75 Iowa 329 | Iowa | 1888
It will thus be seen that one of the issues presented was whether these extras, and the subsequent contracts in relation thereto, were void as being in excess of the seventy-five thousand dollars authorized to be expended. The court instructed the jury in relation thereto as follows: “Under the law and the record of the vote of the electors of Mahaska county, its board of supervisors, had power to erect a courthouse in the city of Oskaloosa,. Iowa, and to make orders or contracts therefor, or in relation thereto, to the extent of an aggregate cost of seventy-five thousand dollars ; but such board had no power to make orders and contracts for a courthouse the probable cost of which exceeded this sum. And if you find that the board, after making the written contract of date July 21, 1881, made supplemental or additional contracts or orders for changes, increasing the cost beyond seventy-five thousand dollars, the board exceeded its power, and such supplemental or additional contracts and orders are absolutely void, and do not bind the defendant; but in as far as you find any alleged subsequent contract for changes in said building, extension of time for its erection, or other purposes, in relation thereto, proven, whether the same was in writing or not in writing, if it had not the effect to increase the cost of the building above seventy-five thousand dollars, it was authorized, and binds defendant. Should you find that the plaintiff, under the supplemental contract of May 3, 1882, removed a part of the foundation, which he had constructed under the first contract of date July 21, 1881, and substituted a more expensive foundation, • you should allow what is not shown *to be paid for the first contract price of the foundation, or such part as the
Affirmed.