Board of County Commissioners v. Durnell
Board of County Commissioners v. Durnell
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff presented to defendant, the board of county commissioners of La Plata county, for allowance, a number of separate itemized bills or accounts for services claimed to have been rendered by him as county superintendent of schools. The bills were made out on printed blanks used for the purpose, and on the back of each was the following printed form:
‘ ‘ The amount of $........was allowed on the within account in full payment thereof, by order of the board of county commissioners on the........day of....., 189..... ........................
Chairmáp. ’ ’
When the bills were acted upon by the board it seems to have been the custom to fill out the proper blank space with the amount allowed, together with the date, and this was signed by the chairman of the
The facts of this case are quite similar to those of Rio Grande County v. Hobkirk, 13 Colo. App. 180, and they are not at all such as to bring the case within the rule announced in Board of Commissioners of La Plata County v. Morgan, 28 Colo. 322, 65 Pac. 41. The defendant’s plea was in the nature of accord and satisfaction, and to sustain it the burden was upon it to show by competent evidence every element necessary to constitute it.—Rio Grande County v. Hobkirk, supra. In this it wholly failed. There was no proof that the plaintiff had any knowledge that the board in the allowance of only a part of his claims at the time when presented, had prescribed or intended to prescribe as a condition that such allowance was to be taken in full satisfaction of the claim. Nor were any facts or circumstances shown which were equivalent to, or from which such knowledge on plaintiff’s part could be implied. Nor was it shown that plaintiff had any knowledge of the custom of the board, if such a custom existed, of prescribing as a condition when it disallowed a claim in part that the allowance should be accepted in full payment. This knowledge was shown in the'Morgan case, and was precisely that upon which the court based its opinion. It said: “It sufficiently appears from the record that defendant in error was cognizant of the mode of doing business by,
The judgment of the court was correct, and it will be affirmed.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.