[Download] "George B. Bissell, David. T. Robinson, And Calvin Day, Plaintiffs in Error v. the City of Jeffersonville" by United States Supreme Court * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: George B. Bissell, David. T. Robinson, And Calvin Day, Plaintiffs in Error v. the City of Jeffersonville
- Author : United States Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 01, 1860
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 75 KB
Description
This case comes before the court upon a writ of error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of Indiana. It was an action of assumpsit, and was instituted by the present plaintiffs against the corporation defendants, to recover two instalments of interest which had accrued upon certain bonds, purporting to have been duly issued in the name of the defendants, for stock subscribed in their behalf by the common council of the city to the Fort Wayne and Southern Railroad Company. Assuming to act in behalf of the city, the common council subscribed two hundred thousand dollars to the stock of the railroad company, and on the twenty-fourth day of April, 1855, issued two hundred bonds, of one thousand dollars each, in the name of the city, and subsequently delivered the same to the railroad company, in payment for the stock previously subscribed. Interest on the whole amount of the loan was to be paid semi-annually in the city of New York, at the rate of six per cent., and coupons or warrants for the same, payable to bearer, were annexed to each separate bond. Plaintiffs became the holders, for value, and in the usual course of their business, of thirty-seven of these bonds; and the suit in this case was founded on thirty-seven of the coupons for the first instalment of interest, and thirty-six coupons for the second instalment. As amended, the declaration contained a count for money had and received, and a special count upon each of the seventy-three coupons. Defendants pleaded the general issue, and also filed a special plea, in bar of the cause of action set forth in the several special counts. More particular reference to the special plea is unnecessary, as it was subsequently held bad on general demurrer, and at the same time the parties went to trial on the general issue. To maintain the issue, on their part, the plaintiffs, in the first place, introduced one of the original bonds, which is set forth at large in the record. Among other things, it recites, in effect, that it was issued by authority of the common council of the city, and that three-fourths of the legal voters thereof 'petitioned for the same, as required by the charter.' They also gave in evidence, without objection, the several coupons described in the declaration. All of the coupons, as well as the bonds given in evidence, were signed by the mayor of the city, and were countersigned by the city clerk, and the defendants admitted their execution.