56 Kan. 577 | Kan. | 1896
I. This case was advanced on motion of the defendant, because it was asserted that the county officers desired a speedy determination of the questions involved in the case, and especially because it was said that there was a large amount of money collected from special assessments held in the county treasury, and that the county officers were in doubt as to their duty in disposing of the same and as to the rights of the various parties who might claim an interest therein. The only parties to this action are the receiver, as plaintiff, and the board of county commissioners, as defendant. Although very long and exhaustive briefs discussing the other questions in the case have been filed, no argument is found in them with reference to any fund claimed to be held by the county treasurer. We shall consider the case, so far as we deem it necessary, as it has been discussed by counsel in their briefs. They having ignored this fund, concerning the existence of which the averments of the petition are exceedingly vague and indefinite at best, we shall also disregard it.
The main contention of counsel for the plaintiff in error is that the decision in the case of Comm’rs of Wyandotte Co. v. Abbott, 52 Kan. 148, in which chapter 214 of the Laws of 1887 was held unconstitutional and invalid, is wrong. It is very earnestly insisted that the plaintiff in this case has never had a hearing in this court on the question of the validity of the law; that very large interests are involved ; and that the court should again carefully reconsider this question. Every decision of an important question of law must necessarily affect the interests of all persons whose rights must be determined by the same rule, and this
II. It is contended that, even though the act of 1887 be held unconstitutional, the plaintiff is entitled to recover the reasonable value of the improvement made, not under the contract, but as upon a quantum meruit, for the benefit derived by the county from the expenditure of the bank. Many cases are cited in which a recovery has been allowed for the reasonable value of services rendered or of property delivered, where the contract was invalid for one reason or another. The general principle running through the cases in which corporations, municipalities and political subdivisions of the state have been held liable, even though the particular contract sought to be en
The judgment of the district court is. affirmed.