Township of Chickaming v. Carpenter

• Decision Date: 29 January 1883
• Citation: 106 U.S. 663,1 S.Ct. 620,27 L.Ed. 307
• Parties: TOWNSHIP OF CHICKAMING v. CARPENTER
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

106 U.S. 663

1 S.Ct. 620

27 L.Ed. 307

TOWNSHIP OF CHICKAMING v. CARPENTER.

January 29, 1883.

[Syllabus from page 663 intentionally omitted]

[Statement of Case on pages 663-664 intentionally omitted] Edward Bacon, for plaintiff in error.

Mitchell J. Smiley, for defendant in error.

WAITE, C. J.

The assignments of error in this case present the following questions:

(1) Whether an action at law can be maintained in the circuit court of the United States against a municipal corporation of Michigan upon municipal bonds or the coupons for interest attached thereto; (2) whether the circuit court of the United States has jurisdiction of a suit brought by a citizen of state other than Michigan to recover the amount due on an obligation of a municipal corporation of Michigan, for the payment of a sum of money to a corporation of Michigan or bearer, or to bearer; (3) whether the obligations and coupons sued on in this case could be introduced in evidence, under the pleadings, without proof that the person who signed them as township clerk actually held that office at the time his signature was affixed and the obligations were delivered; and (4) whether, since the obligations were not delivered to the corporation to which they were voted by the township, but to a corporation created by the consolidation of that corporation with another, they are valid.

1. As to the right to sue a municipal corporation of Michigan in the courts of the United States on an obligation for the payment of money.

If we understand correctly the cases in the courts of Michigan to which our attention has been directed, they decide no more than that in the courts of the state the remedy for the recovery of money from a municipal corporation on a liquidated demand is by mandamus against the proper officer, to require him to do his duty under the law with respect to the descharge of the obligation which has been entered into, and that for such purposes, in that jurisdiction, an independent judgment in an action at law against the corporation is not necessary. There is no law of the state prohibiting such a suit. All that has been determined is that, in the courts of the state, a judgment is not necessary to lay the foundation for a writ of mandamus to require the officer to do his duty.

In the courts of the United States, however, a mandamus can only be granted in aid of an existing jurisdiction, and in this class of cases a judgment against the corporation is an essential prerequisite to such a writ, although in the courts of the state it is not. This whole subject was fully considered at the last term in Davenport v. Dodge Co. 105 U. S. 242, where the other cases establishing the rule are cited.

2. As to the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, in a suit by the assignee of an obligation of a municipal corporation of a state payable to a citizen of the same state or bearer, or to bearer

This question was decided at the present term in Town of Thompson v. Perrine, ante, 564, 568. The act of March 3, 1875, c. 137, (1 Supp. Rev. St. 174,) which provides, section 1, that the district and circuit courts of the United States shall not 'have cognizance of any suit founded on a contract in favor of an assignee, unless a suit might have been prosecuted in such court to recover thereon if no assignment had been made, except in cases of promissory notes negotiable by the law merchant and bills of exchange,' is certainly not a limitation on the judiciary act of September 24, 1789, c. 20, (1 St. 79,) which provided, section 11, that the same courts should not 'have cognizance of any suit to recover the contents of any promissory note or other chose in action in favor of an assignee, unless a suit might have been prosecuted in such court to recover the said contents, if no assignment had been made,...