Case Name: THE CLEMENTS BROTHERS' CONSTRUCTION COMPANY v. THE CITY OF CLEVELAND, OHIO
Court: Ohio Circuit Court
Jurisdiction: Ohio
Decision Date: 1901-01
Citations: 22 Ohio C.C. 152
Docket Number: 
Parties: THE CLEMENTS BROTHERS’ CONSTRUCTION COMPANY v. THE CITY OF CLEVELAND, OHIO
Judges: Before Caldwell, Hate and Marvin, JJ.
Reporter: Reports of cases argued and determined in the circuit courts of Ohio
Volume: 22
Pages: 152–160

Head Matter:
(Eighth Circuit—Cuyahoga County O., Circuit C’t
Jan. Term, 1901.)
Before Caldwell, Hate and Marvin, JJ.
THE CLEMENTS BROTHERS’ CONSTRUCTION COMPANY v. THE CITY OF CLEVELAND, OHIO
Control of legislature over municipal public works. ,
■(1.) The state, acting through its legislature, has absolute power and control over all the public works within the state, undertaken and carried on with public funds, whether the work be paid for by a municipality or by the state at large, and those who let the contracts, superintend the construction, audit the bills and pay them, are in such work but .the agents of the state, .whether the agency be created by the provisions of a charter or by special enactment.
Same — Municipal corporation agent of state—
,(2.) A municipal corporation is simply an agency of the state for the conduct of the affairs of government and- therefore subject to the control of the legislature in all respects, except as limited by the constitution.
Power of state to compel municipal corpofations. to pay current wages—
<3.) It is competent for a state, by its legislature, to provide that its .agents and -agencies, wherever throughout the state they may be situated, in the doing of a public work, shall pay the going wages wherever the work is to be done by day’s work; and whenever it is to be done by contract, that the agent • wherever situated, shall put into the contract that it executes by authority of the state, a provision that the contractor shall pay such rate.
Legality of municipal contracts incorporating such a statute—
< (4.) A successful bidder for a municipal-contract, upon being awarcled and voluntarily executing the contract, into which! is incorporated the provisions of a statute, that labor to be performed under the contract, must be paid for by the contractor at the going rate, is bound by the terms of the contract, although the statute itself may be declared unconstitutional.
Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga county.
Wilcox, Collister, Hogan & Parmely; Weed & Meals, for Plaintiff in Error.
• ■ Hogsett, Beacom, Excell, Gage & Carey, for Defendant in Error.

Opinion:
Cardwell, J.
There is really no opinion in this case, for we have preferred .to adopt others that we have found rather than to write one • of our own.
The opinion referred to in the pamphlet from New York State (The People of the State of New York ex rel., Rodgers, Respondent, v. Bird S. Coler, Comptroller of the City of New York, Appellant, rendered February 26, 1901,) is, on the part of the majority of the Court, a well-reasoned opinion, and one that we think, lays down the law of this case, and we follow the law there laid dowm; that is, the majority of the Court do.
There is another case, 41 Neb., 127, that has a law very much like the one that is being contested in this court, and we like the reasoning in that case very much.
In 62 Amer. State Rep., 176, there is a note that discusses .much of the litigation on this question, and it shows that the courts are not unanimous, and, as a rule, the opinion of the judges of a court passing upon the law, is not by a unanimous court, the opinion being by the majority only. Some "Courts have stood equally divided. But we follow these opinions, although it would seem from the adjudications that often times the opinion is the other -way.
(Court of Appeals of the State of New York.)
•Tlile People of THE STATE of NEW YORK, on the relation of ' WILLIAM J. ROGERS, v. BIRD S. COLER, as Comptroller of the City of New York.
O'Brien, J.
Lándon, J. (Concurring)
Parker, C. J., (Dissenting)
' • Haight/ J- (Dissenting)
EXTRACTS FROM OPINION'/'
Refusal of comptroller based upon violation of the Labor Law (Chap. 415 of the Laws of 1897, as amended by Chap-192, aiid Chap. 567 of the Laws of 1899), °f the state of New York.
•CITATIONS.