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6 Wkly. Cin. L. Bull. 1 (1881-1882)

handle is hein.barjournals/ohlwb0006 and id is 1 raw text is: THE WEEKLY
CINCINNATI LAW BULLETIN,
VOL. VI.]    CINCINNATI, FEBRUARY 7, i88i.    [No. i.

U. S. Circuit Court, N. D. of Ohio,
Western Division.
.Northern National Bank of Toledo, 0. v.
The Truistees ot Porter Township, Dela-
ware, Co., O.- Township Bo,?ds-Power
to Issue on Certain Contingeny-How the
Authority of a State Court is Regqarded by
a Pederal Court.
This was an action upon eight bonds
of one thousand dollars each, and
coupons for the annual payment of in-
terest from January 1, 1863, issued by
the defendants on May 6, 1353, to the
Springfield, Mt. Vernon and Pittsburg
Railroad Company in payment for a
subscription made by the township to
khe stock of the railroad company. The
township had paid the interest up to
January, 1863, and then refused or fail-
ed to pay any further interest, and the
coupons since that time, as well as the
bonds, which fell due October 1, 1871,
remained unpaid.
These bonds and coupons were in-
dorsed by the railroad company and
sold or pledged and came through var-
ious bona fida holders for value to the
plaintiff, who was the owner and holder
of them at the date of this suit. The
chief defence was that the acts of March
21, 1850; February 1846; and March 25,
1851, which authorized subscriptions
bv counties and townships to the stock
of this railroad, providpd the townships
should have authority to subscribe in
case the county commissioners should
not be authorized by a vote of the elec-
tors of the county to make a subscrip-
tion; and that the county had voted
in favor of a subscription which had
been made before action by the town-
ship, an'd that, therefore, the township
had no power to subscribe and issue
bonds.
The plaintiff contended that the sta-
tutes made a grant of power to the
township, but imposed   a condition
prcedent to its exercise. and that as

the bonds contained a recital that they
were issued in pursuance to the acts of
thE General Assembly of Ohio. and as
the township had levied taxes and paid
interest for eight years, the defendants
were estopped under the decisions of
the Supreme Court of the Uni ted States
in numerous similar cases to set up the
non-happening of the precedent con-
tingency as against bona fida holders
for value.
Secondly, thit even if the power did
not arise at once upon the passage of
the act of March 21, 1850, still as the
county failed to vote at the next annu-
al election, to wit, October, 1850, as pro-
vided for by the act of February 28,
1846, the township, thereupon, under
the authority of Shoemaker vs. Goshen
Township, 14 0. S. p69, 580. became
vested with power, and it would be pre-
simed upon the recitals in the boids
in favor ot a purchaser for value with-
out notice, that the power had been ex-
ercised and the subscription  made
while the township was thus vested
with power, and that the defendant,
were estopped to set up that the sub-
scription was in fact made after the
county had voted in June, 1851, to sub-
scribe to the stock of the railroad com-
pany and had subscribed therefor in
August, 1851.
The defendants contended that the
township derived no immediate power
from the acts of the legislature, and
that if the county commissioners were
authorized by a vote of the electors of
the county to subscribe, the township
never became vested with power to
make a subscription, and that the act
ion of the county being matter of re-
cord, was notice to everybody, and fur-
ther, that the trustees of the township
were not made the tribunal to decide
whether the county had acted in the
matter. In support of this view the
defendants relied on Hopple vs. Trus-
tees of Biown Township, 15 0. S. 311;

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