ILLINOIS. 



381 



Several cases regarding the validity of city 

 and town bonds and the enforcement of judg- 

 ments against municipal corporations came up 

 in the courts during the year. Judge Drum- 

 mond, of the United States Circuit Court, de- 

 cided that each of the several series of bonds 

 of the city of Springfield were valid, the bonds 

 amounting altogether to $856,646. In the case 

 of George B. Ellery vs. the Town of Hickory, 

 it was pleaded by ex-Governor Palmer, coun- 

 sel for the defendant, that certain railroad- 

 construction bonds issued by the town were 

 invalid because the Governor had signed the 

 charter of the railroad after the adjournment 

 of the Legislature. 



Bonds issued to the Indianapolis, Blooming- 

 ton and Western Railroad by Blue Ridge, 

 Urbana, and other townships of Champaign 

 County, were pronounced void by the United 

 States Supreme Court. In the case of the 

 Niantic Savings Bank et al. vs. the Town of 

 Douglas et al. on appeal, the decision of the 

 Effingham Circuit Court was reversed by the 

 State Supreme Court. The lower Court had 

 directed that certain bonds issued in aid of 

 railroad construction should be canceled on 

 the ground of fraud, because certain of them 

 were owned by the bank and D. T. Littler. The 

 Supreme Court ruled that as the bonds were 

 regularly registered and issued, and had passed 

 into the hands of innocent purchasers, and as 

 the town had been benefited by the sale, it 

 was debarred from avoiding the payment of 

 the bonds on technical grounds, and could not 

 be assisted by a court of equity to accomplish 

 an inequitable act. Bonds of the town of Lin- 

 coln issued to the Havana, Mason City and 

 Eastern Railroad, were decided legal and bind- 

 ing by the United States Supreme Court, and a 

 mandamus issued to compel the town officers 

 to levy a tax for their payment. Citizens of 

 the town, being of the view that the bonds 

 were invalid under the decisions of the State 

 courts, applied for and obtained an injunction 

 restraining the officers from levying and col- 

 lecting the tax before the sitting of the Court. 

 The bondholders thereupon procured a writ 

 from the United States Court, citing certain 

 citizens before it to show cause why they 

 should not be held guilty of contempt of Court. 

 The city of Quincy was incorporated in 1840, 

 under a special charter, and an amendment was 

 adopted in 1863 which limited the tax-levy to 

 $1.03 on $100. In 1878 a tax was assessed 

 under the general revenue law which amount- 

 ed to 1 cent on the dollar. On a bill of 

 equity filed by Frederick G. Jansen and others 

 against the county collector, praying for an 

 injunction forbidding the collection of the ex- 

 cess, which was levied for the payment of in- 

 terest on city bonds, it was decided by the 

 Supreme Court on appeal that the city has no 

 right to exceed the limitation in its charter; 

 so that it must take advantage of the general 

 incorporation act and change its charter if it 

 requires to levy higher taxes, in order to meet 



its liabilities and pay its expenses. A manda- 

 mus was issued by Judge Treat, in another 

 case, brought by the holders of Mississippi and 

 Missouri Air-Line Railroad bonds, ordering the 

 authorities of the city to levy and collect taxes 

 to pay overdue coupons on these bonds ; and 

 the plea of the limitation of the charter was 

 not sustained in this case. 



A batch of interesting trespass suits, known 

 as the Levi cases, came up in the State Circuit 

 Court at Springfield, before Judge Zane. Tho 

 defendants were a United States marshal and 

 persons who accompanied him at his request, 

 and the plaintiffs were L. S. Ensel, Charles Sea- 

 man, and Samuel Levi, whose premises were 

 entered, searched, and property therein was 

 seized by defendants in virtue of a writ in 

 bankruptcy delivered to Edward R. Coe, Unit- 

 ed States Marshal, issued by the United States 

 Bankrupt Court upon the affidavit of G. "W. 

 Plummer, one of the defendants, attorney for 

 Field, Leiter & Co., and other creditors of 

 Samuel Levi, an adjudged bankrupt, averring 

 upon belief that goods of said bankrupt had 

 been fraudulently removed and were secreted 

 upon the premises of Ensel and Seaman, and 

 of another warrant authorizing the marshal to 

 take possession of the estate of Samuel Levi. 

 The close of the plaintiff Ensel, which was en- 

 tered by the United States officer and Plum- 

 mer, was a store. The Court held that such 

 forcible entrance and seizure was in violation 

 of the fourth amendment to the United States 

 Constitution, requiring a warrant to particu- 

 larly describe " the place to be searched or the 

 persons or things to be seized." In this war- 

 rant the only description of the things to be 

 seized was "goods and property of Samuel 

 Levi." The warrant was not in the nature of 

 a search-warrant, as none can issue in civil 

 process. The second case was of the same na- 

 ture as the first, except that it was the dwell- 

 ing of Seaman which was entered, not a store- 

 house. The third case was that of a forcible 

 entry into the dwelling of Samuel Levi to take 

 possession of his property, real and personal, 

 as directed in the bankruptcy warrant. The 

 Court, giving to the doctrine of the inviolabil- 

 ity of a man's home its full force, laid down 

 the principle that no bankruptcy or other exe- 

 cution warrant authorizes a constable to force 

 his way into a person's dwelling-house when 

 the outer entrance is barred. 



The validity of the section of the revenue 

 law imposing one per cent, per month interest 

 on delinquent taxes was affirmed by Attorney- 

 General James K. Edsall in an opinion given 

 in answer to inquiries of Thomas B. Nesdlcs, 

 the Auditor of Public Accounts. He consid- 

 ers the one per cent, to be interest, as defined in 

 the act, and not in the nature of a penalty, 

 which could only be enforced by virtue of the 

 judgment of a court ; and that it is therefore 

 collectable by ministerial officers, such as tax- 

 collectors, and without judicial proceedings. 



The Republican State Convention assembled 



