Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/304

 B^O FEDBBAL BEPOETBfi.!:' , �ordered, noticed, and held by the proper authorities, and then and there declared duly carried 'for the,railway proposition,' byssu,d proper authorities, a prop- osition in writing having been previously made and submitted by said Com- pany to the proper authorities of the-oityof Fond du Lac, as required by said act after such an election, the same having been ordered and held, and notice of the time and place of holding the same having been given in all respects as required by law and the act aforesaid, the name of the said Milwaukee & ii'orthwestern Eailway Company waa changed to that bf the Korthwestern Union Eailway Company, by unanimous vote of the stockholders at a regular meeting thereof, held at the city of Pond du Lac on the third day of May, A. D. 1872, in pursuance of the statutein snch a case made and provided." �The bonds were signed by the mayor and clerk, and attested by the cQrporate seal of the city. The bonds were exeeuted by the city aboat July 13, 1872, and delivered to a trustee, who delivered them to the Northwestern Union Ealway Company in 1873, the city re- ceiving stock in exchange therefor. They were sold in open market, the plaintiff subsequently becomiug purchaser of those in suit, in good faith and for value. The city, by order of its council, regularly paid the interest coupons until November, 1880, when it refused to œake further payment. Smith eued on $50,000, and Higgins on $25,000 of the issue. �Eawin H. Abbot, for plaintiff treserved Smith. �Winfield Smith, for plaintiff Higgins. �Edward S. Bragg and W. D. Conklin, for defendant, city of Fond du Lac. �After stating the facts, Mr. Justice Harlan delivered, orally, his opinion upon the legal questions raised and discussed, as follows : �Haelan, Justice. The recitals in the bonds import a compliance with the provisions of the statute under the authority of which they were issued, The fact that no such corporation as the Northwest- ern Union Ey. Co. was in existence at the date of the bonds is wholly immaterial, since it satisfactorily appeara that they were, in fact, issued after that corporation was created, and by virtue of the statute of 1871, authorizing the city of Fond du Lac, and other designated municipal corporations, to subscribe stock in the Milwaukee & Northwestern Eailway Company, and to execute bonds in payment thereof. The city is estopped, by the recitals in the bonds, to say that the change, by the original company, of its corporate name to that of the Northwestern Union Eailway Company, was not in pursu- ance of the statute governing such cases. . • �Plainly, therefore, the only question among those discussed by learned counsel for the city which need be considered, is whether the ��� �