David Davis

“ To declare that a court 'may, for the purpose of information,' submit its proposed action to the people, is not the best nor the usual way of instructing the court not to do the thing proposed unless the taxpayers approved it. ”

“ In many cases retroactive laws, although intended to effect a good purpose, have features of injustice about them. This is not that case. The bonds here were issued under a supposed authority, and no one interposed an objection. The taxpayers rested until the mischief was done and then tried to get relief. It is certainly not unjust to them that the legislature should say, 'you must pay for an expenditure which you saw incurred and could have prevented, but did not.' If the County Court had acted wholly outside of its duties the aspect of the case might have been different. ”

“ The acts of the General Assembly of Missouri of 1865 and 1866 gave authority to the County Courts to borrow money and issue bonds for road purposes where 'the amount of proposed expenditure had been submitted to a vote of the people.' The County Court of Franklin County construed the provision on the subject of this submission as discretionary and not mandatory. Although this construction was wrong, the language used by the legislature gave color to it. ”