23 Minn. 422 | Minn. | 1877
By Sp. Laws 1868, c. 24, as amended by Sp. Laws 1869, c. 44, and Sp. Laws 1870, c. 49, any town in the county of Faribault was authorized to issue bonds to aid in the construction of any railroad running into such county. No limit was placed upon the amount of bonds which might be issued by any town, upon the determination of its voters.
1. The first ground is that the relator is not a corporation legally constituted, and that, therefore, it has no existence. The relator’s original charter is found in Laws 1857, ex. sess., c. 49, being “An act to incorporate the Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad Company,” the name having been changed to “ The Central Railroad Company of Minnesota,”' under Sp. Laws 1869, c. 61, § 4. Section 16 of the original charter was 'amended by Sp. Laws 1858, c. 100, so as to-read as follows, viz. : “If said company shall not organize within two years from the passage of this act, and actually commence building said railway within three years from their said organization, and complete the same to New Ulm within seven years from said organization, and complete the whole of said railway within fifteen years from their said organization, then this act shall be null and void as to all that portion of said railway not completed within the above specified time or times. But this company shall not be dissolved by the non-completion of any portion of said railway, as to the portion completed at the time, but shall continue to exist and be valid to all intents and purposes for the parts or portions of said completed railway, and the said company shall continue to survive to that extent and no-further.”
The corporation having been created in presentí by section 1 of the original charter, it had, under this section of the act of 1858, the right to complete some, portion of its,
2. The second ground upon which the respondent resists the relator’s demand for further bonds is that the conditions of issue have not been complied with. By the vote of the town the bonds were to be issued only “ on condition that said company shall, on or before the first day of January, A. D. 1875, have completed, ironed, and equipped its line of road from said village of Wells to the city of Mankato, and have the same in operation for the transportation of passengers and freight.”
The testimony in the case shows that “the relator, on or before November 23, 1874, graded, completed, ironed, and equipped its separate line of railway from the city of Mankato, in Blue Earth county, to a connection with the Southern Minnesota railroad, at a point in the said town of Clark, in Faribault county, between a fourth and a half a mile distant from said village of Wells in said town; and from said point the relator, from and after that date, ran all its trains on the track of the Southern Minnesota Bailroad
In view of the authority thus conferred by law, the facts ■disclosed by the testimony above recited show a substantial •compliance with the conditions upon which the relator was to be entitled to the bonds. The relator’s “line of road,” from Wells to Mankato, is “ completed, ironed and -equipped,” and “in operation for the transportation of passengers and freight,” so that the public enjoy the whole benefit of an independent line of railroad from one place to "the other.
3. In 1872 the constitution of this state was amended by •adding to article 9 the following section: “Section 14. The legislature shall not authorize any county, township, •city, or other municipal corporation, to issue bonds, or to become indebted in any manner, to aid in the construction ■or equipment of any or all railroads, to any amount that ■shall exceed ten per centum of the value of the taxable property within such county, township, city, or other muni
In our opinion the respondent’s claim that the constitutional amendment referred to has any application to the facts of this case cannot be sustained. At the time when the amendment was made, (in 1872,) the laws under which the town of Clark was authorized to issue the bonds in question had been enacted, and were in full force. They placed no limit upon the amount of bonds issuable, save such as might be fixed by the voters. The language of the constitutional amendment is, “the legislature shall not authorize,” etc. In its plain, natural, and ordinary signification, the language is purely prospective, having no reference to what the legislature may have done in the past, but imposing a limitation upon its authority in the future. After a careful consideration of the ingenious and able argument of the respondent’s counsel to the contrary, we are unable to find any good reason for attributing to the amendment any other siguification. If it had been the design to subject all past legislation to the 10 per cent, limitation, it would have required so few words to express such design clearly that their absence is of the highest, significance. ' In our opinion the constitutional amendment has reference to future legislation only, and therefore no
This disposes of all the points made by the respondent, and our order is that a peremptory writ of mandamus issue, in accordance with the prayer of the complaint.
G-ilfillan, 0. J., having been of counsel, did not sit in this case.