39 Mo. 485 | Mo. | 1867
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a petition for a mandamus by the relator, a corporation of the State of Kansas, against the judges of the County Court of Buchanan county to compel them to make a subscription in behalf of the said county to the stock of the said corporation. The petition avers that the relator is a corporation duly incorporated by the State of Kansas for the purpose of building a railroad; that its eastern terminus is at Ellwood, in Kansas, on the Missouri river, opposite the city of St. Joseph, in Buchanan county ; that by an act of the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, entitled “An act to authorize the County Court of Buchanan county to subscribe stock for railroads and other purposes,” approved February 11, 1861, it was provided that the said County Court of Buchanan county should have power- to subscribe for the capital stock of railroads terminating at or near the said county of Buchanan, or for the stock of any other improvements tending to promote the general interest of said county; to issue the bonds of the county for said subscription, and provide by special tax or otherwise for the payment of calls due on said stock and interest due on said bonds, and the payment of said bonds when dire — provided the proposition to subscribe for said stock, specifying the nature, amount and terms of said subscription, and the manner in which the same is to be met, and liquidated by special tax or otherwise, should be first submitted to a vote of the taxable inhabitants of said county, and a majority of the votes polled for or
The respondents filed a demurrer to the petition, and allege substantially that the act of the Legislature authorizing the County Court of Buchanan county to .subscribe for shares in the capital stock of a foreign corporation is in contravention of the Constitution of this State; that the submission to a vote of the people was illegal and not in conformity with law; and that the act of the Legislature vested a discretionary power in the County Court as to making the subscription, and that its action ought not to be controlled in this court by mandamus.
We have not been able to find anything in the Constitution inconsistent with the power delegated to the County Court giving it authority to make subscriptions of stock to railroads terminating at or near Buchanan county. The object was to promote the trade and commerce of the county, and conduce to its- general benefit; and in a frontier county these objects are as essentially accomplished by building up lines of transit, although they run through another State, when they terminate at or near its boundary,
A much more difficult question is presented in the manner in which the matter was submitted to a vote of the people for their ratification or rejection. The act provides that before the court shall have power to make the subscriptions the proposition must be submitted to a vote of the taxable inhabitants of the county, and a majority of the votes polled for or against the proposition shall be valid and binding on the county. The order for an election was not made, nor did the vote take place, till after the adoption of the present Constitution. The third section of the eleventh article of the Constitution declares that “ all statute laws of this State», now in force, not inconsistent with this Constitution, shall continue in force until they shall expire by their own limitation, or be amended or repealed by the General Assembly. The 14th section of the same article is as follows: “ The General Assembly shall not authorize any county, city or town to become a stockholder in, or to loan its credit to, any company, association or corporation unless two thirds of the qualified voters of such county, city or town, at a regular or special election to be held therein, shall assent thereto.” Section three of article two defines who shall be a qualified voter. By the very terms of the Constitution, all statutory laws which are inconsistent with its provisions are abrogated. The act of the General Assembly providing for taking the vote of the people of Buchanan county, and confining it to a majority of the taxable inhabitants, is repugnant to arid inconsistent with that section of the Constitution which
One other question remains to be noticed. The act provides that the County Court “shall have power to subscribe,” but before the subscription is made the proposition must “first be submitted to a vote of the taxable inhabitants of said county, and a majority of the votes polled for or against such proposition shall be valid and binding upon said county.” When the proposition is carried by an affirmative vote, is the
The demurrer must be sustained.