Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1908 — PUBLIC OFFICERS BEWARE. [ARTICLE]

PUBLIC OFFICERS BEWARE.

The Appellate court handed down a strong decision this week in the case of McNay vs. the town of Lowell, affirming the decision of the lower court, holding that “A member of a board of town trustees, who' sold coal to the town occasionally when the coal supplied by the contractors for running the water works and electric light plant ran short, and received payment, is liable to the town for all the money so received, without any return by the town of an equivalent for the coal delivered to and burned by it. 2. It is no defense to an action by the town to recover such money that such trustee pold the coal at a price which yielded him no profit and was prompted by honest motives (Section 2136, Burns, 1901), making all such contracts between a town and its officers criminal. 3. Showing that there was another retail coal dealer in the town, and that said officer delivered an aggregate of 496 tons at fifty different times, at Intervals of about two weeks, whenever the engineer permitted the supply of coal at the water works and lighting plant to run out, and that the engines ■‘must have stopped if coal had not been furnished does not establish any such emergencies as justified the officer in selling to the town, since it was a part of his official duty to keep the plant supplied with coal procured in a lawful manner.”