Fosselman v. City of Springfield

Citations

• 139 Ill. 185
• 28 N.E. 916

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal corporation— liability for costs where fine and costs are discharged by labor. A city or village, by compelling persons to work out fines imposed for the violation of its ordinances, on its streets and alleys, does not thereby become liable to an officer having costs in the case in which such persons were tried.</p> <p>.2. An ordinance providing that persons convicted of , breaches of ordinances be required to work out the same upon streets and alleys at a given sum per day, is in no sense an agreement on the part of the city to take labor in payment of judgment or fines, but is a means adopted for the purpose of compelling their payment in money. Labor performed under such an ordinance is not a payment of the judgments or fine.</p> <p>3. Pleading—action for money had and received—what may be recovered under. The action for money had and received is of an equitable nature, in which the plaintiff may recover from the defendant that which in equity and good conscience he ought not to retain. But :it must always appear that the subject of the action was originally money, or that which the parties agreed to treat as money, or if goods other than money, that sufficient time has elapsed to justify the inference that they have been converted into money. To this rule there are no exceptions; but the law will sometimes treat certain things as money which, strictly speaking, are not.</p>