David Josiah Brewer

“ Such a contract could only be made by the district board as a board. It appeared affirmatively that there was no meeting of the board; that it was signed by the two members, not after consultation, but by each separately, and at a different time from the other. ”

“ In that case the contract was executory, and the bonds had not been delivered, but were still within the control of the county. The special session, with only a fraction of the board present, was fraudulently intended and fraudulently brought about, and the railway company was the wrongdoer. The illegality of the session was not a matter of inference, but a fact alleged and admitted.
The case in 27 Kan. is even stronger. That was a suit on a written contract, signed by two members of a school-district board, the board consisting of three. ”

“ More in point is the case of Scott v. Paulen, 15 Kan. 162, 167, in which a session of a board of county commissioners was held to be valid at which only two out of the three members were present; and the record failed to show either an adjournment to that date, or a call for a meeting at that time, but did show that it was not held on the regular days of session ”

“ But it is further insisted that, even if the bonds were valid, the coupons were not, because coupons are not named in the section of the statute authorizing the issue of the bonds. But coupons are simply instruments containing the promise to pay interest, and the express authority was to issue bonds bearing interest. ”

“ Board of Ed., 33 Kan. 692, 7 Pac. Rep. 561, is a sufficient answer to this contention. Topeka, like Atchison, had been a city of the second class, and became by mere increase in population a city of the first class ”