Page:United States Reports, Volume 1.djvu/151

140 

1785.

confideration, the Plaintiff had affigned the debt, and the defendant had undertaken to pay it to him accordingly.

Thefe facts being made to appear, faid they would not allow any collufive fettlement between the original parties, in affect General Foremen's bona ʃide affignment, and ordered the jury to be fworn. And M‘KEAN, Chieƒ Juʃtice, obferved, that where as action was brought under fuch circumftances, it ought to be mentioned upon the docket for whole ufe ; a practice which had always prevailed when he was at the bar. 

T was ruled in this cafe, that a relation of a fuperior and inferior officer, does not, of itfelf, bind the former to pay the contracts of the latter, whether in the ftaff or line. But if the inferior officer had an authority to contract, and having obtained the money for the ufe of the army, applied it accordingly, in fuch cafe THE COURT inclined to think, that the fuperior would be liable for the debt, provided he had fufficient public funds to difcharge it.