Texas Attorney General Opinion: V-995 Page: 3 of 4
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Hon. William L. Taylor, page 3 (V-995)
Wie will now consider your second question. In
City of San Antonio v. French,80 Tex. 575, 16 S.W. 440
T1891), it is stated:
"It may be that when a municipal cor-
poration has received the, benefit of a
contract, which it had the power to make
but which was not legally entered into, it
may be compelled to do justice, and to pay
the consideration, or at least to pay for
what it has received. In such cases it is
said that the law will imply a contract . .
As said by Mr. Justice Field in the case of
Gas Co. v. San Francisco, 9 Cal. 453: 'When
the contract is executory, the corporation
cannot be held bound unless the contract is
made in pursuance of the provisions of its
charter; but where the contract is execut-
ed, and the corporation has enjoyed the
benefit of the consideration, an implied
assumpsit arises against it.'"
In Sluder v. City of San Antonio, 2 S.W.2d 841,
(Tex.Comm.App.1928) the following is stated:
"Since the decision in the French Case
our courts have uniformly announced the
doctrine that where a county or municipal-
ity receives benefits under a contract,
illegal because not made in conformity with
the Constitution or statute of the state.,
or charter provision of the city, it will
be held liable on an implied contract for
the reasonable value of the benefits which
it may have received. In other words, while
such contracts are void, and no recovery is
permitted thereon, our courts hold that com-
mon honesty and fair dealing require that a
county or municipality should not be permit-
ted to receive the benefit of money, property,
or services, without paying just compensation
therefore. Under such circumstances, a pri-
vate corporation would clearly be liable under
an implied contract. There can be no sound
reason why the same obligation to do justice
should not rest upon a municipal corporation."
(Emphasis ours)
You are therfore advised that it is our opin-
ion that the Commissioners' Court of Harrison County may,
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: V-995, text, February 3, 1950; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth265814/m1/3/: accessed July 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.