People ex rel. McCauley & Tevis v. Brooks

Citations

• 16 Cal. 11
• 1860 Cal. LEXIS 162

Syllabus

<p>State of California v. McCauley, (15 Cal. 429) deciding the Act of March 26th, 1856, appointing a Board of State Prison Commissioners, to be constitutional, and the contract entered into by said Board, in behalf of the State, with Estill, and the assignment thereof to McCauley, to be valid and binding upon the State, affirmed.</p> <p>A contract entered into by the agents of the State, upon a subject within the constitutional control of the Legislature, may be affirmed by the State by legislation, indirectly referring to the contract, or proceeding upon its assumed validity. Direct legislative action, in terms designating and affirming the contract, is not necessary.</p> <p>In the Act of April 7th, 1856, appropriating moneys to defray the expenses of the prison up to March 28th, passed after a copy of the contract with Estill had been transmitted to the Senate, the Legislature recognized the existence, and in effect, the validity of the contract, in the provision that no person should receive any pay for supplies furnished under any contract with the directors of the prison, until he surrendered such contract and released the State from all liability for such supplies “ furnished after the leasing of said prison by the Board of Commissioners, under an act passed at this session of the Legislature.”</p> <p>To an appropriation within the meaning of the Constitution, nothing more is requisite than a designation of the amount, and the fund out of which it shall be paid. It is not essential to its validity, that funds to meet the same should be at the time in the treasury.</p> <p>The provision in the Constitution, that “no money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law,” means only that no money shall be drawn, except in pursuance of law.</p> <p>The Act of April 13th, 1859, amendatory of the act concerning the office of Controller, and providing that no warrants shall be drawn, except there be “ an unexhausted, specific appropr