46 Iowa 138 | Iowa | 1877
1. This action is not brought to recover a reasonable compensation for services rendered, but to recover for services under a contract; and
2. While it may be the duty of the district attorney to appear for and defend actions brought against a county, this by no means gives him authority to employ additional counsel, much less would his acceptance of the services of attorneys who might appear in the cause bind the county.
“ P. D. Bailey,
> “Chairman Board Supervisors Louisa Co., Ia.”
The powers and duties of the chairman of the board as distinguished from those of any other individual member are but few, and certainly he has no more power or authority to employ counsel or make contracts binding on the county than has any
Now, the petition avers that the chairman, acting for the board, entered into the contract. This being admitted by the demurrer, we think the presumption is, and must be, that he was so acting under legal authority. This, we think, is the fair and natural construction of the statements of the petition. A motion for a more specific statement would have been more appropriate than a demurrer.
Reversed.