Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 5.djvu/179

DECISION UPON MUNICIPAL BONDS. 1 63 ical and municipal organizations shall possess; and the settled decisions of its highest courts on this subject will be regarded as authoritative by the courts of the United States ; for it is a question that relates to the internal constitution of the body politic of the State." Of the soundness of these propositions the court appears to have been fully satisfied. We quote : — "Section 119, Dillon on Munic. Corp.. 3d ed. lays down the In- diana law on this subject substantially as is contended for by the plaintiff in error. That section is as follows : ' In Indiana, the doc- trine is that corporations, along with the express and substantive powers conferred by their charters, take by implication all the reasonable modes of executing such powers which a natural person may adopt. It is a power incident to corporations, in the absence of positive restric- tion, to borrow money as means of executing the power.' A large number of cases from the Supreme Court of Indiana is cited in a note to support the doctrine of the text. We think the proposition that, under the laws of Indiana, a town has an implied authority to borrow money or contract a loan, under the conditions and in the manner expressly prescribed, cannot be controverted." x Here is the judicial conclusion that the town of Monticello had the authority to borrow money. " But," argues the learned jus- tice, " this only brings us back to the question, Does the implied power to borrow money or contract a loan carry with it a further implication of power to issue funding negotiable bonds for that amount, and sell them in open market as commercial paper? ' Let us see." 2 The opinion then proceeds to show that section 3342 is a limita- tion of the power to borrow money, and that it prescribes certain conditions, one of which is that the prayer of the petition shall be that the Board of Trustees " contract such debt or loan : — " The board could not depart in its action from this legally required praver of the petition without transcending its authority and acting ultra vires. But the board did depart from the prayer, for it did not borrow money nor contract a loan ; but it ordained in so many words that the town issue bonds for negotiation and sale at not less than ninety- four cents on the dollar." 8 It is to be noted that the third finding of fact sets forth the 1 Page 686. 2 p age ^ s p age 686.