Abbott Realty Co. v. City of Charlotte

CoNNOR, J. The evidence offered by plaintiff at the trial of this action fails to show liability on the part of defendant to plaintiff by reason of a valid contract binding on the defendant, for the amount expended by plaintiff in payment of. the cost of the construction of sewers along and under streets of the defendant city. The defendant is a municipal corporation, organized under the laws of this State. Its governing body has the power, expressly conferred by statute, to make contracts for the acquisition by purchase or otherwise, and for the construction of sewers. O. S., 2805. The governing body of defendant is its board of commissioners. This board is composed of three commissioners: (1) the commissioner of public works, (2) the commissioner of public safety, and (3) the mayor and commissioner of administration and finance. C. S., 2874, and C. S., 2875. It is expressly provided by statute that this board “shall make or authorize the making of all contracts, and no contracts shall bind or be obligatory upon the city unless either made by ordinance or resolution adopted by the board of commissioners, or reduced to writing and approved by the board, or expressly authorized by ordinance or resolution adopted by the board. All contracts and all ordinances and resolutions making contracts shall be drawn by the city attorney or submitted to such officer before the same are made or passed.” C. S., 2881. There was no evidence tending to show that the board of commissioners of the defendant city made or expressly authorized its commissioner of public safety to make a contract with the plaintiff relative to the construction of sewers, as alleged in the complaint. In the absence of such evidence, defendant cannot be held liable to plaintiff in this action upon such contract. The power conferred by statute upon the board of commissioners of defendant city, as its governing body, to make or to authorize the making of contracts binding upon the city, must be exercised by said board in strict conformity to statutory provisions. It is provided by statute that no contract for construction work, the estimated cost of which amounts to or exceeds one thousand .dollars, shall be awarded by a municipal corporation unless proposals for the same shall have been invited by advertisement once in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the city, and that all such proposals shall be opened in public. C. S., 2830. It is also provided by statute that all contracts made by any department, board, or commission of a municipal corporation in which the amount involved is two hundred dollars or more, shall be in writing, and no such contract shall be deemed to have been made or *568 executed until signed by tbe officer authorized by law to sign such contract. O. S., 2831. There was evidence tending to show that the board of commissioners of defendant city by the payment to plaintiff of the sum of $3,001.86, ratified the agreement made with plaintiff by the commissioner of public works of defendant city. However, a municipal corporation is not bound by the action of its governing body in ratifying a contract which such body had no power to make in the first instance, or which was made without compliance with statutory provisions which are mandatory with respect to the manner in which such contract may be made. If the law were otherwise, such statutory provisions would be nugatory. ¥e must, therefore, hold that upon all the evidence offered at the trial of this action, defendant is not liable to plaintiff for the amount which plaintiff paid for the cost of the construction of the sewers. It does not follow, however, that plaintiff is not entitled to recover in this action. There was evidence tending to show that after the sewers were constructed and paid for by the plaintiff, defendant took them over and incorporated them into its municipal sewerage system. This evidence should have been submitted to the jury upon an appropriate issue involving plaintiff’s contention that defendant is liable to it upon a quantum m&ruit. Notwithstanding the failure of plaintiff to sustain its contention that defendant is liable to it on the contract alleged in the complaint, the defendant should be and is liable for the reasonable and just value of the sewers, if the jury shall find that after their construction, defendant took them over and incorporated them into its municipal sewerage system. McPhail v. Commissioners, 119 N. C., 330, 25 S. E., 958. There was error in the judgment dismissing the action as of nonsuit. The judgment must be Eeversed.