Edward Douglass White

“ Nor is it in reason sound to say that, because the District commissioners have the power to sue and be sued, they have therefore the authority to enter into a contract to submit a claim preferred against the District to arbitration, and thus to oust the courts of jurisdiction, when no authority is conferred upon the commissioners to contract to pay a claim of the character embraced in the arbitration, and no appropriation had been made by congress for the payment of any such claim. ”

“ Indeed, the courts below held that the submission of the claim in question to arbitration was a purely common-law one, and not made under a statute or rule of court; and, in consequence of these views, the courts held it to be their duty to make the award executory by rendering a judgment thereon, on the assumption that the parties, having agreed to a common-law submission, were bound by reason thereof to abide by the award of the arbitrator.
The general rule is 'that every one who is capable of making a disposition of his property, or a release of his right, may make a submission to an award ”

“ Aside from the prohibition imposed on the commissioners of the District by the acts of congress against entering into contracts for the payment of money for any claim not specifically appropriated for, and agreement to submit the claim in question to the arbitrament of a single individual was, if valid, a contract binding the District to pay any sum of money which the arbitrator might award. ”

“ So, also, the power of a municipal corporation to arbitrate ariss from its authority to liquidate and settle claims, and the rule on this subject is thus stated by Dillon (Mun. Corp. [4th Ed.] § 478) :
'As a general proposition, municipal corporations have, unless specially restricted, the same powers to liquidate claims and indebtedness that natural persons have, and from that source proceeds power to adjust all disputed claims, and, when the amount is ascertained, to pay the same as other indebtedness. ”

“ The appropriation of money to improve streets was in no sense the appropriation of money to pay a claim for unliquidated damages arising, not for work and labor performed and materials furnished, but from the refusal to permit the performance of work and labor and the furnishing of materials. ”

“ On July 30, 1879, a contract for resurfacing with asphaltum certain streets in the city of Washington was awarded to the Bailey-French Paving Company. The agreement was embodied in a writing signed on the one part by Davis W. Bailey, as general agent of the company just named, and on the other part signed and sealed by the commissioners of the District of Columbia. The price specified for the work aggregated a little less than $41,000. ”

“ Such witnesses also testified that subsequently, when a question arose with respect to permitting an amended declaration to be filed, setting up a claim for an extra half inch of resurfacing, the referee and attorneys discussed as to whether the decision of the referee 'was to wind up finally the whole matter,' and an affirmative conclusion was arrived at. ”

“ Johnson was their arbitrator, and it was not for witness to serve them with a copy.'
The evidence was then closed. The trial judge granted a request of the defendant that the jury be instructed to render a verdict for the defendant in the first action, and an exception was duly noted on behalf of the administratrix. The trial judge also granted a request of counsel for the plaintiff, in substance that the jury be instructed to find for the plaintiff if they found from the evidence that the commissioners accepted the proposition contained in Mr. Williamson's letter ”