Municipal corporation

“ A municipal corporation may act through its mayor, though its common council, or its legislative department by whatever name called, its superintendent of streets, commissioner of highways, or board of public works, provided the act is within the province committed to its charge. Nor can it in principle be of the slightest consequence by what means these several officers are placed in their position,-whether they are elected by the people of the municipality, or appointed by the President or a governor. The people are the recognized source of all authority, state and municipal ”

“ McClung is imbued with the idea that a municipal corporation is, in its last analysis, simply a business corporation in which each taxpayer is a stockholder, the aldermen its directors and the mayor its business manager. ”

“ It is true that the cases to which we have referred involved in the main the construction of legislative enactments. But the principles they announce apply with full force to ordinances and contracts by municipal corporations in respect of matters that concern the public. The authorities are all agreed that a municipal corporation, when exerting its functions for the general mere implication. If, by contract or otherwise mere implication. ”

“ We are of opinion that no principle of law or of fair dealing is violated by holding a municipal corporation to a contract thus made within its lawful powers and by its lawfully constituted authority. ”

“ It is a doctrine not to be tolerated in this country, that a municipal corporation, without any general laws either of the city or of the State, within which a given structure can be shown to be a nuisance, can, by its mere declaration that it is one, subject it to removal by any person supposed to be aggrieved, or even by the city itself. ”

“ Municipal corporations undoubtedly are invested with certain powers, which, from their nature, are discretionary, such as the power to adopt regulations or bylaws for the management of their own affairs, or for the preservation of the public health, or to pass ordinances prescribing and regulating the duties of policemen and firemen, and for many other useful and important objects within the scope of their charters. ”

“ If the power or authority of a county conflicts with the power and authority of a municipal corporation, the power and authority exercised by a municipal corporation shall prevail within its jurisdiction. ”

“ Clark, 103 U.S. 259, and numerous Illinois cases there cited. What may be made a corporate purpose is not always easy to decide, but it has never been supposed that if legislative authority had not been granted to a municipal corporation to do a particular thing, that thing could be a purpose of that corporation.
Municipal corporations are created to aid the state government in the regulation and administration of local affairs. They have only such powers of government as are expressly granted them, or such as are necessary to carry into effect those that are granted. ”

“ And in answering the further contention that the City, 'being a municipal corporation created by the state, may not defy the laws of its creator' (id., 43 Wash.2d at page 491, 262 P.2d at page 227) , the court said: 'The Federal Power Act defines the term municipal corporation and authorizes the power commission to issue a license to such an entity. Appellant has complied with the state law with respect to the right of a municipality to engage in the business of developing, transmitting and distributing power. ”

“ There is no authority for holding that a mere administrative officer of a municipal corporation, simply because of the absence of a statutory inhibition, has the power, without the consent of the corporation speaking through its municipal legislative body, to bind the corporation by a common-law submission. ”

“ Money may be borrowed by a county to aid in the erection of public buildings, and it is well settled law that a municipal corporation, in exercising such an authority, may issue its bonds as the means of accomplishing the object. ”

“ One of the grants of power relied on is, that the city is made a corporation with power to contract and be contracted with, and generally with 'all the rights, franchises, capacities, and powers appertaining to municipal corporations.' In a community in which it is against public policy, as well as express law, for any person or body corporate to issue small bills to circulate as currency, it is certainly not one of the implied powers of a municipal corporation to issue such bills. ”

“ TERMINATION OF LEGAL STATUS OF SEAT OF GOVERNMENT OF UNITED STATES AS MUNICIPAL CORPORATION. Notwithstanding section 2 of the Revised Statutes relating to the District of Columbia (sec. 1–102, D.C. Official Code) or any other provision of law codified in subchapter I of chapter 1 of the District of Columbia Official Code, effective upon the date of the admission of the State into the Union, the Capital (or any portion thereof) shall not serve as a government and shall not be a body corporate for municipal purposes. ”

“ All proper municipal functions should be exercised by the municipality itself, and not delegated to others. We favour municipal ownership and municipal control of all municipal franchises. We oppose the granting of any public franchise in perpetuity. We oppose the granting or extending of any such franchise, or the bestowal of any new privilege upon a corporation holding such franchise, without adequate compensation. ”

“ The source from which the District obtains the means for maintaining public highways in the city is of no consequence so long as congress has made it, and permits it to remain, a mere municipal corporation, with such functions as pertain to municipal corporations proper. ”

“ The private corporation whatever its public duties is organized for private ends and may be presumed to intend to make whatever profit the business will allow. The municipal corporation is allowed to go into the business only on the theory that thereby the public welfare will be subserved. ”

“ Where they go they animate the sources of prosperity, and minister to the growth of the cities and towns within the sphere of their influence. Unless prohibited from doing so a municipal corporation has the same power to aid in their construction as to procure water for its water-works, coal for its gas-works, or gravel for its streets from beyond its territorial limits. ”

“ The properly constituted authorities of a municipal corporation, as well as the managers of any other corporate body, may bind the corporation by acts in contravention of their plain duty, and even in direct violation of law, whenever they have any power to act at all in the premises. ”

“ On October 10, 1911, this section of the Constitution was amended by the substitution of the following provision:
'Sec. 19. Any municipal corporation may establish and operate public works for supplying its inhabitants with light, water, power, heat, transportation, telephone service, or other means of communication. Such works may be acquired by original construction or by the purchase of existing works, including their franchises, or both. ”

“ Certain powers are also incidental to corporations, and will be possessed unless expressly or by implication prohibited. Of these an English writer has said: 'A municipal corporation has at common law few powers beyond those of electing, governing, and removing its members, and regulating its franchises and property. ”

“ Municipal corporations have no right to become stockholders in private corporations; acts of the legislature pretending to confer such authority are void; the officers who control and administer the municipal government are the mere agents of [Pg 211] the municipality, and can only act within the scope of the powers conferred upon them by the charter of the municipality they represent. ”

“ If the city became populous, the lots would be sold and built upon, and in the lapse of one or two generations, at most, the title of the original proprietors might well be presumed to be extinguished by sales or otherwise; so that the interest of themselves or their heirs in the streets and reservations would not be distinguishable from that of other citizens. They must also have contemplated that a municipal corporation must soon be created to manage the concerns, and police, and public interests of the city ”

“ The only alternative to such a general scheme of municipal policy in relation to public service corporations would be one of municipal operation as well as municipal ownership; and municipal operation unquestionably has certain theoretical advantages. When a corporation enjoys a tenancy for a stated term only, there is always a danger that it will seek temporarily larger profits by economizing on the quality of its service. It has not the same interest in building up a permanently profitable business that it would in case it were owner as well as operator. ”

“ We think the following principles have been established by them and have become settled doctrines of this court, to be acted upon wherever they are applicable. Municipal corporations are political subdivisions of the state, created as convenient agencies for exercising such of the governmental powers of the state as may be intrusted to them. For the purpose of executing these powers properly and efficiently they usually are given the power to acquire, hold, and manage personal and real property. ”

“ It is conceded that private corporations are included. On what ground, then, can municipal corporations be excluded? Not on the ground that they are not 'persons,' for that would exclude private corporations. ”

“ If the legislature had placed great restrictions upon its capacity as a railroad corporation, it might plausibly be objected that the purpose of a municipal subscription to its stock would be so far thwarted. Such purpose is to promote the settlement and increase the business and enhance the value of the property of the municipality and of its citizens by furnishing the means of passage to all wishing to come or to go, and providing a means of bringing in the produce of other regions and of furnishing a market for its own. ”

“ It is usual in this contry for the legislature to confer upon municipal corporations very extensive powers in respect to streets and public ways within their limits, and the uses to which they may be appropriated. ”