Thrift v. Ammidon

Pattison, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case the appellees, the Board of Police Commissioners of the City of Baltimore, filed their petition against the appellant, James F. Thrift, Comptroller of the City of Baltimore, asking that the writ of mandamus issue “commanding him to pay over the sum of $535.00 to pay the bill of the Baltimore City Printing and Binding Company, and to pay over all future requisitions for such sums of money as the petitioners may from time to time deem necessary for the purpose of discharging the duty imposed upon them, and to enable them to carry out the objects and intentions of the law pertaining to the Police Department of said City, and certified to the Mayor and City Council as provided for in section 747 of Article 4 of the Public Local Laws of Baltimore City, and which may have been collected by the City Collector of Baltimore, and delivered to the Comptroller of the City of Baltimore for the Board of Police Commissioners.” The petition alleges, in addition to other facts that need not be stated in arriving at our decision, that the petitioners, on the first day of January, 1915, made requisition on the appellant for the sum of $2,507.94, of which sum $535.00 was for the payment of a bill of the Baltimore City Printing and Binding Company which the appellant, on the 2nd day of January thereafter, declined and refused to pay, alleging as his reason therefor that no proposal for awarding said contract was advertised, as required by the provisions of section 14 of the City Charter, as amended by Chapter 429 of the ¹²⁸ Acts of 1912, and that said contract was not approved by the Board of Estimates, as required by Chapter 539 of the Acts of 1914. The appellant in his answer to the petition admits that the Board of Police Commissioners, as alleged in the petition, made requisition upon him for the payment of the aforesaid bill of the Baltimore City Printing and Binding Company for the said sum of $535.00, and that he refused to pay the same for the reasons alleged in the petition. In his answer he further admits “that there is an appropriation to the Board of Police Commissioners in the Ordinance of Estimates, for 1915, out of which said bill would be payable if properly contracted.” A demurrer to the answer was sustained and, as stated in the order sustaining the demurrer, the facts being admitted in the answer, it was ordered by the Court below that the writ of mandamus issue against the appellant, directing and requiring him to pay over the aforesaid sum of $535.00 to the Board of Police Commissioners to pay the aforesaid bill of the Baltimore City Printing and Binding Company; and “that he be further directed and required to pay over all future requisitions which the Board of Police Commissioners for the City of Baltimore may make from time to time for money levied and collected by the City Collector for the Board of Police Commissioners, and turned over to the City Comptroller of the City of Baltimore to be paid to said Board of Police Commissioners as provided for in section 747 of Article 4 of the Code of Public Local Laws for Baltimore,” etc. It is from the order sustaining the demurrer and granting the writ of mandamus that this appeal is taken.

This appeal presents the question whether the Board of Police Commissioners are subject to the provisions of the aforesaid section 14 of the City Charter as amended by section 429 of the