Arkansas Supreme Court; Edgar A. McCulloch; Jesse C. Hart; Carroll D. Wood; Burrill B. Battle

“ No one can have a vested right to sue the State. The State can either extend or withhold the right. All who contract with the State must do so with full knowledge that they must rely solely upon the legislative branch for performance of the contract and for satisfaction of the State's just obligations. Even the privilege of suing the State, when once extended, does not afford the basis of a vested right to sue or to prosecute to termination a suit once commenced ”

“ The board was not representing the State at all when they passed the resolution annulling the contract and ordering the convicts taken away from the Brick Company.
"No principle is more firmly established than that when an officer exceeds his authority his acts are individual acts only, and do not bind the State. The State is liable only to the extent of the power actually given its officers, and not to the extent of their apparent authority." ”

“ Such a defendant, sued as a wrongdoer, who seeks to substitute the State in his place, or to justify by authority of the State, or to defend on the ground that the State has adopted his act and exonerated him, can not rest on the bare assertion of his defense, but is bound to establish it; and, as the State is a political corporate body, which can act only through agents and command only by laws, in order to complete his defense, he must produce a valid law of the State which constitutes his commission as its agent and warrant for his act. ”

“ The State can only speak through the legislative department, which is the mouthpiece of the sovereign; and the Legislature can lawfully pass no law impairing the obligation of contracts. It is and has been the law from time immemorial that a public agent acting without the scope of his authority without authority of law can not shield himself behind the sovereign, the State, but where injury is thereby done to private citizens, the officer or agent is a trespasser and personally liable in damages. ”

“ The Legislature had not even attempted to vest them with power to destroy or to impair the obligations of the contract which they were authorized to make. The Supreme Court of the United States has quite recently decided that: "The attempt of a State officer to enforce an unconstitutional statute is a proceeding without authority of, and does not affect, the State in its sovereignty or governmental capacity, and is an illegal act, and the officer is stripped of his official character, and is subjected in his person to the consequences of his individual conduct." ”

“ From it no rights can be obtained. Being worthless in itself, all proceedings founded upon it are equally worthless. It neither binds nor bars any one. All acts performed under it and all acts flowing out of it are void. ”

“ If officers acting under an unconstitutional statute can be restrained from committing acts of wrong and injury to the vested rights of a complainant under a contract with the State, for a much stronger reason will officers be restrained from invading and destroying the rights of another under a contract with the State where such officers are acting without any color of authority whatever. ”

“ State, 80 Ark. 579.
In considering this question, the distinction must not be overlooked between the violation of a preliminary injunction preserving the status quo of the subject-matter of the litigation during the pendency thereof, and the final decrees of courts requiring the parties to do or not to do the things enjoined upon them by such decrees. In the latter cases, if the decree was rendered without jurisdiction, it can be disobeyed with impunity, for no one owes obedience to a void decree, as it is without any force whatever. "A void judgment is, in legal effect, no judgment. ”

“ The Board of Commissioners of Arkansas State Penitentiary failed often to comply with that contract by furnishing the Arkansas Brick & Manufacturing Company with the labor of convicts as it had agreed to do, and upon each of such failures and during the life of the contract promised to furnish the company with such labor until it had furnished all it had contracted to do, and adopted resolutions to that effect, and caused them to be spread at length upon its minutes. ”

“ In other words, the complaint sets forth an alleged contract entered into with the Penitentiary Board, evidenced partly by the original and amended writings, and partly by the minutes of the board, to furnish the aggregate amount of convict labor provided for in the written contract. These allegations can only be construed to mean that the board agreed to continue to furnish convict labor to plaintiff until the aggregate amount specified in the contract should be supplied. ”

“ We are convinced, however, from a careful consideration of the testimony adduced at the hearing, that Pitcock, after receiving actual notice of the issuance of the injunction, evaded the service of the writ by the sheriff, and intentionally violated its terms by withdrawing the convicts from the premises and works of said plaintiff, pursuant to the resolution adopted by the Board of Penitentiary Commissioners. ”