Commissioners of the Canal Fund v. Perry
Ohio Supreme Court
This suit was brought in the name of Ethan Allen Brown, Ebenezer Buckingham, and Simon Perkins, described as commissioners of the canal fund. The declaration was in assumpsit; the plea, the general issue.
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This suit was brought in the name of Ethan Allen Brown, Ebenezer Buckingham, and Simon Perkins, described as commissioners of the canal fund. The declaration was in assumpsit; the plea, the general issue. At the trial in Cuyahoga county, the plaintiffs gave in evidence a contract subscribed by the defendant, with others, in the following words: “ We, the undersigned subscribers, do hereby promise to *pay the commissioners of the canal fund of the State of Ohio, for the use of said fund, the sums severally annexed to our names, in three several equal installments, the first on January 1, A. d.…
1Opinion of the Court
Judge Wright
delivered the opinion of the court:
The first question claiming our attention in this case is, whether the subscription paper, upon which the suit is founded, affords a legal foundation for the action? It has been repeatedly decided in this state and elsewhere, that promises to pay money for the erection of school and court-houses, churches and bridges, would, the work being undertaken or done, sustain the action of assump.sit. A moral obligatiou is sufficient to support an action on an express promise. 6 Mass. *40; 3 Mass. 483. The subscription we are now called to examine does not…
2Cases cited8 opinions
- Conard v. Atlantic Ins. Co. of NYSupreme Court of the United States · 1828
- Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts v. Town of PawletSupreme Court of the United States · 1830
- Hodgson v. DexterSupreme Court of the United States · 1803
- Medway Cotton Manufactory v. AdamsMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1813
- Gilmore v. PopeMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1809
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3Cited by1 opinion
- Hassenzahl v. BevinsLucas Circuit Court · 1902