People Ex Rel. Henry Harms v. Klokke

• Decision Date: 30 June 1879
• Citation: 1879 WL 8489,92 Ill. 134
• Parties: THE PEOPLE ex rel. Henry Harmsv.ERNST F. C. KLOKKE et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

92 Ill. 134

1879 WL 8489 (Ill.)

THE PEOPLE ex rel. Henry Harms

v.ERNST F. C. KLOKKE et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June Term, 1879.

This was a petition in this court filed by Henry Harms, the relator, against Ernst F. C. Klokke, county clerk of Cook county, Samuel H. McCrea, treasurer, and Henry C. Senne, chairman of the board of commissioners of Cook county.

Messrs. GOUDY, CHANDLER & SKINNER, for the relator.

Mr. CONSIDER H. WILLETT, for the respondents.

Mr. JUSTICE SCOTT delivered the opinion of the Court:

This was an original suit in this court for a writ of mandamus to compel the county clerk of Cook county to issue a warrant to relator for the sum of $30,739.48, and to compel the county treasurer of the county to countersign and pay the same, being the balance claimed to be due to relator for work done on the foundation of the court house in the course of erection under the direction of the board of commissioners of the county.

It is alleged in the petition, that the board of commissioners of Cook county, having determined to erect a court house in the year 1875, employed relator, Henry Harms, to construct the foundation thereof, and that in the years 1875 and 1876 he constructed for the county and at its request, by its board of commissioners, the foundation of the court house, and on the completion of the work in the fall of 1876 relator claimed he was entitled to $162,967.89, less $92,692.90, which sum had been paid to him as the work progressed; that objection was made by members of the board, so that on the 23d day of April, 1877, the board of commissioners, after a protracted examination of his claim and as a compromise of the pending suit, passed an order allowing relator the sum of $141,640.85, reserving of that sum $3949,02 until the question of the responsibility for leveling up the foundations should be adjusted, as the entire amount which relator should receive for the whole work, and that relator assented, as a compromise, to such allowance, in full for the amount due him, and applied to the county clerk for an order for the sum allowed, but the clerk could not issue such order for the reason he had been enjoined from so doing at the suit of one Fitzgerald, a member of the board, against the county of Cook. The decree of the circuit court making the injunction in that case perpetual was afterwards reversed in the Appellate Court and the bill dismissed. Pending that suit the board allowed relator $14,257.67 on account of his claim, which was paid to him. The duty of the county clerk to issue the order to relator for the amount claimed to be due to him under the resolution of the 23d of April, 1877, and of the treasurer to countersign and pay the same, are distinctly alleged, and interest is demanded for the detention of the money.

The answers of respondents, or some of them, admit demand on the county clerk for an order as alleged in the petition, but distinctly charge the sum allowed relator under the resolution of the board of April 23, 1877, was never accepted by him as a compromise in full of his claim against the county for work done under the special contract and for extra work on the foundation of the court house, until after the order making such allowance was rescinded by a resolution of the board adopted on the 16th day of December, 1878, and all efforts after that time to compromise and settle relator's claim were abandoned.

It appears that after the execution of the original contract with relator, and after some work had been done under it, the board made changes in the original plans. The work that was done by relator was done under the direction of the county architect according to the new plans...