UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

JONESBORO CITY V. CAIRO & ST. L. R. CO., 110 U. S. 192 (1884)

110 U. S. 192

U.S. Supreme Court

Jonesboro City v. Cairo & St. L. R. Co., 110 U.S. 192 (1884)

Jonesboro City v. Cairo and St. Louis Railroad Company

Submitted January 2, 1884

Decided January 21, 1884

110 U.S. 192

Syllabus

1. Under the Constitution of Illinois in force in 1868, an act authorizing a city council to borrow money on the credit of the city and issue bonds under the seal of the city therefor did not confer authority to subscribe to the stock of a railroad company, and issue bonds therefor, even when the legal voters of the city at a regular election voted to authorize such subscription, but the want of power could be cured by an act declaring an election theretofore held to be binding, and granting power to issue bonds to pay for a subscription authorized thereat, and such a curative act was within the legislative power, and that power was not taken away by the Constitution of 1870.

2. An act entitled "An Act to amend the charter of the Cairo & St. Louis Railroad Company," which legalized an election previously held in a municipality at which the people voted to subscribe to the stock of that company and to issue bonds for the payment of the subscription, and which granted authority to issue such bonds, is no violation of that provision in the Constitution of Illinois, which provides that "No private or local law which may be passed by the General Assembly shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title." Any provision in the title of a bill which calls attention to its subject, although in general terms, is all that is required by the Constitution.

Bill in equity to obtain an injunction against assessing and levying taxes to pay for the principal and interest of bonds issued by a municipal corporation in payment of a subscription to stock in a railroad company.


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