The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-03-30
WIRES COUNTY BOND CASE.

decides. The following digest of the de-
cision will give better idea of what is
decided than reading of the elaborate
opinion:
in bonds in payment of a subscription to
the capital stock of the Northwestern
North Carolina Railroad Company, then
completed from Greensboro to Winston
Salem. That railroad company was
chartered by the Reconstruction conven-
ton of 1S6S-on the 9th of March. about
six weeks before the Constitution became
operative on the oath of April.
The charter purported to grant in very
general terms the power to counties TO
subscribe to the capital stock of the COM
pany, and referred to the charter "of the
Company" (supposed to be a misnomer
of the road from Goldsboro to Morehead
City for the specific method of voting for
and making subscriptions.
Subsequently, on the 18th OF August
1868, an act amendatory of the charter
was passed, empowering Forsyth county
to subscribe and ratifying the subscrip-
ton meantime made by that county,
under the provisions of the charter. The
subscription of Forsyth county, made in
June, 1865, of 100000 in bonds to the
company, was held to be valid and bind
ing obligation, in Belo US. The Commits
sioners (76th North Carolina), and it was
held in that case that the original chart
county, without the aid of the curative
act Of August Sth, 1868. The original
charter, authorized the construction of a
railroad from some point on the North
Carolina railroad between the town OF
Greensboro and the town of Lexington,
in Davidson county, by way of Winston
Salem to some point on the Northwestern
boundary of the State Ito be hereafter
determined). Another section, Q3 of the
original charter) provided that the COM
pany should have the power to construct
branches of the said road, one of which
should run from the town of Winston
Salem by way of Mount Airy.
In 1879 the Legislature attempted to
enact an amendment to the charter to
be inserted in the 18th section, which
declared that one of the branches should
be located from Winston Salem by way
of Jonesville and Wilkesboro to Patter-
sons factory, in Caldwell county Both
this act and a subsequent act amending
the charter purported to give authority to
counties along the line to subscribe to
the capital stock of said railroad COM
pany, but it was shown, by the evidence
nor the act of 1879 were passed in the
way prescribed in section IA, article 2,
of the Constitution, which provides for
entering yeas and nays on the second and
third readings in each House on the
journals.
The court held that the acts of August
11th 1868, of 1879 and of 1884, were void
and conferred no authority on any county
to subscribe.
But the court held, that while it had
been decided by the Supreme court of
North Carolina before the bonds were
issued in 1899, that the county of FORSYTH
was empowered to subscribe and to
create a bonded debt to pay the sub
scription, it did not necessarily follow
that the same authority had been con-
ferred upon Wilkes county, before it's
bonds were issued in 1885,
The court suggested that it was still
an open question whether any authority
had been. conferred upon Wilkes county
before the passage of the act of 1879, and
the Circuit Court of Appeals, at Rich
mond.
The question upon which the validity OF
the bonds depends is whether the charter
conferred upon Wilkes county the power
to subscribe. If it did apply, the sub
scription was made in contemplation Of
the law as laid down in Belo VS.. The Com
missioners, and was valid. II the SUI
preme Court of North Carolina was MOI
in error, the same authority was no
conferred upon Wilkes county that wa!
granted to Forsyth, and it would follow
that the Belo case does not determine the
power of Wilkes county, and the bond:
are invalid. The court in this opinion
intimate that it may be that none of the
acts relied upon. except that of 1879
which was recited as authority in the
bonds, could be fairly construed to give
authority to Wilkes county.
The court did not pass upon the claim
of authority under The Code, section!
1896 to 1000, that any county on line o
railway, has authority under those sec
lions to subscribe to the capital stock 0
company having authority to build it.
But the Circuit Court of Appeals a
Richmond, following the decision of thu
| Supreme Court of North Carolina in th'