Jacks v. Helena

115 U.S. 288, 6 S. Ct. 39, 29 L. Ed. 392, 1885 U.S. LEXIS 1838

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Waite

delivered the opinion of the court. These motions are granted-on the authority of Detroit City Railway Co. v. Guthard, 114 U. S. 133, and the cases there cited. It appears distinctly on the face of the opinion of the court below, which, by the laws of Arkansas, forms part of the record, Rev. Stat. Ark. 1884, § 1318 [Gannt’s Dig. (1874) §§ 1108,1109], that the decision of the case -was put, and properly put, on a ground which did not involve a consideration of the Federal question that may possibly have, been presented by one of the several defences set up in the answer of the city, to wit: that the Constitution of 1S74 prohibited the issue of the-bonds in dispute. In fact, it is intimated in the opinion, that, if the case had rested on this defence alone, the judgment would have been the other way.

Dismissed.