The American State Reports Vol 25 PDF Download

Excerpt from The American State Reports, 1894, Vol. 37: Containing the Cases of General Value and Authority Subsequent to Those Contained in the "American Decisions" And the "American Reports," Decided in the Courts of Last Resort of the Several States In Stevenson v. Colgan, 652, 25 Am. St. Rep. 230, we said that in passing upon the constitutionality Of a statute, the court must confine itself to a consideration of those matters which appear upon the face Of the law, and those facts of which it can take judicial notice; and the same principle was repeated in Bourn v. Hart, 93 Cal. 321, 27 Am. St. Rep. 203. The court in the present instance fol lowed this rule in its conclusions Of law, but its previous action in hearing evidence and making findings of fact, wherein it attempted to ascertain the errors, omissions, and irregularities Of municipal Ofiicers, which in its findings it assumed to be referred to in the act Of the legislature Of was inconsistent therewith. It should have sustained the demurrer to the answer, and determined 21 the plaintiff's right Of action without considering the facts therein alleged. The authority of the legislature Of a state to direct a muni cipality to make any payment of its funds rests upon the proposition that these moneys are public moneys acquired under the authority Of the state for public purposes; that, as the municipality is created only as an auxiliary to the legis laturo for governmental purposes, with a jurisdiction con fined to a limited portion Of the state, it does not cease to be under the control Of the legislature; and that the legislature has the same power of disposition over the public moneys in the custody of the municipality that it has over those in the state treasury. In making application of this principle, the legislature Of this state prior to 1879 passed many acts Of re. Lief, in which public moneys were appropriated to individuals whose claims rested entirely upon some moral Obligation which could not in every instance be formulated in convino ing or satisfactory terms, and when the constitutional con vention met in that year, it placed a restriction upon such appropriations by the provision of section 31 of article 4 Of the constitution, which declares that the legislature shall not have power to make any gift, or authorize the making Of any gift, Of any public money, or thing Of value, to any individual, municipal, or other corporation whatever. This prohibition is, however, primarily addressed to the legislature. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.