Cowin & Co. v. City of Merrill

The distinction is well established between the responsibilities of a municipality for acts done in its public capacity in the discharge of duties imposed upon it by the legislature for the benefit of the public, and acts done in what may be styled its private corporate or business capacity. An express statute is necessary to render municipal corporations liable to private actions for omission to perform a corporate duty imposed by general law from the performance of which the municipalities derive no compensation or benefit in their corporate capacity. The legislature by its act creating…