Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-03-07

tana, Washington and New Mexico to
form State governments, and to be admit
ted into the Union on an equality with
the other States.
A STARTLING JUDICIAL DECISION.
From the Keowee Courier.]
An important decision was rendered by
Judge Norton at the recent term OF court
at Abbeville. 1t is importantto taxpayers,
as limiting the power of subscriptions to
railroads by townships, denying such pow
er in the case at issue on two grounds
first, because a township, not being a cor
porate body, the act chartering the Green
Vile and Port Royal railroad and amenda-
tory act chartering the road as a body cor
porate, attempts to create a township q
corporate body with the sole power and
. for the sole purpose of enabling it to sub
scribe to the stock of another corporation,
the railroad. This he holds violates Arti-
Gle 9, section 20 of the constitution, that
ssevery act or resolution having the force
of law shall relate to but one subject, and
that shall be expressed in the title" Sec
ond, were this point successfully contro-
verified, the act would still be obnoxious to
Articles 8, Section S of the State constitution.
Within the meaning of this provision
Ninety-Six is not a township and the pur-
pose as to it, subscription to the railroad,
is not a corporate purpose within the mean
ing of the provision. The two acts so far as
they authorize a subscription by townships
to the railroadi in question, and so far as they
purport to incorporate any township or
townships, are declared to be uncOnstitu-
tional and void and taxes levied under
such acts are illegal.
The decision is on the complaint for re-
lief at the suit of Jefferson Floyd and 9TH
ers VS.. J. Wardlaw Perrin, treasurer 4ot
Abbeville county. The following is the
full text of the decision:
This action was begun by the plaintiffs
on the 23rd of February, 1887, under Sec
ton 269 of the general statutes, to recover
three hundred dollars and five cents OF
taxes paid by the plaintiffs under protest
to meet the interest on the bonds issued by
the county commissioners OF SAID county
as corporate agents of Ninety-Six town
ship under the provisions of an act emit,
tied "An act to charter the Greenville and
Port Royal Railroad Company" passed
23d December, 1882; and of an act entitled
Gan act to amend an act entitled AN ACT
to charter the Greenville and Port Royal
Railroad Company" passed 24th Deem
Der, 1886, which tax the plaintiffs allege
has been illegally assessed and collected;
because, first, sundry of the conditions
precedent to the issuing of the bonds have
not been performed; second, the railroad
company has located its line in a direction
not authorized, and has thereby forfeited its
charter; and, third, the act authorizing
the subscription is in violation of Article
2, section 20 and Article 9, section 8 OF the
Constitution of this State, and ask judg-
ment declaring the said act and amendment
unconstitutional, the assessment thereun-
der illegal and for the repayment OF me
sums paid by the plaintiffs hereunder.
The defendant alleges thatall of the con-
ditions precedent to the issuing of the
bonds were duly performed and pleads res
iudicata as to the validity of the bonds.
1t is we'll settled that in the hands OF
an innocent holder, the recitation in the
bonds Of the performance of conditions
precedent is binding OF the taxpayers lila
ble to their payment, but that in the
hands of persons with notice, the perform
ance of conditions precedent may be in
quired into. The defendant is entitled to
Whatever defence the holders of bonds
could make. The bondholders not having
been made defendants, the burden of the
proof is upon the plaintiffs to show that
the tax should not be collected. In the
absence of evidence | must assume that
the bonds recite the performance of all the
conditions precedent to their issue and are
in the hands of innocent holders.
The plaintiffs are therefore estopped from
showing that the conditions precedent
have not been performed. They are not
estopped from contesting, the validity OF
the bonds on other grounds. The charter
nf tho oi1roo1 onrpnaoxy non no 1aRlQ rod
forfeited only by proceedings directly in
stituted for that purpose. plaintiffs there
fore fail on that ground.
The act under consideration being to
charter a railroad company also gives
power to counties, townships, &C., to sub
scribe to its stock in a certain way and
enacts that for the purposes of the act
townships 'shall be, and they are hereby,
declared to be bodies polite and corporate,
and vested with the necessary powers to
carry out the provisions of this act" Au-
thority establishes the validity Of the act
as to municipal corporations already in
existence, such as counties, cities, &c.
The questions therefore seem to me to
be
1st. Is a township a municipal corpora
ton?
I'd. liza township be not a corporation,
is it's creation so foreign to the title of the
act under consideration as to be consider
ed a distinct subject?
3rd. If a township be q municipal corpo-
ration, is a subscription to a railroad COM
pany a township or corporate purpose,
Municipal corporations are the inhabi-
tants of small territorial subdivisions of
the State, invested with subordinate local
administration of their own affairs.
BY the act of September 26th, 1868, town.
ships were incorporated with the power,
among numerous others, to grant and vote
moneys for making highways. This act
was repealed by act of January 10Th, 1870,
Q4th ST., 313) and townships were depriv-
ed of all corporate powers; but the names
and boundaries were preserved, presuma-
bly, because such names and boundaries
had been generally adopted as assessment
and school districts under other statutes
which conferred no powers upon the or
CARNATIONS as townships, though in the
former they were mere geographical lines
for convenience in assessing and collect
ing taxes; and in the latter possessed Of
corporate powers by law for school purposes
alone. Gen. Stat. Sec. zoos. | conclude
that a township is not a corporation.
The title of the act relates only to the
incorporation of the railroad company, but
it's general purpose being to provide for
the construction of the railroad, it has
been authoritatively held that any subject
germane to the object is sufficiently en-
braced within the title, without making
the title a general index, thus, that giving
authority to q county to subscribe to a rail-