70 Mo. 239 | Mo. | 1879
The decisive question presented for determination in this case is, whether the county court of Livingston county, in 1871, could lawfully employ or contract with an attorney to prosecute any suit for and on behalf of said county, the circuit attorney of the judicial circuit in which Livingston county was embraced residing at the time of such employment in said county. It may be stated as settled that the county court could only make such contracts as the law in being at the time might authorize. Wolcott v. Lawrence Co., 26 Mo. 275; Reardon v. St. Louis Co., 36 Mo. 560; Carroll v. St. Louis, 12 Mo. 444.
Our attention has been called to section 35, Wag. Stat., 205, which it is claimed authorized the county court to enter into the contract upon which plaintiff bases his right of recovery. That section is as follows: “If the county court of any county shall think the interest of said county does not require the appointment of a county attorney, as before provided, said court is hereby authorized to contract with some person professing the qualifications necessary for a county attorney, to prosecute or defend, on behalf of the county, as the case may be, any and all civil suits in which the county is interested, or attend -to any matters of law relating to the business of the county, but in "no case