86 Pa. 459 | Pa. | 1878
delivered the opinion of the court,
It was a fatal objection to the admissibility of the warrants of the state road commissioners, that they were drawn in favor of Andrew Comrey, while Patrick Ryan was the plaintiff in the action. It is true they were made payable to Comrey, “or bearer,” but that did not give them any of the qualities of commercial paper. In Reeside v. Knox, 2 Whart. 233, it was decided that a draft by a mail contractor, payable to his own 'order, on the postmaster-gen
While the point was not distinctly made at the trial, it sufficiently appears that the verdict was obtained without any proof whatever of demand on the township treasurer. It is not necessary for the purposes of this cause to attempt an analysis of the cases in Avhich the rule of Luzerne County v. Day, 11 Harris 143, has been followed, overlooked or disregarded. The commissioners of this state road were appointed by a special Act of Assembly. Forming no part of the pervading governmental system of the Commonwealth, responsible to no existing constituency, and controlled by none of the restraints or limitations, and subject to none of the penalties by which the faithful performance of the duties of' ordinary municipal .officers are secured, these gentlemen were clothed by the legislature of 1873 with power to appropriate private property for the uses of a highway,.to enter into contracts for opening and making it, to take bonds from contractors, to decide finally and Avithout appeal on the character of the work done, and to draw Avarrants on the treasurers of the townships through which
On other grounds this judgment is unsustainable. The evidence consisted of the Act of Assembly of the 7th of April 1873; of the two warrants; of the testimony of Andrew Comrey that he was the contractor for the East Union portion of the road, and that he had endorsed the two warrants in suit, which he identified; and of the testimony of Patrick Ryan, the plaintiff, that he was the owner of the warrants; that he had worked for Comrey •on the state road, and had taken the warrants in payment, and that Barlow, Porter and Pluntzinger were the commissioners in charge of the road. The statute required the commissioners to make oath or affirmation before entering on their duties, that they would discharge them with fidelity and impartiality. Compliance with this' direction was not even alleged in the declaration. The work was to be done under contracts. No contract was shown,
Judgment reversed, anda venire facias de novo awarded.