175 Ind. 400 | Ind. | 1911
This was a mandamus proceeding by appellants, against the Board of Commissioners of the County of Vanderburgh and others. It involves the right of the county to vote aid to a bridge company, for the construction of a bridge over the Ohio river, under §4405 Burns 1908, Acts 1889 p. 266. So much of the section as applies here, reads as follows: “That counties wherein any bridge over any river or stream forming the boundary of the State of Indiana, or any part thereof, may be located, or any of the townships of such counties, are hereby authorized to take stock in or make donations to such bridge company in aid of the construction of such bridge by complying with the provisions, so far as the same are applicable, of an act approved May 12, 1869, being §§4045 to 4063, inclusive, of Revised Statutes [of 1881], giving to counties and townships authority to take stock in and make donations in aid of the construction of railroads.”
Appellees claim that the act of 1881 (Acts 1881 p. 5), as amended in 1889, does not authorize aid by counties to bridge companies. If this interpretation of the law is correct, the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed, because this appeal grows out of the refusal by the Board of Commissioners of the County of Vanderburgh to submit to the voters of said county the question of aid by the entire county for the construction of a bridge over the Ohio river.
While it is the duty of the courts, in construing a legislative enactment, so to hold as to give full effect to each
In the case of Miles v. Bay (1885), 100 Ind. 166, 169, this court said: “The power to subject property to taxation in aid of railroad companies can be exercised only in strict conformity to, and by a rigid compliance with, the letter and spirit of the act conferring the authority. The act should be strictly construed in favor of the rights of property.” See, also, State, ex rel., v. Board, etc. (1906), 166 Ind. 162; Garrigus v. Board, etc. (1872), 39 Ind. 66; Demarree v. Johnson (1898), 150 Ind. 419; Voss v. Waterloo Water Co. (1904), 163 Ind. 69, 66 L. R. A. 95, 106 Am. St. 201, and cases cited; United States v. Oregon, etc., R. Co. (1896), 164 U. S. 526, 17 Sup. Ct. 165, 41 L. Ed. 541; Sioux City, etc., R. Co. v. United States (1895), 159 U. S. 349, 16 Sup. Ct. 17, 40 L. Ed. 177. Where a statute of this character is defective, courts have no power to supply omissions. Kunkalman v. Gibson (1909), 171 Ind. 503; 36 Cyc. 1113; State, ex rel., v. Reneau (1905), 75 Neb. 1, 104 N. W. 1151, 106 N. W. 451.
Appellants are seeking, by means of a special tax to be levied on all the taxables of the county, the appropriation of $436,000 to aid a gwasi-public corporation in constructing a bridge, if a majority of the voters of the county approve of the proposition. The statute in question omits any provision for a petition for such submission to the voters of the county. If it were held that such provision should be implied, the statute omits to designate the jurisdictional number of petitioners required to sign the petition; if this omission
Several other questions are presented in this appeal, but in view of the conclusions reached, as before set forth, no useful purpose would be subserved by their consideration.
Judgment affirmed.