State of Arkansas vs. Little Rock, Mississippi River and Texas R'y Co.
A legislative enactment must be complete in all its parts. It cannot take effect for one purpose, and not for another.
3. : Journals of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Effect of as evidence that an act was not passed in the manner required by the Constitution, discussed, but nothing decided.
4. ESTOPPEL:
There can arise no estoppel to deny the existence of a law.
5. AMENDMENT:
A void enactment cannot be validated by subsequent amendments.
APPEAL from Pulaski Circuit Court.
Hon. J. W. MARTIN, Circuit Judge.
Henderson, Attorney General, for the State.
C. W. Huntington, for appellee.
B. C. Brown, for bondholders.
WALKER, J.:
This is an action of assumpsit, commenced in Pulaski Circuit Court, and decided at its May term, 1877, upon the following agreed statement of facts:
"The Little Rock, Pine Bluff and New Orleans Railroad Company was duly incorporated under an act of the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas, approved July 23, 1868, entitled 'An act to provide for a general system of railroad incorporation.'"
On the 10th day of March, 1869, the Little Rock, Pine Bluff and New Orleans Railroad Company, by its president, S. W. Mallory, addressed a communication to the Board of Railroad Commissioners for the State of Arkansas, the portions of which, material to this suit, are in the words and figures following, viz.:
