PURE OIL COMPANY, Claimant, ex. STATE OF ILLINOIS, Respondent.

Case summary

Claimant supplied gasoline and grease to the state for highway vehicles. The bill was submitted after the appropriation lapsed, but the court awarded the reasonable value because the claim was presented within a reasonable time and sufficient funds existed at purchase.

Claim type: Lapsed Appropriation

Cases cited: Rock Island Sand and Gravel Co. vs. State, 8 C. C. R. 165; Indian Motorcycle Co. vs. State, 9 C. C. R. 526; Wabash Telephone Co. vs. State, No. 3105, decided at the January Term, 1938

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Headnotes

Stipulation-lapse of appropriation out of which bill could be paid-before payment thereof-when award for may be made. The facts in this claim are the same as those in Rock Island Sand & Gravel Co. vs. State, 8 Court of Claims Reports, page 165 and Horst & Strieter Company, No. 3191, infra, and the opinions in said cases are controlling herein.

Claimant, pro se. OTTO KERNER, Attorney General; MURRAY F. MILNE, Assistant Attorney General, for respondent.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE HOLLERICH delivered the opinion of the court:

From the stipulation of facts herein it appears that between June 6th and June 20th, 1937, the claimant, pursuant [*322] to proper authorization, order and request furnished and delivered to the respondent at Naperville, for use in connection with the operation and maintenance of certain motor vehicles used by the Division of Highways, Department of Public Works and Buildings of the respondent, thirty-six gallons of gas and eleven pounds of grease; that the usual and customary charge therefor at that time and place was $9.14; that no bill therefor was presented prior to September 30th, 1937, the date on which the appropriation lapsed out of which payment should have been made; that at the time such merchandise was purchased, there was an unexpended balance in the appropriation out of which payment should have been made, sufficient to pay such claim in full.

We have repeatedly held that where supplies have been furnished to the State on the order or request of an official authorized to purchase the same, and a bill therefor has been submitted within a reasonable time, but the same has not been approved and vouchered for payment before the lapse of the appropriation from which it is payable, without any fault or neglect on the part of the claimant, an award for the reasonable value of such supplies will be made, where at the time of the purchase thereof, there were sufficient funds remaining unexpended in the proper appropriation to pay for the same. Rock Island Sand and Gravel Co. vs. State, 8 C. C. R. 165; Indian Motorcycle Co. vs. State, 9 C. C. R. 526; Wabash Telephone Co. vs. State, No. 3105, decided at the January Term, 1938.

Claimant presented its claim within a reasonable time, and under the facts and the law as above set forth, is entitled to an award.

Award therefore is entered in favor of the claimant for the sum of Nine Dollars and Fourteen Cents ($9.14).