74 Wis. 100 | Wis. | 1889
The contention of the defendant that it does not appear that the plaintiff was ever employed by the school district as an attorney, cannot be maintained in view of the evidence. Dr. Pease had sued the district to recover for legal services which he had rendered it. He brought his first suit in justice’s court. The director of the district employed the plaintiff to defend that action. That suit was discontinued by Dr. Pease, but the plaintiff went to West-field to attend to it. The referee and court so found, and the fact is clearly established by the testimony. Dr. Pease
It is assumed on the part of the defendant that there was
Another objection is that the committee stood in the relation of public officers to the district, and no one of them could claim compensation for the discharge of an official duty which he had undertaken to perform. The case of Sikes v. Inhabitants of Hatfield, 13 Gray, 347, is relied upon in support of this position. In that case a surveyor of highways sought to recover of the town compensation for his official services where the law made no provision for any such compensation. The court held there could be no recovery; that the services rendered were to be deemed gratuitous. But it seems to us plain that the committee in the present case were in no sense officers of the district where such a rule of law would apply. The committee had a duty to perform in behalf of the district, which was to protect its interests in the litigation against it by Dr. Pease. True, the district made no provision to compensate them for their services, but we cannot presume from that fact that the members of the committee were to render their services, gratuitously. Nor did the district put its refusal to pay for such services upon that ground in its answer. Neither did the district deny its liability because the plaintiff had not presented to the board or to a district meeting an account containing all the items which he sought to recover for in this action. His recovery was in fact limited to $150, the
By the Court.— Judgment affirmed.