In considering the terms of this ordinance and what it undertook to accomplish on its face, we are to bear in mind that public grants of this character are not to be extended by implication, and that all that is granted must be found in the plain terms of the act. This principle has been so frequently and recently announced in this court that it is unnecessary to cite the cases which have established it. Recognizing this principle, it must also be remembered, that grants of the character of the one under consideration here, when embodying the terms of a contract, are protected by the Federal Constitution from impairment by subsequent state legislation, and notwithstanding the principle of strict construction, whatever is plainly granted cannot be taken from the parties entitled thereto by such legislative enactments. Statutes and ordinances of this character are not to be extended by construction, nor should they be deprived of their meaning, if it is plainly and clearly expressed.

Examining this ordinance in the light of these principles, there is no ambiguity in section VIII, which gives to the city the right to regulate the fares to be charged, provided the same are not reduced below five cents for each passenger over any one continuous line, to be designated by the city, of not more than three miles in length. By § I of the same ordinance the right and privilege of constructing and operating a railway line subject to the terms, conditions and forfeitures named in the ordinance is granted to the street railway company "during the term of its charter."

What did this mean? The company had undertaken to organize, and filed its certificate of incorporation—which is its charter under the laws of Minnesota-and had therein stated its term of existence to be for fifty years from the first day of July, 1873. There was a positive requirement of the law that this period of duration should be stated in the certificate filed for the purpose of procuring incorporation, and it was there found, and was duly filed, recorded and published as required by law.

It is unreasonable to suppose that the city and the company at that time entered into any inquiry or controversy as to whether the company could lawfully incorporate for more than thirty years. The charter referred to in the ordinance could not have been anything else than the certificate of incorporation required by law. Of this the city was bound to take notice, and when it granted the privileges "during the term of the charter," it could have meant nothing less than during the period named in the charter. As was declared by the Supreme Court of Minnesota in City of Duluth v. Duluth Gas and Water Company, 45 Minnesota, 210, 214, a case involving the extent of rights conferred upon a water company by a city ordinance, "The council must be held, when dealing with defendant, to know its character, its purposes, and powers, as disclosed by its articles of incorporation."

We come now to the terms of the ratifying act of March 4, 1879. Laws of Minn., 1879, p. 410, c. 299. This act is as follows:

"An act to confirm the grant of the city of Minneapolis to the Minneapolis Street Railway Company.

"Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota: "SEC. I. That whereas, the city of Minneapolis did, by an ordinance entitled 'An ordinance authorizing and regulating street railways in the city of Minneapolis,' passed by the city council of said city on the ninth (9th) day of July, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five (1875), and approved by the mayor of said city on the seventeenth (17th) day of July, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five (1875), and by an ordinance passed July third (3d), one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight (1878), and amended July eighth (8th), one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight (1878), and approved July tenth (10th), one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight (1878), grant to the Minneapolis Street Railway Company the right to construct and maintain a street railway through the streets of

said city, with certain rights and privileges in said ordinance particularly set forth. Now the said right to construct and maintain said street railway through the streets of said city, with the rights and privileges as set forth and qualified in said ordinance, is hereby legalized and granted to said company.

"SEC. 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage."

The ordinances of July, 1878, referred to in the ratifying act, concerned certain streets in the city of Minneapolis, and are not important to be considered in this connection.

It has not been suggested in the elaborate briefs presented by the learned counsel for the city, that the state legislature at that time had not the constitutional right to pass this ratifying act.

In Green v. Knife Falls Boom Corporation, 35 Minnesota, 155, the Supreme Court of Minnesota sustained a special law conferring new, and independent franchises, and enlarged powers upon the boom company, a corporation organized under Title II, and, originally not having the power of eminent domain, nor to take tolls, nor to obstruct the navigable portions of the St. Louis River.

By the special act the corporation was given power over the navigation and use of the river as respects the passage of logs, the power to exercise the right of eminent domain was conferred upon it, the right to charge toll upon all logs passed through their works, and to receive and take entire charge and control of timber which might run or be driven through the same, and to boom, scale and deliver such timber, as provided in the act, with a lien upon all such logs, which might be enforced by sale.

It was held that, by a long course of legislation and practical construction, such legislation was justified and ought not to be disturbed. The constitutional amendment of 1881, it was said, made such legislation impossible thereafter, because the legislature is therein prohibited from enacting any special,

Opinion of the Court.

215 U.S.

For grant

or private laws, in the following cases: ing corporate powers, or privileges, except to cities." In this case the court referred to Ames v. Lake Superior & Miss. R. R. Co., 21 Minnesota, 241, in which it seems to be held that under the former constitution, prohibiting the formation of corporations, except for municipal purposes, under special acts, such special acts stopping short of creating new corporations, might be passed by the legislature. See opinion upon rehearing, pages 284, 285.

Looking to the terms of the act of March 4, 1879, we find that the right to construct and maintain the street railway upon the streets of the city, with the rights and privileges as set forth and qualified in the ordinance, is "legalized and granted to said company." Language could scarcely be plainer, and, if we are correct in construing the ordinance, as granting the right and privilege of maintaining railways in the streets of Minneapolis, for the charter term of fifty years, upon the terms therein mentioned, a vital part of which concerns the right of the company to charge a certain fare for passengers carried, it follows that this privilege, with the others, was vested in the company by the legislature of the State of Minnesota.

We may note in this connection that the mere fact that a contract may extend beyond the term of the life of a corporation does not destroy it. This principle was recognized by this court in Detroit v. Detroit Citizens' Street Railway Co., 184 U. S. 368, in which it was held that a city ordinance granting the use of the streets of the city for a term which would extend the grant for sixteen years beyond the life of the corporation did not invalidate it. It was held that the limitation upon the corporate life of the company did not prevent it from taking franchises, or other property, the title to which would not expire with the corporation itself; and further, that at the end of its corporate life, if such property were still in existence, it would be an asset divisible among the shareholders after the payment of debts, or it might, if

assignable, be transferred to any other person, or company, competent to hold it.

The ratifying act, being within the power of the legislature, vested this contract right in the company, notwithstanding the want of power in the city to make it at the time it was entered into. Nash v. Lowry, 37 Minnesota, 261.

The principle is well stated by Morawetz in his work on Corporations, vol. 1, § 319, 2d ed.:

"Where the legislature, by statute, recognizes and acquiesces in the existence of a corporation which was formed by the corporators without the proper authority, it thereby invests the association with the right of continuing to act in a corporate capacity for the purposes and in the manner that it publicly assumed to act. And if rights or franchises are conferred upon an association claiming to be incorporated, it thereby becomes authorized to exercise the powers expressly conferred, and such others as the legislature appears to have imputed to it."

See as to effect of validating acts, Los Angeles v. Los Angeles City Water Co., 177 U. S. 558; Blair v. Chicago, 201 U. S. 400, 454.

But, it is contended, if a contract is found to exist, its rights were lost by virtue of the ordinance of September 19, 1890, authorizing the street railway company to change its mode of operation from the use of horse power to electricity. It is insisted that by the acceptance of the electrical power ordinance the company abandoned any rights it had under the ordinance of 1875 and the ratifying act of 1879; and, furthermore, that by the express terms of the ordinance of September 19, 1890, the right to control the future rates of fare was thereby vested in the city to an extent unlimited, except by constitutional inhibitions against confiscatory legislation.

As to the termination of the rights of the company by reason of the substitution of electricity for horse power, is there such abandonment of the rights originally secured that they no longer exist? It is contended that the original ordinance