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to a Board of Arbitrators, before whom each appeared and submitted their proofs. The balance found to be due Seale on his contract was $30,083.49, and the Board decided that he was entitled to warrants for the same, to be drawn by the Supervisors acting as Commissioners, which award was accepted, and the amount ordered paid by a resolution of the Board.

The Mayor, assuming that he had authority to veto this action of the Board of Supervisors, Seale demanded a compliance with the award and the issuance of the warrants called for under the law, which being refused, he commenced this proceeding.

On the 24th of March, 1876, after the commencement of this action, a new Board of City Hall Commissioners, consisting of the Mayor, City and County Attorney, and Auditor, was created by Act of the Legislature. This Act provided that the new Board should proceed with the construction of the City Hall, leaving the adjustment and payment of the existing indebtedness to be made by the Board of Supervisors, acting ex officio as a Board of City Hall Commissioners, as before stated.

The new Board sold the bonds on hand for $565,035.75, out of which was paid warrants drawn by the original City Hall Commissioners, amounting to $216,304.07, and by the Supervisors, acting as such Board, $42,912.76, and warrants drawn by the new Commissioners amonnuting to $38,558.26, leaving a balance in said 'fund, subject to the payment of said Seale's claim, on the 10th day of May, 1876, when this action was tried, of $167,260.16. It is claimed under this showing that "the case stands on the naked refusal of the officers charged with this duty to draw the warrants to which the plaintiff is entitled under the law."

It is further claimed that the five Acts of the Legislature relating to the construction of the New City Hall are independent of the Acts for the government of the City and County of San Francisco, and that when the Supervisors were made ex officio Commissioners they were charged with the same duties and subject to the same regulations as the original Commissioners; that the Board of Education, and other boards, exist

with independent powers, and expend money of the city and county without any action of the Mayor.

It is claimed by the appellant that, construing all the Acts referring to the construction of the City Hall together, there is a complete system for performing work and paying for the same. (Crane vs. Reeder, 22 Mich., 322; Sedgwick on the Con struction of State and Constitutional Law, p. 359-60.) The question of the right of a municipal corporation to submit to arbitration arose in the case of Brady vs. the City of Brooklyn, 1 Barbour, 590, in which the Court held that corporations have all the powers of private parties as regards contracts, except where expressly restricted or by necessary implication. A case is cited as before the Court at the same term (the Mayor, &c., of New York vs. Butler) which turned mainly on an award where a corporation was a party. The Court also held that it was well settled that "whenever a corporation is acting within the scope of the legitimate purposes of its institution, all its contracts, whether sealed or unsealed, written or (through its agents) by parol, are valid." (Bank of Columbia vs, Patterson, 7 Cranch. 299; Mott vs. Hicks, 1 Cowen, 519.) The case of Dix vs. Dummerston, 19 Vt., 266, holds that the Selectmen of a town have power to submit to arbitration any claim against such town, which they are authorized by statute to audit and and adjust, and that the town will be bound by the award. (Ketchum vs. City of Buffalo and Austin, 14 N. Y., 375; Morse on Arbitration, p. 6; Buckland vs. Conway, 16 Mass., 376.)

The submission by resolution of the Board was a good submission. (The Mayor of New York vs. Butler, 1 Barb., 325, et seq.; Brady vs. the Mayor of New York, Id. 591.

Awards of Arbritration are equally as conclusive and binding as judgments of Courts. (Freeman on Judgments, §320; Smith's Leading Cases, p. 671, and cases there cited; Wendell's Blackstone, p. 16.)

It was the duty of the Board to adjust and pay the claim. (See Section 13 of the Act of 1870,

PATENT INFRINGEMENT EXTRAORDINARY.-U. S. Marshal Poole has levied on certain property of the first Board of

New City Hall Commissioners in favor of the Pacific Submarine and Earthquake Proof Wall Co. for the use of a patent method for strengthening brick walls with iron rods, in the building of the New City Hall.

It appears that Wm. H. Foye, a resident of this city, had invented and patented such a plan, but which had not yet been applied to any large buildings here, although it had been favorably reported upon by the Board of Construction in New York Harbor, at the recommendation of Secretary of War Belknap. Foye called upon the City Hall Commissioners to investigate its merits, but they neither adopted nor rejected it. Foye went east in the spring of '73, notifying the Commissioners regarding it. Upon his return, finding they had applied it, he sent in his bill for $15,000. After six months delay and many interviews, he finally brought suit in the Federal Court and obtained judgment for $10,000. This judgment the Commissioners paid. Pending this suit and delay, work had been going on, and more royalty on the use of the patent had accrued, and another bill was sent in to the Board of Supervisors, who had now assumed charge of the building. This bill was at first rejected by them, but afterward referred to the City and County Attorney, but no definite action taken, and in about two years the second action was brought in the Federal Court, and judgment again recovered. The legislature subsequently passed a bill empowering the Board to pay the the judgment, but neither they nor the present Board of Commissioners have yet done so, hence the execution above stated. The plaintiffs declare they will not sue the city, but make the Commissioners individually responsible. Accruing interest on the unpaid judgment has already swelled the amount to $5,584.50.

INDEXING SUPREME COURT CASES. A bill has passed both Houses of the Legislature authorizing the Clerk of the Supreme Court to make a thorough index of the cases in that Court, from the date of its organization to the present time. Inasmuch as this will prove of great practical utility not only to the profession, but to outside parties, there is no doubt but that this Act will be approved by the Governor,--a recommendation in its favor having been signed by a large number of the members of the Bar of this city, and the State at large.

THOS. CHITTY, the famous legal author, has recently died in England at the ripe age of 79 years.

Interior Court Notes.

FRESNO COUNTY.-An injunction has been issued by the Thirteenth District Court in the case of the Bank of California against the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company, restraining. the latter from selling any more water rights, and forbidding the fulfilment of contracts already existing. The basis of the action was an agreement by which the latter was to deliver a certain amount of water on lands lying west of the Central California Colony, and agreeing to sell no water to other parties until this agreement was fully complied with--which contract the company failed to fulfil, the present managers claiming that the contract had been abrogated by the parties of the first part.

YOLO COUNTY.-The District Court, S. C. Denson Judge, met at Woodland on Tuesday, March 19th, a special term being held for the trial of a case which had been on the calendar a long time-the Woodland Ditch Company vs. the Clear Lake Water Works. The fact that forty witnesses were in attendance would indicate its importance. The motion of defendant for a non-suit was granted, and the Court adjourned.

SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.-The Stockton Daily Independent of March 27th, states that the fifteen Chinamen arrested on the charge of assault to murder a man on Union Island, were taken before Justice Hopkins the day previous, where their preliminary examination was postponed to April 6th. One of the number was released, there being no evidence against him. The others were remanded to jail to await the action of the Grand Jury at the term specified,

PLACER COUNTY.-On Monday, March 11th, on motion of W. H. Bullock, District Attorney of Placer County, an order was made transferring to the District Court the cases of P. Varnum, Albert Albert, Indian Charley, Indian Bill, and Hun Fook, indicted for murder, and after the transaction of other business, the Court adjourned to Monday, March 25th.

MONTEREY COUNTY.--At the March term of the District Court, which met at Salinas, Monday, March 18th, in the case of the People vs. Felippe Carillo, indicted for murder, N. A. Dorn was appointed Special District Attorney to prosecute in this case, which was set for trial on the 21st inst.

LAKE COUNTY.—A case was tried in a Lake County Court a short time, since in which a party sued for debt pleaded a

non-advertisement of a notice of copartnership by the plaintiffs, which was sustained by the Court.

SANTA CLARA COUNTY.-W. H. Patterson has commenced suit in the District Court against Henry M. Naglee to recover $5,718.17, for moneys alleged to have been collected and legal services rendered.

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY.-Judge Sepulveda has rendered a decision in the celebrated Dos Pueblos Ranch case in favor of plaintiffs upon every point. This settles the question of title as to Colonel Hollister and others.

AMADOR COUNTY.—The Grand Jury of Amador County was recently in session four days, the longest term held in that county for years,

Book Notice.

SAYLER'S AMERICAN FORM BOOK.—We have received from the well-known publishing firm of Robert Clarke & Co., of Cincinnati, a copy of this valuable work. It is, as its title imports, a national work, containing the most improved legal forms and instruments for the use of professional and business men, together with a statement of the law of deeds, mortgages, exemptions from executions, mechanics' liens, wills, etc., for all the States and Territories,-by J. R. Sayler, a well-known counsellor at law of the Ohio bar. The work exhibits remarkable industry and research, and great care has evidently been exercised in its preparation to insure correctness in every essential particular. It is issued in the handsome style for which the publishing house whose imprint it bears is so widely and justly celebrated.

Ir is our most earnest aim and desire to make the CALIFORNIA LEGAL RECORD a necessity to the legal profession on this Coast-and to this end we claim the countenance and sympathy of the profession, and shall always be pleased to accept and publish items and points of interest and value to the fraternity from the various Courts. There should be material found on the Pacific Coast to furnish a creditable law record without a too free appropriation of clippings from our Eastern cotemporaries. To our friends and patrons in all parts of the State, we extend the freedom of the RECORD office when in the city--and bring your friends.

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