Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 18.pdf/390

This page needs to be proofread.

EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT diate direct attack, and the bonds issued by him are absolutely valid, with or without recitals. "3. Where facts or conditions precedent to the issue, or the amount and purpose of the bond itself, must have come within the cog nizance of the issuing officer (or other person empowered to make a recital) prior to the issuance, and that officer makes in the bond a recital of conformity with the statute (or with the constitution, if the restriction be im posed by the constitution) the municipality is estopped to deny the validity of the bond in the hands of a bona fide holder, unless such holder has constructive notice of invalidity. "4. To constitute constructive notice of invalidity there must be some statement on the bond, which if taken in connection with the statute or some single, formal, and easily accessible record prescribed by the statute as a criterion, would give the purchaser notice that the statutory authority had been ex ceeded. "To these may also be added: "5. Estoppel will also arise against a muni cipality from long acquiescence in the validity of bonds, or from receiving and using the pro ceeds, or paying interest, or other equitable considerations. Such circumstances have the same power of estoppel as would a recital, and are open to the same rebuttals, such as abso lute ultra vires or constructive notice of in validity. "In the five rules'just stated the conditions are laid down under which an irregular bond will, in spite of its irregularity, be enforced. Once you have established its enforceability, however, it is on an equal footing with bonds which are absolutely unexceptionable. Hence it follows that it, like all municipal bonds, is a negotiable instrument. A bona fide holder ' is entitled to transfer to a third party all the rights with which he is vested, and the right so acquired by his indorsee cannot be affected by proof that the indorsee was acquainted with the defenses existing against the paper.' "In brief, the theory of this paper is that, when the question of the validity of municipal bonds was first presented, the court held that irregularities of every sort were cured by the decision of the officers issuing them, and that this decision might be attacked only in a direct

361

proceeding begun before the bonds had passed out of the hands of the first taker. Later, cases came up in which the defects in issuance were graver, or the equities of the holder less strong, and the court, desiring to modify its former holding without reversing it, held that in such cases there was no author ity to issue. This, however, leads to a con clusion utterly untenable, — that authority to issue is affected by any equity or want of equity on the part of the holder. These later cases are, then, in reality decided not on the basis of authority or lack of authority, — but on the basis of estoppel (and the courts in most of the recent cases have so stated their ground). The early doctrine of a decisive judgment on the part of the issuing officers is limited to cases of irregularity in some pre cedent formality; and as to graver defects, defects which are entirely beyond the judg ment of a tribunal, the recital of the officers operates merely by way of estoppel, rebuttable by constructive notice." PARTNERSHIP. " The Right of Surviving Partner to Sell Real Estate which Belonged to the Firm," by W. A. Gardner, Central Law Journal (V. Ixii, p. 319). PERSONS. In the April Yale Law Journal (V. xvi, p. 263), Gordon E. Sherman writes of "Emancipation and Citizenship." He dis cusses the history of the constitutional theories on this subject in our country and also the history of the development of the law of Rome on the same subject. PERSONS. " Curatory of Minors in the Civil Law," by James Mclntosh, Juridical Review, (V. xviii, p. 18). PRACTICE. " The Misconduct of the Bench as Reversible Error," by Wm. A. Purrington, Bench and Bar (V. v, p. 10). PRACTICE. " Setting Aside an Award," by D. C. Banerji, Allahabad Law Journal (V. iii, p. 97). PRACTICE (Personal Injury Litigation). From a series of addresses on legal tactics before^the students of Northwestern Univer sity Law School, two on personal injury actions appear in the May Illinois Law Review (V. i, p. 16). " The plaintiff's standpoint," by Andrew J. Hirschal, announces with