage county, to restrain the issuing of $20,000 of the bonds of said precinct to the Omaha & Republican Valley Railroad Company. On the trial of the cause in the court below judgment was rendered in favor of the defendants, and the action dismissed. The plaintiff appeals to this court.

It appears from the record that in July, 1879, the county commissioners of Gage county submitted to the electors of Beatrice precinct the question of issuing precinct bonds to the amount of $20,000 to the Omaha & Republican Valley Railroad Company, “to aid in the construction of a railroad connecting with the St. Joseph & Western Railroad from the south line of said Gage county, in a northerly direction, via the towns of Blue Springs and Beatrice, to the north line of said county of Gage, and through said Beatrice precinct; said bonds to be issued in sums of one thousand dollars ($1,000) each, to be made payable to bearer, to be dated on the first day of January, A. D. 1880, and to become due twenty years from the date thereof, with annual interest at the rate of eight per cent. per annum, payable annually on the first day of January of each year, upon interest coupons thereto attached, both interest and principal to be payable at the fiscal agency of the state of Nebraska in the city of New York; and shall the said county commissioners of the said county of Gage cause to be levied on the taxable property of the said precinct, in said county and state, a tax annually sufficient for the payment of the interest on said coupons bonds as it becomes due, and, after ten years from the date of said bonds; shall said county commissioners of said Gage county cause to be levied, in addition to all other taxes on the taxable property of said precinct, an amount of taxes sufficient to create a sinking fund for the payment at maturity of the principal of said bonds; and shall the said taxes be continued from year to year until the said bonds are fully paid: provided, that said precinct shall only be liable to pay interest on said bonds from the time that said railroad company shall become entitled to receive the same, as hereinafter...