Show n lUSICIPL IXDEIIlEDXESS I THE leading facUof a case wherein in a municipal government of this Territory hag exceeded its legal power t borrow money have beeu laid before us and Uiey constitute UIY a warning to all ourotbcr municipal corporations A law of Congress prohibit any city government I this Territory from Incurring an indebtedness in-debtedness in I excess of four per tnt oUt taxable property The city in question lias involved itself iu debt tan nm unt equal to about s por cent of its taxable property According to informaUon gireu to W I bis not been definitely determined for what purpose all of the funds raised in excess of the legal limit were expended but one sum of money amounting to several sever-al thousand 1olan is known to have been borrowed from a certzjn bn brwe cru part by the City Council and to bavc been laid out for the purchase of certain property after the citys Jrgal limit of indebtedness had been reached and passed All this occurred curred under an aduilultntiou w bieb has lieeu superseded bj an election The new City Council hal passeii a resolution repudiating the excess of indebtedness and the question Is has I a right t do tiL and if s and I the resolution shall bo passed what recourse remains to the party who loaned to tile city the sum of ser thousand dollars abovo referred t01 The indebtedness incurred by the City Council iu excess of the limit fixed by caugresiional statute cannot can-not be collected out of the lIes money It was to protect the people from this very danger that the Ian was passed It Il i therefore perfectly per-fectly proper for the new Council to repudiate the obligations which wer Incur contrary to Ian Jn fact the new Council has no right to pay them and an Injunction Would lie to pro Ye ut them from doing E wee any taxpayer to take the matter ter Into the courts The remedy of the party who lent the the money referred to lies in an acton agiln < l the officers rwr onally They were guilty of malfeasance in office and are liable in I civil acUon for the consequences conse-quences I they filed bonds their bondsmen are also liable Every officer who alee Jn Incurring Uie unlawful Indebtedness and every j officer who voted for it is Individu ally liable and so arc his bondsmen if he gave n bou J But tile municipality is iu p a Ion of and is deriving benefit from the property purchased with the money unlawfully borrowed Can It coiitlnus to own it without in fact paj ing for It Without further iuvestlgaUon of the case and its circumstances than we have been I able to make 11 a of opinion that the rule that frajd late eery transaction into which it entew would appl to the purchase of that properti It > was bought with money obtained in violation of law and therefore the purchase anJ transfer are subject ta bain stale st-ale soul a court of equity see fit to s order Thu seller might be required to return the purelia e price or the CUr might order the property to be u ed to indemnify innocent in-nocent parties The whole matttr would be subject to the rule of equity ind the order of a court of competent jurisdiction The people however would have to be protected pro-tected for such was the purpose of Congress In rnacUng the law referred red to m We have no He that the excity officials who committed this violation viola-tion of law did s w ilfully or even 1 knowingly In all probability they were ignorant of the law of Con gres which they hive broken and did not know of the restriction it placed upon them in respsct to municipal indebtedness But public office re are supposed to inform themselves them-selves relrxtho to the laws which havel n established for the government gov-ernment of their official cclions and they are responsible personal to innocent pre who do business with them |