33 Minn. 521 | Minn. | 1885
By Sp. Laws 1881, c. 188, provision is made for the acquisition of the property and franchises of the St. Paul Water Company by the city of St. Paul, which is thereupon authorized to take and convey from the sources of supply used by said company, or which it is empowered to use, and from any other source, sufficient water to supply the city of St. Paul for all purposes. As
In our judgment, these provisions of the act referred to clearly invest the board of water commissioners with authority to make contracts with reference to the water-works in its own name, as the representative of the city. That this is not the creation of a corporation within the inhibition of section 2, article 10, of our constitution, has been recently, in effect, determined by this court in State v. District Court of Hennepin Co., ante, 235; and see City of St. Paul v. Seitz, 3 Minn. 205, (297.) The contracts which the board is thus authorized to make, though made in the name of the board, are made by it as the representative and agent of the city, and therefore they are, in substance and effect, made with as well as for the city.
Sp. Laws 1881, c. 93, which is an act amending the charier of St. Paul, provides (§ 9) “that before any contract for doing any work, labor, or furnishing any material to or for said eity shall be binding and valid as against said city, said contractors shall enter into bond with the city of St. Paul, for the use of all persons who may do work or
That the indemnified party may maintain an action upon such bond in his own name, without joining the city or the board, is settled by City of St. Paul v. Butler, 80 Minn. 459.
To the contention that the provision quoted from the law amending the city charter is not applicable to the act creating the board of water commissioners, as the two relate to distinct subjects, we answer that, irrespective of the fact that the provision was passed by the legislature after the passing of the act, both are properly and in fact to be regarded as parts of the same common charter, relating, as both do, to the rights, powers, duties, and obligations of the city, and nothing appearing in either to the contrary.
Order affirmed.