Selkirk v. Board of Supervisors

An application for a mandamus, set forth, as the ground of this application, certain services and a claim for compensation, performed under the authority of an act of the legislature, by plaintiff, and that he had submitted his account to defendants (appointed by law to audit and allow like accounts) to be audited and allowed, who had refused to act in the premises. Defendants demurred to the application, and alleged as ground, that they did not see fit to allow the claim for compensation, which was a matter of discretion for them: Held, that the effect of the demurrer was to admit the truth of the facts alleged, and that while defendants had discretionary power to determine the amount of compensation, they cannot be permitted, in the same breath, to admit the right to compensation, and then refuse to grant it.