# Cole v. City of La Grange

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Cole v. La Grange, 113 U.S. 1 (1885), was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court, in which the court held that the Missouri legislature could not authorize a city to issue bonds to assist corporations in their private business. The case was cited in the dissenting opinion of Justice Thomas in Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005). Warning: template has been deprecated.
United States Supreme Court
113 U.S. 1
Cole v. City of La Grange
This was an action to recover the amount of coupons for interest from January 1, 1873, to January 1, 1880, attached to 25 bonds, all exactly alike, except in their serial numbers, and one of which was as follows:
'UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, STATE OF MISSOURI, CITY OF LA GRANGE.
'No. 23.
$1,000.
'Know all men by these presents, that the city of La Grange doth, for a good, sufficient, and valuable consideration, promise to pay to the La Grange Iron and Steel Company, or bearer, the sum of one thousand dollars, in current funds, thirty years after the date hereof, at the Third National Bank, city of New York, together with interest thereon at the rate of eight per cent. per annum, payable annually in current funds, on the first day of each January and July ensuing the date hereof, on presentation and surrender of the annexed interest coupons at said Third National Bank.
'This bond is issued under an ordinance of the city council of the said city of La Grange, passed and approved September 22, 1871, under and in pursuance of an act of the legislature of the state of Missouri, entitled 'An act to amend an act entitled an act to incorporate the city of La Grange,' approved March 9, 1871, which became a law and went into force and effect from and after its said approval.
'This bond to be negotiable and transferable by delivery thereof.
'In testimony whereof, the city council of the city of LaGrange hath hereunto caused to be affixed the corporate seal of said city, and these presents to be signed by the mayor, and countersigned by the clerk, of the city council of said city, this fourteenth day of December, 1871.
[Seal.]
'J. A. HAY, Mayor.
'R. McChesney, Clerk.'
The petition alleged that the city of La Grange, on December 14, 1871, executed the 25 bonds, and delivered them to the La Grange Iron & Steel Company, under and by virtue of the authority contained in section 1 of article 6 of the city charter, as amended by an act of the legislature of Missouri, approved March 9, 1871, (which section, as thus amended, was set forth in the petition, and is copied in the margin,) and under and by virtue of an ordinance of the city, dated September 22, 1871, by which an election was authorized to be held in the city on October 4, 1871, to test the sense of the people of the city upon the question of issuing the bonds; that, in compliance with the ordinance and with the city charter, an election was held at which the proposition was adopted by a two-thirds vote of the qualified voters; and that on September 1, 1872, the plaintiff bought the 25 bonds, for value, relying upon the recitals on their face, without knowledge of any irregularity or defect in their issue,-of all which the defendant had notice, by means whereof the defendant became liable and promised to pay to the plaintiff the sums specified in the coupons, according to their tenor and effect.
The answer denied all the allegations of the petition; and for further answer averred that the act of the legislature mentioned in the petition, approved March 9, 1871, attempted to give, and by terms did give, to the city authority to make gifts and donations to private manufacturing associations and corporations; that the city council, purporting to act under such authority, by an ordinance adopted September 22, 1871, (which was referred to in the answer and is copied in the margin,) did submit to a vote of the citizens a proposition to give or donate to the La Grange Iron & Steel Company, a private manufacturing company, formed and established for the purpose of carrying on and operating a rolling-mill, the sum of $200,000; that, in accordance with that ordinance, the bonds of the city were issued, with interest coupons attached, a part of which were those sued on; and that the bonds and coupons were issued to said manufacturing company, which was a strictly private enterprise, formed and prosecuted for the purpose of private gain, and which had nothing whatever of a public character, and it was incompetent for the legislature to grant authority to cities or towns to make donations and issue bonds to mere private companies or associations having no public functions to perform, and the act of the legislature and the ordinance of the city were void; wherefore the bonds and coupons were issued without any legal authority, and were wholly void.
To this answer the plaintiff filed a general demurrer, which was overruled by the court, and, the plaintiff electing to stand by his demurrer, judgment was entered for the defendant. 19 Fed. Rep. 871. The plaintiff sued out this writ of error.
Geo. A. Sanders for plaintiff in error.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 4-6 intentionally omitted]
David Wagner, for defendant in error.
GRAY, J.

## Notes

* ↑ Section 1. The city council shall have power to levy and collect taxes upon all real and personal property within the limits of the corporation, not to exceed one-half of one per centum per annum upon the assessed valuation thereof, in any manner to be provided by ordinance not repugnant to the constitution of the state of Missouri. And whenever twenty-five persons, who are tax-payers and residents of the city of La Grange,
* ↑ Be it ordained by the city council of the city of La Grange as follows: That upon petition of John M. Glover, and twenty-five other tax-payers of said city, an election be, and is hereby, ordered to be held at the city hall in said city, on Wednesday, the fourth day of October next, to test the sense of the legal voters of said city on the propriety of the said city donating ten acres of land and two hundred thousand dollars in city bonds, to be due in thirty years from date, and to bear interest at the rate of eight per cent. per annum, the interest to be paid semi-annually, at New York or Boston, to Isaac R. Adams and associates, in consideration that the said Isaac R. Adams and associates will build and construct at the city of La Grange a rolling-iron mill of sufficient capacity to roll twenty-five thousand tons of railroad iron per annum, the said mill to be built within one year from the date of the election herein ordered, and the said company shall operate and maintain the same at the city of La Grange for the term of twenty years from its completion, in accordance with the memorandum and agreement here filed of this date; and on the ballot of each voter shall be written or printed 'for the donation,' or 'against the donation.' Adopted September 22, 1871.
J. A. HAY, Mayor.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
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