Opinion
Decided December, 1876.
An appropriation in aid of the construction of a railroad may be made by city councils without a popular vote, and may be limited to a part of the road.
BILL IN EQUITY (reported in 56 N.H. 514), brought by tax-payers of the city of Keene, for an injunction to prevent the execution of a vote of the city councils appropriating money to aid in the construction of that part of the Manchester and Keene Railroad which shall be laid out between Greenfield and Keene. The plaintiffs contended that the appropriation was invalid because it was not made or approved by a two-thirds vote of the legal voters of the city, and because it was limited to a part of the road.
Sargent Chase and Hardy, for the plaintiffs.
Lane and Faulkner, for the defendants.
Any town may, by a two-thirds vote, appropriate money to aid in the construction of a railroad; all provisions of statutes relating to towns, apply to cities; the administration of all the fiscal, prudential, and municipal affairs of any city, and the government thereof, is vested in the city councils; and all the powers vested by law in towns, or in the inhabitants thereof, are exercised by the city councils. Gen. St., c. 34, ss. 4, 16; c. 40, ss. 2, 3; c. 44, s. 1. Under these statutes the city councils of Keene were authorized, without a popular vote, to make the appropriation, and it was not rendered invalid by the stipulation limiting it to that part of the road nearest to Keene.
Bill dismissed.