49 Iowa 421 | Iowa | 1878
The defendant denies in its answer that plaintiff was employed by defendant, and that he rendered the services as set out in the petition with defendant’s consent, and denies, generally, liability upon the claim. It also avers that plaintiff is estopped to set up a claim for service rendered upon the first trial, for the reason that his bill and claim for one hundred dollars were presented to and paid by the supervisors.
The court instructed the jury that the appointment of plaintiff to assist the district attorney in the prosecution of the case, the services rendered in pursuance thereof, and the payment of plaintiff’s bill, presented with the certificate of the judge, “will not alone raise any such implied contract as would render the county liable to pay for services performed in the same case thereafter; but in order to render the county liable for any future services there must have been some such action or conduct on the part of defendant’s board of supervisors as led plaintiff to reasonably suppose that the board expected and desired that his services in the case should be continued, and that they would pay for the same.”
It is insisted by defendant that there was no evidence to authorize a verdict under this instruction. We are not called upon to inquire into the correctness of the rule of law announced, but to determine whether the verdict is sufficiently supported by evidence of “action and conduct” on the part of. defendant’s board of supervisors, which, under the instructions, were necessary to authorize the jury to find a contract between the parties. We are of the opinion that
III. The court held, in an instruction, that the fact of plaintiff’s last bill for services being for two hundred dollars would not prevent him from recovering for more if he proved that a greater sum was due him. This is made the ground of an objection. If it were conceded to be erroneous, no possible prejudice resulted therefrom, for plaintiff recovered only one hundred and twenty-three dollars, being less than the amount of the bill presented to the supervisors.
IV. The defendant asked one of the supervisor^, who was a witness in its behalf, what that body understood the purport, “the meaning,” of the certificate of the judge to be when it was presented to them attached to plaintiff’s bill. The court sustained an objection by plaintiff to this question. The ruling was correct. The supervisors, the law presumes, understood the instrument according to the true import of its words; they could not show that they interpreted it differently. Nei
It will be observed that we do not pass upon tbe action of tbe court in appointing plaintiff to discharge tbe duties of assistant district attorney, nor determine its effect, for the reason that, under tbe instruction of the court, tbe jury were directed that plaintiff could not recover unless a contract, express or implied, was established by tbe evidence.
V. It is not necessary to consider the questions raised in the assignment of errors by plaintiff on bis appeal, as be is satisfied with tbe judgment, and states in bis argument that a decision thereon is desired only in tbe event of tbe reversal of tbe judgment upon defendant’s appeal.
Tbe judgment of tbe Circuit Court is
Affirmed.