As both parties claim an estoppel by virtue of the decree in the equity suit between the parties to this suit, it only becomes necessary to consider the effect of this decree. It contains two separate and distinct findings: First. So far as the nine bonds held by the German Savings Bank, and issued under the act of November 6, 1849, were concerned, the decree pronounced them to be void; and as to them the injunction was made perpetual. From this part of the decree the bank appealed to this court, by which the decree was affirmed. 128 U.S. 526, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 159. Second. As to the eighteen bonds issued under the act of 1861, and the coupons cut from two other bonds issued under the same act, aslo held by the German Savings Bank, and purporting on their face to be of the series issued under the charter of said Belleville & Eldorado Railroad Company, approved February 22, 1861, the decree adjudged in favor of the defendant bank, and that the said several bonds, and the coupons thereof, were legal and valid obligations against the county of Franklin; and as to this series the injunction was dissolved and the complainant's bill dismissed. No appeal was taken from this part of the decree by the county of Franklin, but it now insists that these bonds are void for the same reasons that the bonds issued under the act of November 6, 1849, were adjudged to be void, namely, because both series were issued pursuant to the same vote, and subject to the same conditions.
The record of the equity suit does not show clearly the ground upon which the court based its distinction between the two classes of bonds; nor is it necessary to be ascertained here. It is sufficient for the purposes of this suit to know that the validity of these bonds was directly put in issue by the pleadings, and determined adversely to the county. The plaintiff alleged in its bill that these bonds were invalid by reason of the non-compliance of the road with certain conditions precedent upon which they were issued, setting up with great particularity all the proceedings prior to the issue of the bonds; reciting the laws under which they were claimed to have been authorized; and demanding their cancellation and surrender upon the ground that the acts of the county officers were unauthorized and void, and the laws under which they were issued unconstitutional. The entire question of their validity was presented and tried upon the merits, and the court could not have dismissed the bill as to these bonds without holding that they were valid, and the further finding that the several bonds and coupons thereof 'are valid and legal obligations' added nothing to the force of the decree dismissing the bill.