Davis v. State

McFARLAND, J. This is an action to recover the amount due upon certain interest coupons which were attached to bonds issued by the state of California under an act passed February 15, 1851, “together with legal interest thereon from the respective dates of maturity of said coupons.” The court below rendered judgment for the amount of the coupons, as shown by their face, but refused to give judgment for interest upon said coupons, as prayed for by plaintiff. Plaintiff appeals from the judgment.

The coupons sued on were attached to certain bonds which are generally known as the “Indian war bonds.” The facts with respect to said bonds are fully stated in the opinions of this court in the cases of Sawyer v. Colgan, 102 Cal. 283, and Molineux v. State, 109 Cal. 378, 50 Am. St. Rep. 49, and there need be no further statement of them here. (See, also, Stats. 1851, p. 520.) Appellant contends that the court below erred in not giving [211]judgment for interest on the coupons from the date of their maturity, and this is the only alleged error for which a reversal is asked.

The question here raised by appellant was before this court in the two cases above cited, and was determined against his present contention. When Sawyer v. Colgan, supra, was decided, there ’ was in existence no statute or law allowing the state to be sued; and in that case the plaintiff brought mandamus against Colgan, the state controller, to compel him to draw his warrants for certain bonds and coupons issued under the said act of 1851, with interest upon the same from the dates of their maturity, but •this court held that “the state is not liable to pay interest on its debts, unless its consent to do so has been manifested by an act of the legislature or some lawful contract of its executive officers, (United States v. North Carolina, 136 U. S. 211; Carr v. State, 127 Ind. 204; 22 Am. St. Rep., 624.)” This was a direct adjudication that interest upon the coupons sued for in the case at bar cannot be recovered against the state.

Afterward, on February 28, 1893, the legislature passed an act allowing itself to be sued (Stats. 1893, p. 57); and appellant contends that some new right is given him, with respect to interest on these coupons, by said last-mentioned act. Shortly after this act went into effect one Molineux commenced an action against the state upon certain coupons detached from said Indian war bonds of 1851, identical in character with those sued on here, and sought to recover interest upon the coupons from their respective dates of maturity. That case was, therefore, identical in every respect with the case at bar. The court below ren-' dered judgment in favor of Molineux, for the coupons and interest, as there prayed for; but on appeal this court modified the judgment of the lower court by disallowing the interest, and held that no right to recover interest on said coupons had been created by the said act of February 28, 1893. (Molineux v. State, supra.)