tive answer, unless section 955 of the Revised | Statutes of the United States is to be construed as absolutely prohibiting the revival in the Federal court of an action for personal injuries instituted in due time and which was removed from one of the courts of a state whose laws modified the common law so far as to authorize the revival, upon the death of either party, of a pending action of that character. We are of opinion that the above section is not to be so construed. In our judgment, a right given by the statute of a state to revive a pending action for personal injuries in the name of the personal representative of a deceased plaintiff is not lost upon the removal of the case into a Federal court. Section 955 of the Revised Statutes may reasonably be construed as not applying to an action brought in one of the courts of a state whose statutes permit a revivor in the event of the death of a party before final judgment. Whether a pending action may be revived upon the death of either party and proceed to judgment depends primarily upon the laws of the jurisdiction in which the action was commenced. If an action be brought in a Federal court, and is based upon some act of Congress, or arises under some rule of general law recognized in the courts of the Union, the question of revivor will depend upon the statutes of the United States relating to that subject. But if at the time an action is brought in a state court the statutes of that state allow a revivor of it on the death of the plaintiff before final judgment, even where the right to sue is lost when death occurs before any suit is brought-then we have a case not distinctly or necessarily covered by section 955. Suppose Hervey had died while the action was pending in the state court, and it had been revived in that court, nevertheless after such revival, if diverse citizenship existed, it could have been removed for trial into the Federal court and there proceeded to final judgment, notwithstanding section 955 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. If this be so, that section ought not to be [230]construed as embracing the present case. Nor ought it to be supposed that Congress intended that, in case of the removal of an action from a state court on the petition of the defendant prior to the death of the plaintiff, the Federal court should ignore the law of the state in reference to the revival of pending actions, and make the question of revivor depend upon the inquiry whether the cause of action would have survived if no suit had been brought. If Congress could legislate to that extent it has not done brought forward from the judiciary act of 1789 (1 Stat. at L. 92, chap, 20, § 34), and provides that "the laws of the several states, except where the Constitution, treaties, or statutes of the United States otherwise require or provide, shall be regarded as rules of decision in trials at common law, in the courts of the United States, in cases where they apply;" and also with section 914, providing that "the practice, pleadings, and forms and modes of proceeding in civil causes, other than equity and admiralty causes, in the circuit and district courts, shall conform, as near as may be, to the practice, pleadings, and forms and modes of proceeding existing at the time in like causes in the courts of record of the state within which such circuit or district courts are held, any rule of court to the contrary notwithstanding." They are in accord also with what was said in Martin v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. 151 U. S. 673, 692 [38: 311, 318], in which, after referring to Schreiber v. Sharpless, 110 U. S. 76, 80 [28: 65, 67], this court said: "In that case, the right in question being of an action for a penalty under a statute of the United States the question whether it survived was gov erned by the laws of the United States. But in the case at bar, the question whether the administrator has a right of action depends[231] upon the law of West Virginia, where the action was brought and the administrator appointed. Rev. Stat. § 721; Henshaw v. Miller, 17 How. 212 [15: 222]." It is scarcely necessary to say that the determination of the question of the right to revive this action in the name of Hervey's personal representative is not affected in any degree by the fact that the deceased received his injuries in the state of Indiana. The action for such injuries was transitory in its nature, and the jurisdiction of the Ohio court to take cognizance of it upon personal service or on the appearance of the defendant to the action cannot be doubted. Still less can it be doubted that the question of the revivor of actions brought in the courts of Ohio for personal injuries is governed by the laws of that state, rather than by the law of the state in which the injuries occurred. The question propounded to this court must be answered in the negative. It will be so certified to the Circuit Court of Appeals. CITY OF COVINGTON, Plff. in Err., v. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY. (See S. C. Reporter's ed. 231-243.) When statute exempting waterworks property of a city from taxes is not a contract -charter of municipal corporation, or law as to the use of its property, is not a contract, within the meaning of the national Constitution. 1. The statute of Kentucky providing that the waterworks property of the city of Covington "shall be and remain forever" exempt from | therein plainly expressed. 2. Neither the charter of a municipal corporation, nor any legislative act regulating the use of property held by it for governmental or public purposes, is a contract within the meaning of the national Constitution. [No. 152.] til the question of issuing them and the question of the location of the reservoir or reservoirs, whether above or below the city, should first be submitted to the qualified voters of the corporation at an election held for that purpose and approved by a majority of the votes cast. By section 31 of that act it was provided that "said reservoir or reservoirs, machinery, pipes, mains, and appurtenances, with the land upon which they are situated, shall be and remain, forever exempt from state, county, and city tax." Ky. Acts 1885-6, Submitted January 18, 1899. Decided Feb- chap. 897, p. 317. ruary 20, 1899. I N ERROR to the Court of Appeals of the State of Kentucky to review a judgment of that court affirming a judgment of the Campbell Circuit Court of that State in favor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the possession of certain lands on which the waterworks of defendant, the City of Covington, are situate, and sustaining the validity of the taxation of the waterworks property. Affirmed. "The facts are stated in the opinion. Messrs. William Goebel and W. S. Pryor for plaintiff in error. Messrs. W. S. Taylor, Attorney General of Kentucky, and Ramsey Washington for defendant in error. [232] *Mr Justice Harlan delivered the opin ion of the court: A subsequent act, approved February 15th, 1888, authorized the city, in execution of the provisions of the act of 1886, to issue and sell bonds to the additional amount of $400,000. Ky. Acts 1887-8, chap. 137, p. 221. The scheme outlined in these acts received the approval of the majority of the votes cast at an election held in the city, and thereafter bonds to the amount of $600,000 and $400,000 were issued in the name of the city and disposed of. The proceeds of the bonds were duly applied by the city in building water reservoirs, in constructing the requisite approaches, pipes, and mains, in acquiring the lands necessary for the reservoirs and for its approaches and connections, in erecting a pumping house and providing it with necessary machinery and appliances, and in buying land for a pumping house and the con-[234] nection thereof by pipes and mains with the reservoirs. The entire works upon their completion passed under the control of the city, which managed the same until March 19th, 1894, by the commissioners of waterworks, under the act of March 31st, 1879, chap. 121 (Ky. Acts 1879, p. 93); and since March 19th, 1894, they have been controlled under the act of that date, chap. 100, by a board, subject to such regulations as the city by ordinance might provide. Ky. Acts 1894, p. 278. By the latter act it was also provided that the net revenue derived from its waterworks by any city of the second class-to which class the city of Covington belongs-should be applied exclusively to the improvement or reconstruction of its streets and other public ways. The plaintiff in error, a municipal corporation of Kentucky, insists that by the final judgment of the court of appeals of that commonwealth sustaining the validity of certain taxation of its waterworks property it has been deprived of rights secured by that clause of the Constitution of the United States which prohibits any state from passing a law impairing the obligation of contracts. That is the only question which this court has jurisdiction to determine upon this writ of error. U. S. Rev. Stat. § 709. By an act of the general assembly of Kentucky approved May 1st, 1886, the city of Covington was authorized to build a water reservoir or reservoirs within or outside its corporate limits, either in the county of Kenton or in any county adjacent thereto, and acquire by purchase or condemnation in fee When the above act of May 1st, 1886, was [233]*simple the lands necessary for such reser- passed there was in force a general statute of voirs, and connect the same with the water-Kentucky, passed February 14th, 1856, which pipe system then existing in the city; to build a pumping house near or adjacent to the Ohio river, and to provide the same with all necessary machinery and appliances, together with such lands as might be neede for the pumping house, and for connecting it with said reservoir or reservoirs. § 21. The declared object of that legislation was that the city and its citizens might be provided with an ample supply of pure water for all purposes. To that end the city was authorized and empowered, by its board of trustees, to issue and sell bonds to an amount not exceeding $600,000, payable in not more than forty years after date, with interest at a rate not exceeding five per cent per annum, -such bonds not, however, to be issued un provided, as to all charters and acts of incorporation granted after that date, that “all charters and grants of or to corporations, or amendments thereof, and all other statutes, shall be subject to amendment or repeal at the will of the legislature, unless a contrary intent be therein plainly expressed: Provided, That whilst privileges and franchises so granted may be changed or repealed, no amendment or repeal shall impair other rights previously vested;" and that "when any corporation shall expire or be dissolved, or its corporate rights and privileges shall cease by reason of a repeal of its charter or otherwise, and no different provision is made by law, all its works and property, and all debts payable to it, shall be subject to the payment of debts owing by This statute was not modified by the gen- "170. There shall be exempt from taxation public property used for public purposes. In the year 1895 certain lands acquired under the above act of May 1st, 1886, and constituting a part of the Covington Waterworks, were assessed for state and county taxation, pursuant to the statutes enacted after the passage of that act, and conformably as well to the Constitution of Kentucky if that instrument did not exempt them from taxation. The taxes so assessed not having been paid, those lands after due notice were sold at public outcry by the sheriff (who by law was the collector of state and county revenue), and, no other bidder appearing, the Commonwealth of Kentucky purchased them for $2,187.24, the amount of the taxes, penalty, commission, and cost of advertising. The present action was brought by the commonwealth to recover possession of the property so purchased. The principal defense is that the provision in the act of May 1st, 1886, that the reservoir or reservoirs, pumping house, machinery, pipes, mains, and appurtenances, with the land upon which they are situated, "shall be and remain forever exempt from state, county, and city taxes," constituted, in respect of the lands in question, a contract between the city of Covington and the commonwealth of Kentucky, the obligation of which was im paired by the subsequent legislation to which reference has been made. "§ 171. The general assembly shall provide by law an annual tax, which, with other resources, shall be sufficient to defray the estimated expenses of the commonwealth for each fiscal year. Taxes shall be levied and collected for public purposes only. They shall be uniform upon all property subject to taxation within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax; and all taxes shall be levied and collected by general laws. "g 172. All property not exempted from Referring to section 170 of the present Contaxation by this Constitution shall be as-stitution of Kentucky, declaring that "there sessed for taxation at its fair cash value, estimated at the price it would bring at a fair voluntary sale; and any officer or other person authorized to assess values for taxation who shall commit any wilful error in the per-ments, which, however, could neither curtail formance of his duty, shall be deemed guilty of misfeasance, and upon conviction thereof shall forfeit his office, and be otherwise punished as may be provided by law." By the Kentucky Statutes of 1894 it is provided: shall be exempt from taxation public property used for public purposes," the court of appeals of Kentucky in this case said: "It was followed by necessary statutory enact nor enlarge exemption from taxation as prescribed by the Constitution; and accordingly, in section 4020, Kentucky Statutes, adopted for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of section 170, is the identical language we have quoted. As it was manifest"§ 4020. All real and personal estate ly intended by both the Constitution and within this state, and all personal estate of statute to make subject to taxation all prop-[237] persons residing in this state, and of all cor-erty not thereby in express terms exempted, porations organized under the laws of this state, whether the property be in or out of this state, including intangible property, which shall be considered and estimated in fixing the value of corporate franchises as hereinafter provided, shall be subject to taxation, unless the same be exempt from taxation by the Constitution, and shall be assessed at its fair cash value, estimated at the price it would bring at a fair voluntary sale." "8 4022. For the purposes of taxation, real estate shall include all lands within this state and improvements thereon; and personal estate shall include every other species and character of property, that which is tangible as well as that which is intangible." "4026. The following property is exempt from taxation: Public property used for public purposes. [236] *This act repealed all acts and parts of acts in conflict with its provisions except the act of June 4th, 1892, providing additional funds for the ordinary expenses of the state government, and the act amendatory thereof approved July 6th, 1892. it results that, unless the waterworks property of the city of Covington be, in the language or meaning of section 170, 'public property used for public purposes,' it must be held, like similar property in cther cities, subject to taxation, and the special act of May 1st, 1886, stands repealed. Assuming, as a reasonable and beneficial rule of construction requires us to do, that the phrase 'for public purposes' was intended to be construed and understood according to previous judicial interpretation and usage, there can be no doubt of the proper meaning and application of it, for in the cases cited and others where the question of subjecting particular property of cities to taxation arose, the words 'for public purposes' had been held by this court to mean in that connection the same as the words 'for governmental purposes,' and so property used by a city for public or governmental purposes was held to be exempt, while that adapted and used for profit or convenience of the citizens, individually or collectively, was held to be subject to taxation; and, recognizing and applying that distinction, waterworks property of a city has been invariably treated by this and appurtenances, with the land upon However much we may doubt the soundness of any interpretation of the state Constitution implying that lands and buildings are not public property used for public purposes when owned and used under legislative authority by a municipal corporation-one of the instrumentalities or agencies of the state, for the purpose, and only for the purpose, of supplying that corporation and its people with water, and when the net revenue from such property must be applied in the improvement of public ways, we must assume, in conformity with the judgment of the highest court of Kentucky, that section 170 of the Constitution of that commonwealth cannot be construed as exempting the lands in question from taxation. In other words, we must assume that the phrase "pub[238]lic purposes" in that section means "governmental purposes," and that the property here taxed is not held by the city of Covington for such purposes, but only for the "profit or convenience" of its inhabitants, and is liable to taxation at the will of the legislature, unless at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of Kentucky it was exempt from taxation in virtue of some contract the obligation of which is protected by the Constitution of the United States. The fundamental question in the case, then, is whether at the time of the adoption of that Constitution the city of Covington had, in respect of the lands in question, any contract with the state the obligation of which could not be impaired by any subsequent statute or by the present Constitution of Kentucky adopted in 1891. If the exemption found in the act of 1886 was such a contract, then it could not be affected by that Constitution any more than by a legislative enactment. But such a provision falls short of a plain The views we have expressed as to the reservations in other charters, is to prevent such as is contained in the law of 1841, sub- | contends,-there would still be no ground for In New Orleans v. New Orleans Water Works Co. 142 U. S. 79, 91 [35: 943, 947], after referring to previous adjudications, this court said that the authorities were full In our consideration of the question of and conclusive to the point that a municipal contract we have assumed, in harmony with corporation, being a mere agent of the state, the judgment of the court of appeals of Ken- "stands in its governmental or public char tucky, that the property in question was held acter in no contract relations with its sovby the city only for the profit or conven-ereignty, at whose pleasure its charter may ience of its people collectively, that is, in its be amended, changed, or revoked without the[242] proprietary, as distinguished from its gov- impairment of any constitutional obligation, ernmental, character. There are cases ad- while with respect to its private or propriejudging that the extent of legislative power tary rights and interests it may be entitled over the property of municipal corporations, to the constitutional protection." Chancelsuch as incorporated towns and cities, may lor Kent, in his Commentaries, says: "In depend upon the character in which such respect to public or municipal corporations, property is held. Mr. Dillon, in his work which exist only for public purposes, as on Municipal Corporations, says: "In its counties, cities, and towns, the legislature, governmental or public character, the corpo- under proper limitations, has a right to ration is made, by the state, one of its in- change, modify, enlarge, restrain, or destroy struments, or the local depositary of certain them; securing, however, the property for limited and prescribed political powers, to the uses of those for whom it was purchased. be exercised for the public good on behalf A public corporation instituted for purposes of the state rather than for itself. In this connected with the administration of the respect it is assimilated, in its nature and government may be controlled by the legislafunctions, to a county corporation, which, as ture, because such a corporation is not a conwe have seen, is purely part of the govern- tract within the purview of the Constitution [241]mental machinery of the sovereignty which of the United States. In those public corcreates it. Over all its civil, political, or porations there is, in reality, but one party, governmental powers, the authority of the and the trustees or governors of the corpolegislature is, in the nature of things, su- ration are merely trustees for the public." 2 preme and without limitation, unless the Kent, Com. 12th ed. p. 306. Dillon says: limitation is found in the Constitution of the "Public, including municipal corporations, particular state. But in its proprietary or are called into being at the pleasure of the private character, the theory is that the pow- state, and while the state may, and in the ers are supposed not to be conferred, primar- case of municipal corporations usually does, ily or chiefly, from considerations connected it need not obtain the consent of the people with the government of the state at large, of the locality to be affected. The charter but for the private advantage of the compact or incorporating act of a municipal corporacommunity which is incorporated as a dis- tion is in no sense a contract between the tinct legal personality or corporate individ-state and the corporation, although, as we ual; and as to such powers, and to property acquired thereunder, and contracts made with reference thereto, the corporation is to be regarded quo ad hoc as a private corporation, or at least not public in the sense that the power of the legislature over it or the rights presented by it is omnipotent." I Dill. Mun. Corp. 4th ed. pp. 107, 108, § 67, and authorities cited. If, however, the property in question be regarded as in some sense held by the city in its governmental or public character, and therefore as public property devoted to public purposes, which is the interpretation of the state Constitution for which the city shall presently see, vested rights in favor of third persons, if not indeed in favor of the corporation, or rather the community which is incorporated, may arise under it. Publi corporations within the meaning of this rule are such as are established for public purposes exclusively, that is, for purposes connected with the administration of civil or of local government, and corporations are public only when, in the language of Chief Justice Marshall, 'the whole interests and franchises are the exclusive property and domain of the government itself,' such as quasi corporations (so-called), counties and towns or cities upon which are conferred the powers |