Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/889

 GABRETT V. OITY OF MEMPHIS. 877 �unconstitutional, but the redress whereby the unconstitutidnal enactment could be avoided is not so clear. So, in this case, the acts repealing the acts constituting the charter of the city of Memphis, -without saving the rights of creditors by some remedy not essentially less effective than those existing at the time its debs were contracted, was a flagrant invasion of the constitutional rights of complainants. But, as in the case supposed above, it is a wrong -which the courts, according to established principles, cannot fully redress. The courts can- not levy a tax, nor can the court compel any one else to per- form this duty ; not, however, because the statutes forbid the exercise of such a power, but because there is no one on ■whom the court can act. But the obligations, moral and legal, to pay complainants' debts remain in fuU force. The only diffi- culty in their way is the want of a remedy. To this extent, then, the remedy lias been wrongfully taken away, and there is no power in this court to supply another. But a partial remedy, I think, is left. There is a f und existing in the shape of debts due from the property holders who resided within the limits of the extinguished municipality, for taxes duly assfessed and not paid, which constitute assets that a eourt of equity can gather in and apply to the paymentof its debts. It was on this exact point that the judges of the appellate court dis- agreed, the majority insisting that these taxes "can be altered, postponed, or released at the pleasure" of the legislature. This declaration makes it so in this case ; but it is in conflict with ail my preconceived opinions of the law as heretofore expounded by that tribunal. �The delinquent taxes in question were assessed through a series of 10 years next before the commencement of this suit. The levies were made to obtain funds to meet the current expanses of the city govemment and pay its debts. A part of the tax debtors promptly met the exactions made upon them, while others failed to pay. With the funds realized the expenses of the city govemment were paid, leaving the taxes unpaid to be applied to the payment of debts. The levies, in some instances, were especially made for specifie purposes, such as for the payment of interest as it accrued ����