City of Laporte v. Ahlborn

133 N.E. 874, 191 Ind. 485, 1922 Ind. LEXIS 8
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 25, 1922
DocketNo. 23,695
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 133 N.E. 874 (City of Laporte v. Ahlborn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Laporte v. Ahlborn, 133 N.E. 874, 191 Ind. 485, 1922 Ind. LEXIS 8 (Ind. 1922).

Opinion

Ewbank, C. J.

The substance of the complaint was that the William Ahlborn Construction Company, entered into a contract with the appellant city to fill, grade and pave a street at the expense of the abutting lands, and of an interurban street railway which was to occupy the center of the street and pay for the work done between its tracks and one foot on either side; that the abutting real estate and the street railway respectively were liable for payment of parts of the cost of such improvement if the appellant city had performed its duty as to imposing such liability. That the appellant city [487]*487undertook to do such, acts as were required by law to impose upon the abutting real estate, and .the street railway, a lien for the cost of the improvement; that after the fill had been made and the greater part of the expense of making the improvement incurred by the contractor the city granted the street railway permission to lay its track in the street outside of the paved portion, and did such acts as made it impossible for the contractor to enforce payment of any part of the expense by the street railway, and thereafter assessed the entire cost against the abutting real estate; that part of the real estate so assessed consisted of swamp land that was without value, and by reason of that fact the contractor was unable to collect a part of the money for which the appellant city had undertaken to impose a lien upon the property of the street railway company; tliat if the city had done as it undertook to do, and had not done the alleged acts by which the street railway was authorized to lay its tracks outside the paved part of the street and was released from any obligation to pay for the improvement, the contractor could have enforced payment by the street railway of a large sum which such acts of the city have made it impossible to collect.

And that after the work was done, and “after there had accrued to the William Ahlborn Construction Company the moneys due and owing to it from the defendant * * * all the debts of every kind and character owing to any persons, firms or corporations from the said William Ahlborn Construction Company were duly paid and satisfied, and that on or about the 21st day of January 1916, the said William Ahlborn Construction Company, a corporation, gave notice to and legally dissolved, and that on the 17th day of February, 1916, the William Ahlborn Construction Company ceased to exist as a corporation, and the plaintiff (appellee) succeeded [488]*488to all of the rights and assets of said corporation, including the claim for work and labor performed for the defendant under the contract hereinafter recited;” and that on or about said date of February 17, 1916, “said corporation by consent of all stockholders and by virtue of a duly authorized transfer, assigned to plaintiff (appellee) all of the assets, choses in action and moneys due and owing to the said William Ahlbom Construction Company.”

There is a further allegation that the contract as actually made contained a provision that “the track of said railroad shall be laid in the center of Madison street from Lake street to Weller avenue,” but that “by mutual mistake of the parties thereto said contract, without said provisions having been incorporated therein, was executed, delivered and accepted.”

After a demurrer to the complaint for- alleged want of facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action had been overruled, and appellant had reserved an exception, the cause was put at issue by a general denial, and by a reply-of denial to paragraphs of special answer alleging that no officers of the appellant city had authority to execute the alleged contract on its behalf, that the demand sued on was fully paid and satisfied before the commencement of the action, and that appellant city never executed the contract sued 'on, the latter paragraph being sworn to by the mayor.

There was a general finding in favor of the appellee, on which judgment was rendered for $7,650 and costs. The appellant moved for a new trial for seventy-two reasons, of which all have been waived except the specifications that the decision is contrary to law, that it is not sustained by sufficient evidence, and that the assessment of the amount of recovery is erroneous, being too large. The overruling of the demurrer to the complaint and of the motion for a new trial are assigned as error.

[489]*4891. 2. The sufficiency of the complaint is first challenged on the ground that, as appellant insists, the assignee of such a contract cannot recover thereon in an action to which his assignor is not a party, the contract providing that “no assignment of this contract shall be made to any party without the consent of said board of public works in writing,” and the giving of such consent not being alleged. But the allegations as to the dissolution of the corporation, and that appellee thereupon succeeded to all of its rights and assets, on the same day on which they are alleged to have been assigned to him, will bear the construction that he stood in such a relation to the corporation that when it ceased to exist all of its property and rights vested in him under the law which authorized its dissolution. §§4084b, 4084d Burns 1914, Acts 1913 p. 634, §§2, 4. If the contract had been fully performed on the part of the construction company, as the complaint alleged, and afterward the company 'was dissolved and ceased to exist, and appellee succeeded to its matured right of action on the contract, as provided by the law which authorized its dissolution, he would be entitled to maintain an action to enforce that right the same as the corporation would have been if it had not been dissolved. And the language of the complaint being capable of a construction which makes it sufficient to withstand a demurrer on that theory, we may assume that the trial court.adopted that construction when it overruled the demurrer.

Appellant urges that the complaint is insufficient because “the resolution of the board of public works, upon which the contract was based, is,not made a part of said complaint.”

[490]*4903,4. [489]*489Argument is offered to the effect that the contract as pleaded contains such a reference to the ordinance as serves to incorporate its provisions in the contract, and [490]*490therefore it must be set out to show what the contract was. But of the fifty-nine specifications which accompanied . the demurrer none pointed out any such a defect in the complaint, and objections to the complaint which were not presented to the trial court are waived. It is also urged that without an ordinance conferring authority, the officers of the city could not make a valid contract. But where it is alleged that the defendant corporation entered into a contract which is set out in the complaint and purports to have been executed in its name by its officers, the complaint is not required to state facts showing that authority had been given to the officers who signed on its behalf. If the contract was not lawfully executed, pursuant to authority duly conferred, that fact is matter of defense to be set up by verified plea, as was done in this case. §370 Burns 1914, §364 R. S. 1881.

' As has been stated above, the complaint seeks to recover because of alleged acts of

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Bluebook (online)
133 N.E. 874, 191 Ind. 485, 1922 Ind. LEXIS 8, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-laporte-v-ahlborn-ind-1922.