Brown v. Board of Education of City of Pomona

Citations

• 103 Cal. 531
• 37 P. 503
• 1894 Cal. LEXIS 818

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Corporations—Pleading—Implied Assumpsit.—A complaint against the board of education of a city averring that at the defendant’s request the plaintiff made and delivered to defendant certain plans and specifications for public school buildings, to be built in the city, which were duly approved, accepted, and adopted by the defendant, and that the services of the plaintiff in preparing and furnishing the same, to the defendant were reasonably worth a certain stated sum of money, payment of which plaintiff has demanded of defendant, and that the-defendant has paid no part thereof, states a sufficient cause of actiom upon an implied assumpsit.</p> <p>Id.—Corporations—Defense of Ultra Vires—Presumption—Validity of Contract.—When a corporation seeks to avoid its contract on the-ground of its want of power to contract, where the contract is not-upon its face necessarily beyond the scope of its authority, it will, in the absence of proof, be presumed to be valid, and the corporation must make good its defense of ultra vires by plea and proof.</p> <p>Id.—Power of Municipal Corporation to Contract—Demurrer.—With respect to mere ordinary business contracts a municipal, or quasi municipal, corporation, stands on the same footing with other corporations; and it is only where the contract could not legally be made by it under any conceivable circumstances that its inability to contract can be raised upon demurrer.</p> <p>Id.—Implied Contracts of Corporations—Assumpsit.—Corporations may be bound by implied contracts within the scope of their authority; and municipal corporations are liable to actions of implied assumpsit.</p> <p>Id.—Pleading—Common Counts.—The rules of pleading are general, and are designed to embrace all persons, natural or artificial, capable of suing or being sued, and the common counts may be used in an action of assumpsit against a municipal corporation.</p>