Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 1).pdf/514

 sary amount to pay the same at the time agreed upon for their payment, notwithstanding such sum might exceed the limit fixed by the statutes for raising money by taxation for the purposes for which the debt was incurred. It seems to be the policy of the laws of this state to restrict the expenditures of the towns, cities, counties, and school districts within certain specified limits; and in the case of school districts it has put a very effectual restraint upon such expenditures by fixing a limit to the amount which can be lawfully collected from the tax-payers of the district for school purposes in any one year. To give proper force to these legislative restrictions it would seem necessary to restrain the district, as well as its officers, from contracting debts drawing interest, which can become a lawful charge upon the future resources thereof.”

The district could not estop itself from setting up this plea of ultra vires by any act on its part, nor could it ratify what it had no power originally to do, nor can it be made liable for the value received. The contract out of which the warrants grew was not merely beyond the power of the corporation; it was prohibited by the spirit and policy of the law. An express prohibition would not, as we construe the statute, add any strength to this view of the case. The law will not imply a promise to pay against its own prohibitions, nor will the courts suffer a policy once declared to be defeated by the receipt of the benefits of a contract which that policy condemns. The spirit of the legislation we have been considering is that these small and feeble corporations shall keep within very narrow bounds in their expenditures; and an implied liability for an amount in excess of that limit—perhaps enormously in excess—because of value received, would bring the wisdom and strength of a salutary policy to naught. The sovereign power, by limiting the capacity of the inhabitants of this as well as of other districts to contract indebtedness, determined to save them from the evil effects of temporary extravagance. This court is now asked by its judgment nevertheless to visit the consequences of such extravagances upon their heads. The doctrine that there is no implied liability against the law’s prohibition or policy is sound on principle, is supported by numerous prece-