US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

1. An Act of the Legislature of Kansas of Feb. 26, 1870, provides that whenever fifty of the qualified voters, being freeholders of any municipal township in any county shall petition the board of county commissioners of such county to submit to the qualified voters of the township a proposition to take stock in any railroad proposed to be constructed into or through such township, and shall designate in the petition the railroad company, and the amount of stock proposed to be taken, it shall be the duty of the board to cause an election to be held, to determine whether such subscription shall be made; provided, that the amount of bonds voted shall not be above such a sum as will require a levy of more than one percent per annum on the taxable property of the township, to pay the yearly interest on the amount of bonds issued. In the event of the vote being favorable, the board of chanrobles.com-red

Page 92 U. S. 638

county commissioners were to issue the bonds in the name of the township. The bonds in question here were regularly executed by the chairman of the board, and attested by the county clerk and seal of the county. They recite that they are issued in accordance with said act, and in pursuance of the votes of three-fifths of the legal voters of the township at a special election duly held. Held that in a suit brought on some of the coupons by a bona fide holder for value, it cannot be shown as a defense to a recovery, that at the time of voting and issuing the bonds, the value of the taxable property of the township was not in amount sufficient to authorize the voting and issuing of the whole series of them.

2. All prerequisite facts to the execution and issue of the bonds were, by the statute, referred to the board of county commissioners, and the plaintiff was not bound, when he purchased, to look beyond the legislative act and the recitals of the bonds.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.