The Mayor's Right to Fight City Hall
A landmark Washington Supreme Court ruling affirmed a mayor's authority to hire private counsel when the city's own legal department refused to defend the city against an illegal bond ordinance.
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The Washington State Supreme Court has rendered a decision in the case of John P. Soule and others against the city of Seattle that holds significant weight for municipal law. In 1892, the city council passed an ordinance authorizing street grade warrants, intending to reduce interest rates, but in effect creating a new municipal debt without a public vote. Mayor Harry White refused to sign the warrants, citing their illegality. The council passed the ordinance over his veto. When W. T. Chalk demanded bonds in lieu of these warrants and was refused by the mayor, he sued for a writ of mandamus. Corporation Counsel Jacobs, who had advised the council, refused to represent the mayor in court. Consequently, Mayor White hired the private firm of Wiley, Scott & Bostwick to defend his actions. The Supreme Court has now held that the mayor was not only right in his refusal to sign the bonds but that it was his sworn duty to defend the city’s charter, and that the city must pay the reasonable value of the services rendered by the private attorneys he hired in this emergency.
“It is evident from the general tenor of this charter that it was the endeavor of its framers to require authority for every sort of expenditure to emanate from some legally constituted source and in a formal and unmistakable way.”
This 1894 case underscores the enduring tension between a city's executive and legislative branches, especially when local governance conflicts with charter obligations. It serves as an early precedent for the 'emergency' powers of public officials to uphold the law even when their own legal departments or council allies stand against them.
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