United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Yazoo & Mississippi V. R. Co. v. Commissioners, 132 U.S. 190 (1889)

Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company v. Board of

Levee Commissioners of the Yazoo Mississippi Delta

No. 1087

Submitted October 38, 1889

Decided November 18, 1889

132 U.S. 190

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED

STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI

Syllabus

Yazoo v. Mississippi Valley Railroad Co. v. Thomas, ante, 132 U. S. 174, affirmed and applied.

In equity. The case is stated in the opinion.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is an appeal by plaintiff in the suit from the decree of the Circuit Court for the Southern District of Mississippi dismissing its bill of complaint filed in that court against the appellees, the Board of Levee Commissioners and certain sheriffs and tax collectors, to enjoin the collection of taxes levied under an act of the legislature creating such board of commissioners, for the purpose of providing for the payment of the principal and interest of bonds authorized to be issued by the board, the proceeds of which were to be applied to the construction and repair of levees on the Mississippi River. The bill set up the same exemption relied on in Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company v. Thomas, ante, 132 U. S. 174, and it was insisted that the taxes sought to be collected where unauthorized and illegal by reason of such exemption, and that the law imposing the taxes impaired the obligation of the alleged contract of exemption, and thus violated the Constitution of the United States, the litigation

Page 132 U. S. 191

therefore making a controversy arising under that Constitution. Without considering whether any other ground for affirming the decree exists, it is sufficient to say that this case is disposed of by the decision which has just been announced in that referred to.

Decree affirmed.