Chambers County v. Clews

by Ward Hunt

United States Supreme Court

88 U.S. 317

Chambers County  v.  Clews

ERROR to the District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

Clews & Co. brought an action at law, in the court below, against Chambers County, Alabama, to procure payment of certain coupons attached to ninety-three bonds of $1000 each, issued by the county.

The bonds purported to be issued in aid of a certain railroad named in each of them, and to have been issued under the authority and in pursuance of an act of the legislature of the State of Alabama, approved December 31st, 1868.

The statute authorized a subscription and loan by the county only upon the basis of a proposal in writing from the railroad company, made by the president and a majority of its directors, proposing that the county should take an amount of its capital stock, to be named, at a certain price per share, and pay for the same in such bonds of the county as should be specified in the proposal. This proposition was to be submitted to the qualified electors of the county for their acceptance or rejection. Notice of the terms and amount of the proposed subscription was required to be published. If a majority of the qualified voters voted for 'subscription,' the proposition of the company was to be deemed to be accepted, and the subscription authorized to be made in the manner and upon the terms set forth in the application, and the bonds might be issued in payment thereof.

The plaintiffs alleged in their complaint that they were the owners and holders of the bonds and coupons mentioned, 'and that they were purchased by them for value before any of them fell due.'

Each bond was set out-each being for $1000-and each being declared to be one of a series issued by the said county of Chambers under authority and in pursuance of an act of the legislature of the State of Alabama entitled 'An act to authorize the several counties, towns, and cities of Alabama to subscribe to the capital stock of such railroads throughout the State as they may consider most conducive to their interests;' and approved December 31st, 1868.

Pleas: 1st. A special plea that the bonds were issued by the authorities of Chambers County in payment of a subscription to the stock of the railroad company named, under the act of December 31st, 1868, and that the said company did not, prior to or since the issuing of the bonds, by its president and a majority of its directors, propose to the defendants that they should take and subscribe for a certain amount of stock at a certain price per share, and pay for the same in the bonds of the county; that the bonds were issued without authority of law and were void, and that the plaintiffs were not bona fide holders of them without notice.

2d. The general issue.

To the special plea the plaintiff demurred specially. That the plea amounted to the general issue was not among the causes assigned for demurrer. On the other, he took issue. The demurrer was sustained, and the cause tried on the plea of general issue alone, without verification.

On the trial the plaintiffs produced the bonds and coupons, and offered to read the same in evidence. To this the defendants objected, for the reason—

1st. That there was no evidence that the bonds were authorized to be issued by the defendants.

This objection was overruled.

2d. That there was no evidence that the seal annexed was the seal of the probate judge, or of the defendants.

This objection also was overruled; there being no denial of the execution by plea verified by affidavit, as required by section 2682 of the code of 1867, which provides that—

'All written instruments, the foundation of the suit, purporting to be signed by the defendant, his partner, agent, or attorney in fact, must be received in evidence without proof of the execution, unless the execution thereof is denied by plea verified by affidavit.'

3d. That there was no revenue stamp on either the bonds or coupons, as it was said by the counsel for the defendant there should have been by the statutes then in force. [But the bill of exceptions disclosed nothing as to what stamps, if any, were on the bonds or coupons.]

This objection also was overruled and the bonds and coupons let in.

On the trial the deposition of Clews, one of the plaintiffs, was read without objection. He said:

'The ninety-three bonds of the county of Chambers were received by my said firm in good faith and for value paid, both I and my firm relying upon the good faith and credit of said county of Chambers that said bonds and the coupons thereto attached would be paid, according to the tenor and effect thereof.'

The defendant also offered as a witness Mr. Pennington, the president of the railroad company, who, on cross-examination, said:

'The plaintiffs got the bonds in April, 1870, from J. C. Stanton, to whom they had been transferred on account of advances made by Stanton after the election in the county of Chambers as to the subscription to the stock of said railroad company, but before the actual issue of the bonds, and on an agreement that the bonds should be transferred when issued. The plaintiffs obtained the bonds in April, 1870, under advances made at that time, and an agreement to make future advances, which they have done to about $100,000, and hold the bonds as collateral security for the advances.'

The defendant now, to show that the proposition had been made to the county to subscribe before the railroad company was fully organized, and while it was simply located, which he alleged it could not legally do under the act of December 31st, 1868, proposed to read a transcript from the records of the Court of County Commissioners of Chambers County, containing the letter of the president of the road (bearing a certain date) making the proposition; the action of the Commissioners' Court of the county ordering an election; and the order of an issue of bonds as upon an election held.

This record of the Commissioners' Court stated that the president of the said railroad company, 'as the said railroad is now located by said company, proposed in writing that the following application be granted.' The bill of exception proceeded:

'The plaintiffs inquired of the defendant whether his transcript was offered in connection with any other evidence, or whether any other evidence was proposed in connection with said transcript. The defendant answered these questions in the negative. The plaintiffs objected to the said transcript being read in evidence, on the ground that it was illegal as well as irrelevant testimony. And the court sustained the objection.'

It was also set up that the act of the Alabama legislature, under which the county made the subscription, was unconstitutional; inasmuch as it was an act authorizing the issue of county bonds for a private purpose: a proposition overruled by the court.

Verdict and judgment having been rendered for the plaintiffs, the defendant brought the case here on exceptions to the admission or rejection of the evidence, as already stated, and for erroneous judgment on the demurrer to the special plea.

Mr. R. T. Merrick, for the plaintiff in error; Mr. S. F. Rice, contra.

Mr. Justice HUNT delivered the opinion of the court.

Notes