Woodley v. Town Council Of Clio

• Decision Date: 10 July 1895
• Parties: WOODLEY. v. TOWN COUNCIL OF CLIO.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

22 S.E. 410

44 S.C. 374

WOODLEY.

v.TOWN COUNCIL OF CLIO.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

July 10, 1895.

Qualifications of Voteks—Female Suffrage.

The general assembly has power to permit adult females who own $100 worth of taxable property within the corporate limits of a town to vote at an election to decide whether bonds of the town be issued to procure railroad extension.

Petition by J. fit. Woodley to enjoin the town council of Clio from issuing bonds. Denied.

T. W. Bouchier, for petitioner.

C. P. Townsend, for respondent.

POPE, J. This is an application in the original jurisdiction of this court for an injunction to restrain the town council of Clio, in Marlborough county, in this state, from issuing $4,500 of the bonds of said corporation, to procure an extension of the Latta Branch Railroad to the said town of Clio, under the authority of an act of the general assembly entitled "An act to authorize the town of Clio, in Marlborough county, to issue bonds in aid of the Latta Branch Railroad, " approved December 18, 1894, and by its terms to take effect immediately upon its approval. 21 St. at Large, 1068, 1069. An order was issued from this court, on the 15th day of April, 1895, requiring the said town council of Clio to show cause before this court, at 11 o'clock a, m., on the 17th day of April, 1895, why such injunction should not issue. The grounds in the petition why the injunction should issue were because the said town council of Clio had already had an election held in pursuance of the terms of said act, wherein a majorityof the roters had authorized the issue of the bonds iu question, and said town council were about to issue said bonds, but the petitioner urged that said election was invalid, because females who were adults, and who owned $100 worth of taxable property in said town, were allowed to vote at said election; and because, by the terms of said act, in the event the Latta Branch Railroad Company declines to extend its road to the town of Clio, said town council is authorized to use said bonds to procure some other railroad to extend its road to said town of Clio, the said town council of Clio is authorized to use said $4,500 in bonds to procure some other railroad than the Latta Branch Railroad Company to extend its road to said town of Clio. In the return of respondents, they set up the facts that the election was duly conducted as required in every particular, and that the fact that adult females who owned $100 worth of taxable...