22 Iowa 491 | Iowa | 1867
These facts do not constitute a completed contract of sale enforceable in a court of equity; one essential element
About one year thereafter, an amended and supplemental petition was filed, alleging, among other things, that the defendants had submitted to the people of the county, at the general election in October, 1866, the proposition to purchase from said Schramm, Mozart Hall for a courthouse, etc., at $16,000, and a majority had voted in favor of such purchase. That there was a fraud practiced upon the people in such submission, in that the said Mozart Hall
These averments do not amount to such allegations of fraud as will avoid the result of the submission to the people. There must be some showing of artifice to conceal material facts peculiarly within the knowledge of the defendants, and which were not open to or attainable by others, to justify the interference of a court of equity in such case on the ground of fraud. The matters stated were public, and could be as well known to the people and voters as to the defendants. They do not constitute fraud, nor a shadow of fraud. To hold that they did, would be a slander upon the intelligence of the voters of JDes Moines county, as well as a violation of the clear rule of equity in such cases.
This feature of the petition presents a question which has not yet beeh passed upon by this court. It will be necessary to state the substance or language of several sections of the Eevision, in order to a proper understand
This opinion is based mainly upon the language of the ' statute. Kev., § 325. “In all cases where the powers hereby conferred upon said board of supervisors, have’ heretofore been by law exercised by the county judge, county court, or other county officers, the said supervisors shall conduct their proceedings under said powers, in the same way, and manner as nearly as may be, as is now provided by law in such eases for the proceedings of said county judge, county court and county officers, provided they are not inconsistent with this act.”
“ Sec. 330'. That all laws which may be in force at the time of the taking effect of this act, devolving any jurisdiction or powers on county judges, which said jurisdiction or powers are conferred on the ' county board of supervisors, "x’ * * * * shall be held to apply and devolve said jurisdiction and powers upon the said county board of supervisors, in the same manner and to the same extent as though the words ‘county board of supervisors ’ occurred in said law instead of the words ‘ county judge.’ ”
The power of submitting a question of expenditure to the people was formerly exercised by the county judge and is now conferred upon the board of supervisors. Under section 325, supra, they should conduct their proceedings in such submission in the same way and manner as provided by law for the county judge, to wit, by submit
By laws in force when the supervisor act was passed, there was devolved upon county judges the jurisdiction and power to submit a question of expenditure to the people; and by that act the same jurisdiction and powers are conferred on the board of supervisors, and hence, by section 330, awpra, those laws apply to the board of supervisors in the same manner and to the same extent as they did to county judges.
Unless the provisions as to manner of submission applicable to county judges, are in force as to supervisors, there is no law regulating the manner. Those provisions are not expressly repealed, nor are they inconsistent with the supervisor act, and they are necessary to tbe full effectuation of all the provisions of that act. There can be no doubt but that they apply to the submission of a question for the purchase of real estate for county purposes, by the board of supervisors. See, as bearing more or less upon this question, in the construction of these sections of the statute, Yant v. Brooks, et al. (19 Iowa, 87). For the reasons specified under the third point in this opinion,, the judgment of the District Court sustaining the demurrer to plaintiff’s petition,,as amended, is
Reversed.