Page:State v. Little Rock, Mississippi River and Texas Railway.pdf/20

720 in referring to the act of 1857, the legislature inadvertently supposed that it had been passed. Not only courts, but individuals, are bound to know the law, and cannot be heard to plead ignorance of it. The holder of the bonds can claim no indulgence on this score, and can take no advantage from the allegation, that he is a bona fide purchaser, without notice. He will be precluded from doing so on another ground, the want of legislative authority, in fact, in the town to issue the bonds in question.

Judge Dillon, in his work on corporations, paragraph 419, says: "Where the authority to act is solely conferred by statute, which is, in effect, the letter of attorney of the officer, all persons must, at their peril, see that the act of the agent on which he relies, is within the power under which the agent acts; and this salutary and sound doctrine seems to be recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States in its most recent judgments. Accordingly, the bonds issued in violation of an express statute, or Constitution, are void, though in the hands of innocent holders for value." And the same author, paragraph 426, says: "It may be remarked, in conclusion, that this general survey of the adjudications shows some difference of opinion (chiefly in cases involving the rights of innocent holders of negotiable municipal securities), respecting the evidence of the compliance with conditions, and as to what will estop the municipality from showing a non-compliance in fact with such conditions. Let, aside from these differences, the courts all agree that such a corporation may successfully defend against the bonds, in whosesoever hands they may be, if its officers or agents, who assumed to issue them, had no power to do so. The officers of such corporations possess no general power to bind them, and have no power except such as the legislature confers. If the statute authorizes such a corporation to issue its bonds only when the measure is sanctioned by a majority of the voters, bonds