34 Cal. 284 | Cal. | 1867
The law of contracts, as between private individuals, invoked by the learned counsel for the appellant, does not, as we consider, furnish the rule of decision in this case. Whether a given sum of indebtedness can be satisfied by the bare payment of a less sum, though received as payment in full by the creditor, or whether the remedies existing at the date of a given contract become a part of the contract, and cannot therefore be impaired by subsequent legislation, are questions which we do not find it necessary to discuss in this place.
In this case a sovereign is one of the contracting parties ; for the government of the Qounty of Contra Costa is a portion of the State Government, and as against a sovereign there are no remedies except such as the sovereign, in the exercise of that good faith by which all Governments are presumed to be actuated, may accord. The State Government, neither in its general nor its local capacity, can be sued by her creditors or made amenable to judicial process except by her own consent. Her creditors must rely solely upon her good faith as to the time, mode, and measure of payment. (Hunsaker v. Borden, 5 Cal. 290; McCauley v. Brooks, 16 Cal. 34.)
At the time the contract was made between Gilman and the State, as represented in the local government of Contra
Judgment affirmed.
Mr. Chief Justice Currey expressed no opiniqn.