Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/282

 270 FEDËBi^Ii BEFOUTEB. �It is found from the pleadings and the testimony produced in support thereof: That the bonds described in the plain- tiff's petition as court-house bonds, from which a part of the coupons in suit were detaehed.are invalid, for the reason that no vote of the people ever authorized their issue, and for the further reason that the county never reahzed anything thereon, aiid no part of any proceeds of the same was ever used for or applied to the erection of a court-house, and that there is no recital in the bond, so called, showing that the bonds were properly issued, so as to estop the defendant from insisting on their invaHdity. Second. That the bonds described in plaintili's petition as bridge bonds, from whieh the other coupons in suit were detached, were issued without having been authorized by a vote of the people. But the bridges were built in the county, by direction of the county, for the county, and were paid for by the bonds, or from pro- v.'eeds thereof, and the recitals in the bonds, showing that they were issued conformably to law, estops the defendant from setting up the defence relied on, as the plaintiii was an innocent purchaser for value, etc.; that the bridge bonds were issued and put in circulation, and were found for sale in open market by the plaintifif. �Alfred Ennis, for plaintiff. �T. M. Marquett, for defendant. �DuNDY, D. J. This suit is based on a large number of coupons, long overdue, detached from two series of bonds issued by Sherman county, or, at least, by officers represent- ing the county, one of which series of bonds was issued for the purpose of building a court-house, and the other series for the purpose of building bridges, in the county. The defence to the bonds is that they were never voted for by the people of the county ; that they were never issued by the county ; and that neither the court-house bonds, nor the proceeds tliereof, were ever applied in any mamier to the erection of a conrt-honse. �It is made to appear fi-om the minutes of the county com- missioners that the court-house bonds were issued and placetl in the hands of a banker at Kearney, probably for the pur- ����