Legal and valid.

Provided.

March, eighteen hundred sixty-nine (1869), in which a married man has conveyed real property directly to his wife shall be and the same are hereby declared to be legal and valid, and the records of all such conveyances heretofore actually recorded in the office of the proper county shall be in all respects valid and legal, and such conveyances and records thereof shall have the same force and effect in all respects for the purpose of notice, evidence or otherwise as are or may be provided by law in regard to conveyances in other cases. Provided, that the provisions of this act shall not apply to any action or proceeding now pending in any of the courts of this state; providing, further, that this act shall not be construed to extend to any case where vested rights in any such property have been acquired by third parties.

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

Approved March 5, 1897.

S. F. No. 125.

Act for build

ing bridges

lands,

CHAPTER 36.

An act to amend sections five and six (5 and 6), title and draining Y, chapter two hundred and seventy-one (271), of the general laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-nine(1889), being an act entitled "An act to appropriate money to aid in building bridges and draining lands in certain counties of this state."

amended.

$200 appropriated for bridge in McLeod county.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Minnesota:

SECTION 1. That section five (5), title Y, chapter two hundred and seventy-one (271), of the general laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-nine (1889), be and the same is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

Sec. 5. The sum of two hundred dollars ($200) is hereby appropriated out of any money in the state treasury belonging to the internal improvement fund, or out of the first money coming into the said treasury for said fund, not otherwise appropriated, for the purpose of building a good and substantial bridge across Buffalo Creek, in section fifteen (15), township one hundred and fifteen (115), range twenty-seven (27), county of McLeod, state of Minnesota, at the point where the wagon road crosses said creek, said bridge when constructed to be free from toll.

SEC. 2. That section six (6), title Y, chapter two hundred and seventy-one (271) of the general laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-nine (1889), be and the same is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

By county

ers.

Sec. 6. Said bridge shall be built under the direction of the county commissioners, and no part of the money commissionso appropriated shall be paid out of the state treasury until said bridge is completed and ready for travel. SEC. 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Approved March 5, 1897.

CHAPTER 37.

S. F. No. 302.

fund for cities

having be

tween 15,000 and 50,000

An act to create in cities of the State of Minnesota Improvement having no more than fifty thousand and not less than fifteen thousand inhabitants, a local improvement fund, and to empower such cities to issue their bonds and certificates of indebtedness for certain purposes therein mentioned.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Minnesota:

population.

vote.

SECTION 1. That each city in the state of Minnesota Authority by having no more than fifty (thousand) and not less than majority fifteen thousand inhabitants, is hereby authorized and empowered by a vote of a majority of the members of its city council to issue, in addition to all bonds heretofore issued by such city, within five years from the date of the passage of this act, its bonds in an amount to be determined by said city council not exceeding in the ag- Bonds not gregate forty thousand (40,000) dollars, for the pur- $40,000 for pose of constructing sewers or of constructing a sewer- sewage age system or systems in such city, and for the purpose of purchasing and placing machinery necessary in the operation of such system or systems.

exceeding

system,

SEC. 2. Said bonds shall be for the principal sums of Bonds of one thousand dollars ($1,000) each and shall be pay- $1,000 each. able at such times and at such place as the city council may designate.

of bonds.

Said bonds shall be made payable to bearer, or to the Description order of the person or corporation to whom they may be delivered, as the city council may deem best, shall draw interest payable semi-annually at such place as the city council may determine, at a rate not exceeding five (5) per cent per annum, to be represented by coupons attached to said bonds. Said bonds shall be

Negotiation of bonds.

Creation of a "local improvement fund."

Taxes may be levied.

Contracts.

signed by the mayor and attested by the recorder or clerk of such city, and the corporate seal of such city shall be imprinted upon said bonds, and said coupons shall be signed by said recorder.

SEC. 3. The city council of such city shall have authority to negotiate the sale of said bonds in such manner as in its judgment shall best subserve the interests of said city, but it shall not negotiate a sale, nor sell said bonds or any of them at less than their par value and accrued interest, nor until after a notice of such sale shall have been published at least once in each week for three successive weeks in the official paper of such city, and neither the said bonds nor the proceeds from the sale thereof shall be used for any other purpose than that hereinbefore specified, and such purpose shall be distinctly stated in the resolution or ordinance authorizing their issue.

SEC. 4. There is hereby created in each of such cities, for the purpose of facilitating the carrying out of contracts for the making of local improvements, a fund to be known and designated as the "local improvement fund," to be constituted and preserved and the moneys therein to be used as hereinafter designated.

The city council of such city may by resolution in writing approved by the mayor, within ninety days after the passage of this act, transfer from the public improvement fund of such city, if there be such a fund, to said local improvement fund, such amount or amounts as it may deem necessary and advisable for the purpose hereinafter designated.

Said council shall have power, from year to year, to include in its estimate of expenses for the levies of taxes such amount or amounts for such fund as it may deem necessary, subject, however, to all the limitations for the levy of taxes in the charter of such city contained. All moneys which may be hereafter collected upon local improvements made or hereafter to be made and to be paid for by special assessment shall be paid into such fund. All moneys so transferred, collected and paid shall constitute such fund and shall be known as the local improvement fund of such city; such fund shall be kept inviolate, and no moneys shall be paid out of such fund for any other purpose whatsoever by the city treasurer than as hereinafter designated.

All contracts heretofore or to be hereafter made for local improvements, which are to be paid for in whole by special assessments, and that portion of all contracts which are to be paid for in part by special assessments, under the provisions of the charter of such city, and no other, shall be paid for out of said local improvement fund.

If moneys intificates of

sufficient cer

indebtedness. may be

If, at any time, it shall be found that the moneys in said fund shall not be sufficient to pay all amounts due and earned on any such contracts as the work thereunder progresses, then and in such event such city is issued. hereby authorized and empowered to issue from time to time its certificates of indebtedness, in anticipation of the collection of the special assessments for such contracts, in such amount or amounts as may be deemed necessary by its council to pay for such contract or contracts, and to negotiate and sell such certificates upon the best terms for said city, subject, however, to all the conditions in this act contained.

tion.

The issue of such certificates shall first be authorized By resoluby a resolution in writing passed by an affirmative vote of a majority of all the members of the council and approved by the mayor of such city.

If said mayor shall decline to approve such resolu- If mayor disapproves tion within five days after its transmission to him, then two-thirds the same may be passed by said council, notwithstanding his objections thereto, by a two-thirds vote of all its members, and shall then have the same force and effect as if approved by the mayor.

Such resolution shall designate the number of such certificates so to be issued; the principal sum of each certificate; the time or times when payable, and the purpose for which the money realized thereon is to

be paid. Such certificates shall be numbered consecutively, com- Certificates. mencing with number one (1), without regard to the time of issue; shall be made payable to bearer or to the order of the person or corporation to whom the same may be delivered, as the city council may designate; shall draw interest at a rate not exceeding six (6) per cent per annum; shall be payable at the city treasury of such city issuing the same, not later than one year from the date of issue; shall be payable out of the local improvement fund and no other of such city; shall be signed by the mayor and attested by the recorder or clerk of such city, and shall have imprinted thereon the corporate seal of such city.

The clerk or recorder and the city treasurer of said city shall each keep an accurate record of all certificates so issued, in a book to be kept for that purpose.

No certificate shall be sold for less than par value and accrued interest.

Any and all proceeds realized from the sale of such certificates shall be turned into the local improvement fund and no other of such city, and neither the said certificates nor the proceeds from the sale thereof, nor any part or portion thereof, shall be used forordevoted

Cancellation of certificates.

Penalty,

to any purpose other than that designated in the resolution authorizing their issue; the city recorder and the city treasurer of such city shall keep an accurate account of such fund showing in detail all moneys received for and turned into said fund and all expenditures from the same.

No irregularity or informality in the letting of any contract paid for out of the proceeds of such certificates, or in the making of any special assessment in anticipation of which such certificates were issued, shall affect the liability of such city to redeem the same, but the faith and credit of such city issuing the same is hereby irrevocably pledged for the redemption of the certificates so issued.

The city treasurer shall immediately after any such certificate shall have been redeemed by such city, cancel the same by a writing upon the face thereof showing date of redemption and the amount and to whom paid, and shall affix his signature thereto; and shall within twenty-four hours thereafter transmit such certificate so cancelled to the city recorder and take his receipt therefor, who shall immediately make an entry of such redemption and cancellation in his certificate register, and enter such payment in the said fund account.

SEC. 5. If the mayor, clerk or recorder, or city treasurer of any such city shall at any time be guilty of any willful act, failure or neglect, the design or necessary effect whereof shall be to violate or evade any provision of section 4 of this act, relating to the issuing and sale of certificates of indebtedness of such city or to the maintenance of the local improvement fund in such city, or to divert any moneys from such fund to purposes for which such moneys cannot legally and appropriately be used under the provisions of this act, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable to a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, or to imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months or to both such fine and imprisonment; and no vote or resolution or ordinance of the city council, not expressly or by necessary implication authorized by this act, shall be held a justification of such act, failure or neglect.

SEC. 6. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Approved March 8, 1897.