¶1Defendants, who are the successors in office of a former Board of Regents of the Missouri State Normal Schools, are not responsible individually, either for the acts of their predecessors, or for their own acts unless maliciously done. No principle of law .is better settled by the authorities than this, that persons holding official positions, positions giving them enlarged discretionary powers, cannot incur individual liability except on the ground just instanced. In Reed v. Conway, 20 Mo. 22, an extended review of the authorities occurs ; that case dominates this one. No cause of action is alleged in the petition, and, therefore, judgment reversed and petition dismissed.
73 Mo. 686
Edwards v. Ferguson
Decided April 15, 1881
Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1881-04-15
— Hon. G-. Porter, Judge. This was a suit to enforce against-the defendants a personal liability for having, as the petition alleged, wrongfully refused to pay plaintiffs a balance claimed to be due them on a contract for the erection of the Normal school-building at Kirksville. The contract was made by plaint- / ifts with the Board of Regents of the Missouri State Nor- i mal Schools, of which defendants were members.
Relies on Reed v. Conway
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Reversed · Decided 1881-04-15
How this case has been cited
Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently March 1914
11 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
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