Melville Fuller

“ The supreme court of Indiana held that the note, which was signed, 'Trustee of Sugar Creek Township, Indiana,' was, under the circumstances, the note of the township, and not of the trustee individually; that a municipal or quasi corporation can make, in a proper case, a promissory note, and thereby bind itself for any debt contracted in the course of its legitimate business, for any expenses incurred in any matter or thing which it is authorized to do, or any matter which is not foreign to the purposes of its creation ”

“ Since township trustees can issue obligations binding on the township only in case a debt has been contracted, and since, in any event, paper issued as evidence of an actual indebtedness already incurred by a municipal corporation, which possesses only limited powers, conferred for special and local purposes, of a purely noncommercial character, is not negotiable according to the law merchant, a subsequent holder of paper issued by a township trustee can occupy no better ground than that occupied by the person to whom it was issued. ”

“ But a writing purporting to be evidence of such indebtedness could not create it. And, in respect of school supplies, the supreme court of Indiana has decided 'again and again that a township trustee has no power, by any form of obligation, to bind the corporation of which he is the agent or trustee by contract for school supplies, unless supplies suitable and reasonably necessary have been actually delivered to and received by the township.' Boyd v. ”