Electric Plaster Co. v. Blue Rapids City Township

Citations

• 77 Kan. 580
• 96 P. 68
• 1908 Kan. LEXIS 307

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Contracts — Private Parties and Municipal Officers — Bond Issue — Public Policy. An agreement between the owners of mills operated by water-power and the officers of a township providing that, if township bonds should be voted by the electors and the proceeds thereof used in rebuilding an important highway which was essential to the convenience of the public, and which when built would operate to close up a new channel of a stream that had been cut around the mills and mill-dam during a flood and turn the water back into the old channel of the stream and over the mill-dam, thus restoring the water-power lost by the cutting of the new channel, the mill-dam owners would pay an amount equal to the interest on the bonds for a period, of ten years, is not contrary to good morals or public policy.</p> <p>2. - Ultra Vires — Mutuality—Estoppel. After the township has substantially performed its part of such agreement the mill owners cannot successfully defend against an action to enforce their liability upon- the agreement on the ground that there was a want of power in the township board to make the agreement or that it was lacking in mutuality.</p> <p>3. -Duress. The agreement cannot be regarded as having been made under duress because the officers bf the township declined to call a bond election for procuring the means to rebuild the highway and close the new channel unless the mill owners would agree to share in the expense of the improvement and a refusal by the mill owners to accept the terms and sign the agreement would have placed them in an unenviable light with their patrons.</p> <p>4. Evidence •— Opinion Testimony. Non-expert witnesses may give opinions of conditions and situations with which they are familiar but which it is difficult to embody in words or reproduce before the jury.</p>