Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 3).pdf/379

exhausted. The voters direct the issue and sale of certain bonds, but they cannot either issue or sell the bonds. This duty, in the absence of specific provisions to the contrary, devolves upon the governing officials of the corporation, viz: the school board. Section 1, Ch. 45, Laws 1883, provides that “the bond and each coupon shall be signed by the clerk of the school township, and countersigned by the director.” Nor is there any provision which authorizes the treasurer to cither issue, sign, or countersign the bond; nor is the treasurer, as such, authorized by law to sell or negotiate a sale of a school bond. Plaintiff assumes correctly that the duty of executing and issuing school bonds is devolved by law upon the school board, and plaintiff expressly charges in paragraph 6 of the complaint that the school board “did execute and did issue” the bonds. The truth of this averment is expressly admitted by the answer, and the testimony shows in detail how and in what way the bonds were “executed and issued.” They were signed and countersigned by the clerk and director, and, after being registered, were delivered to the cashier of the bank by the board, pursuant to some pre-existing arrangement, the terms of which are not fully disclosed by the evidence, but were obviously known to the board, and concurred in by all the members of the board. This delivery of the bonds to the cashier of the bank is and constitutes the issue of the bonds, which the complaint alleges was an act of the board. No other issue—no other delivery of the bonds—appears to have been made. The plaintiff has signally failed to offer any evidence tending to support the essential averment set out in the seventh paragraph of its complaint as follows: “That both of such school bonds * * * were placed in the hands and custody of William Haseleu, the treasurer of such school township, for the purpose of negotiation and sale; and that said William Haseleu did negotiate and make sale of said two school township bonds with one C. T. Ingersoll for the whole sum of nine hundred and fifty dollars cash.” Not only is there an entire failure to support this averment by proof, but the undisputed evidence negatives its truth, and shows beyond