Graves v. Saline County

73 F. 920, 20 C.C.A. 118, 1896 U.S. App. LEXIS 1859
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMay 4, 1896
DocketNo. 173
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 73 F. 920 (Graves v. Saline County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Graves v. Saline County, 73 F. 920, 20 C.C.A. 118, 1896 U.S. App. LEXIS 1859 (7th Cir. 1896).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This suit was in equity, brought in the circuit court of Saline county, Ill., by the county of Saline, against the treasurer and auditor of public accounts of the state of Illinois and the collector of taxes and clerk of the court of Saline county, to restrain the levy and collection of the tax required to be levied by such auditor of the public accounts for the state of Hlinois, to pay the interest on 100 registered refunding bonds of that county. The appellant Luther L. Graves, as one of the holders of such refunding [921]*921bonds, intervened in that suit, and procured the removal of the cause to the circuit court of the United States for the Southern district of Illinois. Upon such removal the appellants the Society for Savings, D. B. Wesson, and William Burgoyne, other holders of such bonds, also intervened therein for their interest. The court below decreed in favor of the county, issuing the writ of injunction demanded, and the cause was then appealed to this court, and, upon the argument, the court desiring to he advised upon certain questions arising in the cause, certified three questions to the supreme court of the United States, the second of which questions was as follows:

“Second. Are the funding bonds so issued by tlie county of Saline legal, valid, and binding obligations upon said county, in the hands of a bona fide holder for value before maturity?”

The supreme court has returned its affirmative answer to that question, and stated that such answer renders a formal answer to the other questions submitted unnecessary.

The statement oí facts and the questions embodied in the certificate are as follows, and are also in substance included in the opinion rendered by the supreme court upon the certificate presented by this court, and reported in 16 Sup. Ct. 526:

Statement of Facts.

The appellants were, prior to the year 1883, bona fide holders, for value, and before maturity, of certain bonds issued by the county of Saline to the Belleville & Eldorado Railroad Company and to the St. Louis & Southeastern Railway Company, respectively. These bonds ($75,000 in amount to the former. and $25,000 in amount to the latter, company, and bearing interest at rhe rate of 8 per centum per annum, payable semiannually) were issued under authority of acts of the general assembly of the state of Illinois, passed in the years 1861 (Priv. Laws Ill. 1861, p. 485) and 1869 (3 Priv. Laws Ill. 1869, p. 238) and pursuant to an election duly ordered and held according to law cm the 9th day of October, 1869, and in payment of subscriptions to stock in said companies respectively, dated January 15, 1870, duly authorized by said election, upon certain conditions, one of which was that said railroad should be commenced within one year and completed within three years from the date of subscription, and another of the conditions was, that tlie St. Louis & Southeastern Railway should pass, and a depot be established, within one-lialf mile of tlie old courthouse in Raleigh and within one-half mile of the church in Galatia. These bonds to the St. Louis & Southeastern Railway Company were dated January 1, 1872, payable 20 yeajs after date, with option of paying 5 years after date, and were issued and delivered to that company February 1, 1872, and were purchased in open market by tlie appellants, and for value, and -without notice, prior to the year 1876. The railroad was never constructed within one-half mile of the old courthouse in Raleigh, or within one-half mile of the clmrcli in Galatia, but was constructed in a different direction, and the said condition was in no sense complied with, but was waived by the board of commissioners of said county after July 2, 1870. The time for the completion of the Belleville & Eldorado Railroad was by the board of commissioners of. the county of Saline after July 2, 1870, extended front time to timo, and until October 20, 1877, and the bonds wore issued and delivered on the 19th day of April, 1877, being dated March 9, 1877, and payable 20 years after the 1st day of January, 1873, with option of paying 5 years after date.

The amendment to the constitution of the state of Illinois, which went into effect July 2, 1870, provided:

“No county, city, town, township or other municipality shall eve.r become subscriber to the capital stock of any railroad or private corporation, or make donations to or loan its credit in aid of such corporation: Provided, however, [922]*922tliat the adoption of this article shall not be construed as affecting the right of any such municipality to make such subscriptions where the same have been authorized, under existing laws, by a vote of the people of such municipalities prior to such adoption.”
The bonds issued to the St. Louis & Southeastern Railway Company were valid obligations of the county in the hands of the appellants, under the decisions of'the supreme court in the cases of Insurance Co. v. Bruce, 105 U. S. 328, and Oregon v. Jennings, 119 U. S. 74, 7 Sup. Ct. 124. The bonds issued to the Belleville & Eldorado Railroad Company were void, even in the hands of bona fide purchasers for value, within the decision of German Sav. Bank v. Franklin Co., 128 U. S. 526, 9 Sup. Ct. 159. The bonds to the St. Louis & Southeastern Railway Company were issued before, and those to the Belle-ville & Eldorado Railway Company were issued after, the decision of the supreme court of Illinois, in the case of Town of Eagle v. Kohn, 84 Ill. 292, decided in 1876. The validity of none of these bonds was at any time questioned by the county of Saline until December 30, 1889. and the county had annually paid the interest on all of these bonds from the time of their issue until they were exchanged for funding bonds of the county as hereinafter stated. The county of Saline has always retained and now has the stock in said railway companies obtained by it for the bonds so issued to said railway companies, respectively; but such stock is now, and always has been, wholly worthless, and of no value.

The general assembly of the state of Illinois, by act approved February 13, 1865, and by acts amendatory thereto approved April 27, 1877, and June 4, 1879, enacted as follows (Rev. St. Ill. 1881 [Cothran’s Ann. Ed.] p. 1119; 2 Starr & C. St. p. 1877, c. 113:

“Section 1.

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Related

Graves v. Saline County
104 F. 61 (Seventh Circuit, 1900)

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Bluebook (online)
73 F. 920, 20 C.C.A. 118, 1896 U.S. App. LEXIS 1859, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/graves-v-saline-county-ca7-1896.