Greenwood v. DeKalb County

Citations

• 90 Ill. 600

Syllabus

<p>1. Bounty—resolutions for, construed. A resolution of a board of supervisors, for the payment of a bounty of $100 to all residents of the county who had enlisted in the military service of the United States under either of the calls for 300,000 men, or under the call for 200,000, or who should enlist up to a given day, passed in February, 1864, does not apply to and embrace volunteers who enlisted prior to these calls.</p> <p>2. A subsequent resolution extending the bounty provided in the prior resolution “'to all who have enlisted in the service of the United States for the period of three years, prior to this date,” was held only to embrace volunteers from the county, and only such as had volunteered under the two calls named in the prior resolution, and not one who had enlisted in 1861.</p> <p>3. Same—consideration necessary to promise to pay. A resolution of a board of supervisors, promising to pay a bounty to persons who had previously enlisted in the military service of the United States in the late civil war, without any assurance of a bounty before enlisting, will create no indebtedness, for want of a consideration to support the promise, and for the want of legal authority in the board to make the same.</p> <p>4. Same—volunteer must he credited to the county. The act of January 18, 1865, in relation to the payment of bounties by counties to volunteers in the military service of the United States, only authorized the levy of a tax to pay indebtedness that haá been or might be incurred for bounties to volunteers who had or should enlist, and be credited to the quota of the county. Therefore, a declaration in a suit against a county to recover such bounty is fatally defective if it does not aver that the plaintiff’s enlistment was credited to the county.</p>