McShane v. Dover

By the agreement of the parties, a narrow question only is presented. Had the police commissioners or the members of the police department authority to obtain the service sued for at the expense of the city? The only inference possible from the agreed facts as to the making of annual appropriations for the department and the use of the same for ordinary expenses is that the city represented the officials of the department as authorized, under such rules as might be established by the police commissioners, to pledge the credit of the city for the ordinary expenses of the department to the…