United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Barnum v. Okolona, 148 U.S. 393 (1893)

Barnum v. Okolona

No. 154

Argued and submitted March 22, 1893

Decided April 3, 1893

148 U.S. 393

Syllabus

Town bonds having more than ten years to run, issued by a town in Mississippi under the Act of March 26, 1871, of the Legislature of Mississippi, to aid in the construction of the Grenada, Houston and Eastern Railroad are void.

Woodruff v. Okolona, 57 Miss. 806, approved and followed.

That municipal corporations have no power to issue bonds in aid of a railroad except by legislative permission; that the legislature, in granting permission to a municipality to issue its bonds in aid of a railroad, may impose such conditions as it may choose, and that such legislative permission does not carry with it authority to execute negotiable bonds except subject to the restrictions and conditions of the enabling act, are propositions well settled by frequent decisions of this Court.

Argument in this case was commenced by the counsel for the plaintiff in error. At the close of his opening, the court declined to hear further argument.