Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/663

GEORGK V. BALL8 COUNTY. 649 �court to loan or invest the money in the county treasury arising f rom such taxes, This waa done by the act entitled "An act to authorize the several county courts in this state to loan out or invest certain moneys," approved February 19, 1875. Laws of Missouri, 1875, p. 44, The lirst section ot that act is as follows : �"ihat the several county courts of this state be and they are hereby authorized and required to loan out any money in the hands of the treasurer of such county collected to pay interest on the bonds of such county issued to any railroad company, and which bas not been applied in the payment of such interest, in any case where. such bonds are or may be in litigation, or the validity of which is, at the time, being contested by judicial proceedings, at the highest rate of interest that can be obtaiued, not exceeding 10 uor less than 6 per cent." �It will be observed that the statute does not, in express terms, limit or fix the period for which the fuuds referred to may be loaned or invested. It is manifest that the f unds, when collected and placed in the county treasury, became trust funds for the payment df inter- est upon railroad bonds, and that it was the duty of the county authorities to apply such funds to that purpose the moment it was determined, by a final adjudication, that the bonds were valid and the taxes lawfully levied and collected for their payment. It was proper enough for the legislature to authorize the county authorities to invest the funds pending the litigation, provided they made no contract having the effect of tying them up and keeping them out of reach of the bondholders after the litigation concluded. �If the act of the legislature were construed to authorize the county courts to loan these funds for an indefinite period of time, at their discretion, it would clearly have the effect of impairing the obligation of the contract between the county and the bondholders ; for the plain meaning of that contract unquestionably was that the holders of the bonds were to have a vested right to payment out of any taxes levied and collected and paid into the treasury for that purpose. If the county courts can invest funds of this character for a period of four years, as against a bondholder who mayrecover final judgment before the expiration of that period, they can invest them for 10, 20, or 40 years, and thus indefinitely postpone the payment of their obligations. The act must, therefore, be construed as authorizing the county courts to invest the funds in question subject to call, or until such period as they may be needed to pay valid and legal obligations, for the pay- ment of which they were raised. ��� �