Cheeney v. Brookfield of Brookfield

Citation60 Mo. 53
PartiesC. C. CHEENEY, Respondent, v. THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF BROOKFIELD, Appellants.
Decision Date31 May 1875
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Missouri

Appeal from Linn Court of Common Pleas.

Ell Torrance, for Appellants.

The trustees, in contracting the debt and in issuing the warrant, acted without any authority, and the corporation is not estopped after the issue of the warrant, to set up the defense of ultra vires. (Dill. Munc. Corp., § 412; Leavenworth vs. Rankin, 2 Kans., 358; Leavenworth vs. Norton, 1 Kans., 432; Loker vs. Brookline, 13 Pick., 348.)

W. H. Brownlee, for Respondent.

Although the town may have had no right and may have been prohibited from circulating small bills, yet the town is bound for printing and engraving. (Ang. Ames Corp., 8 ed., 271; 5 B. Mon., 130; Alleghany City vs. McClurkan, 14 Penn. St., 81.)

SHERWOOD, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

The question presented by the record before us is: Whether the trustees of a municipal corporation, incorporated under the general laws of this State, and possessing no power, and subject to no liabilities except such as are imposed and conferred by the statute, relating to towns and their incorporation, (Wagn. Stat., 1313) can render the corporation which they represent liable for the payment of a warrant drawn on the treasurer of the town, having been issued by order of the trustees, to pay a debt contracted by them, with a bank note and engraving company, to engrave and print on bank note paper notes payable to bearer, to be put into circulation as money by such trustees in their official capacity.

An examination of the statute referred to will conclusively show that no such powers as those attempted to be exercised in the case at bar, were conferred by law on the trustees. Their act, therefore, in contracting the debt and in issuing the warrant in suit, was wholly unauthorized and illegal. And although a warrant signed by the proper officer, prima facie imports validity, and a subsisting cause of action, (Dill. Mun. Corp., § 411) yet it is always competent for a municipal corporation, as was done in the court below, even after the issuance of a warrant upon its treasury, to set up the defense of ultra vires. ( Id., §§ 381, 412, 749; Marsh vs. Fulton Co., 10 Wall., 676; Thomas vs. Richmond, 12 Wall., 349; Loker vs. Brookline, 13 Pick., 353; Clark vs. City of Des Moines, 19 Ia., 199, and cases cited; Brady vs. The Mayor, &c., of the city of New York, 20 N. Y., 312.)

The authorities above cited, as well as others too numerous for citation, assert in all its broadness the above mentioned doctrine, and its applicability to cases of this character. Those who deal with the officers of a corporation must ascertain, at their peril, what they will indeed be conclusively presumed to know, that these public agents are acting strictly within the sphere limited and prescribed by law, and outside of which they are utterly powerless to act.

Nothing here asserted has any reference to a certain class of cases wherein the doctrine of “implied municipal liability,” may be successfully invoked, as is undeniably true in some instances totally dissimilar, however, from the present one. (Dill. Mun. Corp., § 384, and cases cited.)

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59 cases
  • Bushnell et al. v. Drainage District et al.
    • United States
    • Missouri Court of Appeals
    • January 4, 1938
    ...prescribed by law and outside of which they are utterly powerless to act." State ex rel. Watkins v. Macon County, 68 Mo. 29, 37; Cheeney v. Brookfield, 60 Mo. 53; Keating v. Kansas City, 84 Mo. 415, l.c. 419. (2) Drainage district law is a code unto itself, purely statutory, independent of ......
  • Tate v. School District
    • United States
    • Missouri Supreme Court
    • February 3, 1930
    ...annual election could lawfully employ another teacher for the term in question. Mechem on Public Offices, sec. 924; Cheeney v. Inhabitants of Town of Brookfield, 60 Mo. 53; Edwards v. Kirkwood, 147 Mo. App. 617. (5) This being an action in which fraudulent and arbitrary conduct and conduct ......
  • Verdin v. The City of St. Louis
    • United States
    • Missouri Supreme Court
    • November 19, 1895
    ...of quantum meruit or one sounding in damages." See, also, Mayor v. Eschbach, 18 Md. 276; McDonald v. Mayor, 68 N.Y. 23. So in Cheeney v. Brookfield, 60 Mo. 53, it was "Those who deal with the officers of a corporation must ascertain, at their peril, what they will indeed be conclusively pre......
  • Tate v. School Dist. No. 11 of Gentry County
    • United States
    • Missouri Supreme Court
    • February 3, 1930
    ... ... another teacher for the term in question. Mechem on Public ... Offices, sec. 924; Cheeney v. Inhabitants of Town of ... Brookfield, 60 Mo. 53; Edwards v. Kirkwood, 147 ... Mo.App. 617 ... ...
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