In the record there was a paper entitled 'Agreement of Facts,' signed by the counsel for the parties. By this paper it was admitted that the contract between the city of Mobile and the Mobile & Great Northern Railroad Company, recited in the margin of the bonds, had been made, and the ordinance therein referred to had been passed, and that the plaintiff became the legal holder of the bonds and coupons, for value, before maturity, by the assignment of the railroad company. It was further agreed that two acts were passed by the legislature of Alabama on the eleventh day of February, A. D. 1879, one entitled 'An act to vacate and annul the charter and dissolve the corporation of the city of Mobile, and to provide for the application of the assets thereof in discharge of the debts of said corporation;' and the other, 'An act to incorporate the port of Mobile, and to provide for the government thereof.' Said acts were referred to, and made part of the agreement. It was further agreed that all the territory now embraced in the port of Mobile was formerly embraced in the city of Mobile; that the territorial extent of the city of Mobile was about 17 square miles, and of the port of Mobile about eight square miles; that the port of Mobile covered all the thickly-settled and closely-built portion of the city of Mobile; that the taxable property within the latter, according to the last assessment made by it prior to the passage of the acts of February 11, 1879, was $16,255,093; and that all of said taxable property was embraced within the limits of the port of Mobile, except about $900,000, and that about fourteen-fifteenths of the resident inhabitants of the city of Mobile were resident inhabitants of the port of Mobile. It was further admitted that the total indebtedness of the city of Mobile, on February 11, 1879, was about $2,500,000, and that it had nominal assets of $775,000, which were largely reduced for the general creditor by prior liens and exemption from levy by execution.
It appeared by the record that the case was submitted to the jury on June 29, 1880, which, on that day, returned a general verdict for the plaintiff, and assessed his damages at $7,308.80, upon which the court at once rendered judgment in his favor. A writ of error sued out by the port of Mobile brings this judgment under review.
The only question raised upon the trial was whether, as matter of law, upon the statutes of the state of Alabama, the port of Mobile was the legal successor of the city of Mobile, and bound for the payment of the bonds and coupons sued on. The validity of the judgment in the case of The Port of Mobile, Plaintiff in Error v. Watson, will therefore depend upon the answer to that question.
The plaintiff having obtained his judgment against the port of Mobile, sued out, May 27, 1881, execution thereon, which, on the same day, was returned by the marshal, 'No property found.' Afterwards, on the nineteenth day of January, 1882, he filed in the circuit court his petition, in which he prayed for the writ of mandamus, and charged that the police board of the port of Mobile had the right, and it was their duty, to assess and levy a special tax for the satisfaction of his judgment. He therefore prayed for the writ to compel the port of Mobile, and its officers charged with the levying and collection of taxes, to assess, levy, and collect a special tax for the payment of his judgment.