Municipal Corporate Purposes Law and Legal Definition
Municipal corporate purposes are divided into two classes: those which are direct, and those which are indirect. A direct corporate purpose is one, which in its direct and immediate consequences, operates upon the interests of the corporation. Such would be all police regulations for the government of the town, the promotion of good order, the protection of its citizens from the lawless, the suppression of vice, the opening and preservation of highways, streets, and alleys, the erection of market houses and hospitals, supplying the town with water, etc. An indirect corporate purpose is one which does not, in its direct and immediate consequences, operate upon the corporators, but the beneficial effects of which are to be experienced in a remoter degree, and which have to be traced to their source before they can be duly comprehended and appreciated. [State ex rel. Thompson v. Memphis, 147 Tenn. 658 (Tenn. 1922)].
