Noah Haynes Swayne

“ Public buildings owned by the State, or any county, city, school district, or other civil corporation, and any other public property which is necessary and proper for carrying out the general purpose for which any such corporation is organized, are exempt from execution. ”

“ This duty carries with it investigation, reflection, and the exercise of judgment. It cannot be performed on our part, by blindly following in the footsteps of others and substituting their judgment for our own. ”

“ It is as much within the sphere of our power and duties to protect the contract from the former as from the latter, and we are no more concluded by one than the other. We cannot in any other way give effect to the contract of the parties as we understand it. This contract was entered into in 1854. The earliest of the adjudications to which we have referred was made in 1862. If the construction ultimately given to the statute had preceded the issuing of the bonds, and become the settled law of the State before that time, the case, as regards this point, would have presented a different aspect. ”

“ The property of a private citizen can in no case be levied upon to pay the debt of a civil corporation.' 'Sec. 3275. In case no property is found on which to levy, or which is not exempted by the last section, or if, after judgment, the creditor elect not to issue execution against such corporation, he is entitled to the amount of his judgment and costs in the ordinary evidences of indebtedness issued by that corporation ”