Lake County v. Rollins, 130 U.S. 662 (1889)
U.S. Supreme Court
Lake County v. Rollins, 130 U.S. 662 (1889)
Lake County v. Rollins
No. 1347
Submitted January 2, 1889
Decided May 13, 1889
130 U.S. 662
ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED
STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Syllabus
The Constitution of Colorado of 1876 provided that no county should contract any debt by loan in any form except for certain purposes therein named; that such indebtedness contracted in any one year should not exceed the rate therein named, and that "the aggregate amount of indebtedness of any county for all purposes . . . shall not at any time exceed twice the amount above herein limited," etc. Held that this limitation was an absolute limitation upon the power of the county to contract any and all indebtedness not only for the purposes named in the act, but for every other purpose whatever, including county warrants issued for ordinary county expenses, such as witnesses' and jurors' fees, election costs, charges for board of prisoners, county treasurer's commissions, etc.
The case, as stated by the court, was as follows: