67 Mo. 38 | Mo. | 1877
On the 22nd day of March, 1870, an ordinance was passed by the city council of the city of St. Louis, directing the auditor of said city to draw his .warrant upon the treasurer thereof, in favor of the relator for the sum of $5108.91. This ordinance was signed by the president of the council, and forwarded to the mayor for his approval, but was neither approved by the mayor nor returned by him to the council, that hody having adjourned sine die within ten days after the passage of said ordinance.' The object of the present proceeding is to compel the' auditor to draw a warrant in conformity with the provisions of said ordinance. The judgment of the circuit court was adverse to the claim of the relator, and that judgment was affirmed hy the Court of Appeals.
The question presented for our determination is, whether the ordinance directing the warrant to be drawn in favor of the relator, ever became a law. The provision of the city charter bearing upon this question, is as follows : “ Every ordinance, before it shall become a law, must be signed by the president of the city council, and presented to the mayor for his approval; if he approves the bill, he shall sign it, if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to, the city council, which objections shall be entered ah large upon the journal, and the bill shall be reconsidered; after such reconsideration, the yeas and nays shall be called, and recorded, and if two-thirds of all members elected to the city council shall vote for the bill, it shall become a law; but if any bill shall not be returned by the mayor, within ten days (Sundays excepted), after it shall have been presented to him for his approbation, the same shall become a law in the same manner as if he had approved and signed it.” It was the manifest purpose of this provision that the mayor should have ten days in. which to return to the council a bill which he did not approve; and the only con-' tingency in which a bill not approved by him, and not-passed over his veto, could become a law, was, where he
Affirmed. '