People ex rel. National Cigar Co. v. Dulaney

Citations

• 96 Ill. 503
• 1880 Ill. LEXIS 65

Syllabus

<p>1. Mandamus—to compel officer to perform an act be is willing to do. This court will not compel the execution of a contract made by State officers when they admit, in the record, that they are willing to perform the same without coercion. The law will not do a useless thing.</p> <p>2. Same—certainty as to specific act sought to be compelled. A prayer in a petition for a mandamus against the Penitentiary Commissioners, to compel the performance of a contract with them for convict labor, that they be compelled to assign to the relator two hundred convicts of the “kind and quality” called for and specified in the agreement, renders the petition uncertain and indefinite, as it can not be told what specific act is sought to be coerced.</p> <p>3. Same—does not lie to compel the performance of executory contracts. This court has no jurisdiction by mandamus to compel the performance of executory contracts. That is an appropriate remedy to compel public officers to perform specific duties imposed by law, and by it the courts can only compel the performance of specific acts when the duty to discharge them is clear and well defined, and there is no element of discretion involved in the performance.</p> <p>4. Contract—construed—when printed part of blanlc is inconsistent with written part. Where parties, in attempting to reduce their agreement to form, use a blank form containing a printed paragraph which is' entirely inconsistent with a provision written in the blank, and it appears that by inadvertence the blank, as filled, is signed without erasing the printed paragraph, the written provision must control, and will be -taken as expressing the real contract. ”</p> <p>5. Same—for convict labor by Penitentiary Commissioners. Under sections 25 and 26 of the Penitentiary act, a contract by the’ commissioners, except a temporary arrangement, is not valid unless made in conformity with the first named section, which requires it to be made upon sealed bids or proposals after the