Board of Education of Clarke County v. Blan

• Citation: 218 Ala. 665,120 So. 145
• Decision Date: 31 January 1929
• Docket Number: 3 Div. 866.
• Parties: BOARD OF EDUCATION OF CLARKE COUNTY v. BLAN, STATE AUDITOR.
• Court: Supreme Court of Alabama

120 So. 145

218 Ala. 665

BOARD OF EDUCATION OF CLARKE COUNTY v. BLAN, STATE AUDITOR.

3 Div. 866.

Supreme Court of Alabama

January 31, 1929

Appeal from Circuit Court, Montgomery County; Walter B. Jones Judge.

Petition of the County Board of Education of Clarke County for mandamus to S. H. Blan, as State Auditor of Alabama. Judgment for respondent, and petitioner appeals. Affirmed.

Adams &amp Gillmore, of Grove Hill, for appellant.

Charlie C. McCall, Atty. Gen., and Thos. E. Knight, Jr., Asst. Atty Gen., for appellee.

BOULDIN J.

This is a mandamus proceeding, instituted in the court below to require the state auditor to draw a warrant on the state treasury for $10,000 in favor of the county board of education of Clarke county, pursuant to legislative act of September 6, 1927. Acts 1927, p. 607. Questions for review go to the constitutionality of this act.

The fund was originally given by the Sage Land & Improvement Company to Grove Hill high school, to be held as an endowment, to be invested and the interest used to keep the buildings and grounds in repair and equipment complete. Later the property passed to the state for county high school purposes, the donor and trustees of the fund agreeing with the high school commission that this fund be turned over to the management and control of the state in connection with the lands, buildings, and equipment, as soon as suitable legislation could be had. Accordingly, the fund was paid into the state treasury pursuant to a local act of August 20, 1915. Local Acts 1915, p. 74.

This act of 1915, reciting in its title the above facts, authorized payment of the fund into the state treasury, "vesting the same in the state of Alabama as trustee for the Clarke county high school," and further enacted that the "state *** shall pay six per cent. per annum interest on said fund to the treasurer of the Clarke county high school, for the purpose of keeping said building and grounds in repair and the equipment complete so long as the same shall be operated by state aid," under the High School Law, and providing further that, if state aid was withdrawn, the fund should revert to Grove Hill high school, and in such event warrants for the annual interest be drawn in favor of the treasurer of the latter high school.

The act of 1927 is entitled an act "to repeal a local law" (the act of 1915, setting out its title in full), "and to authorize the transfer of said trust fund of ten thousand dollars from the state of Alabama to the county board of education of Clarke county, Alabama."

The body of the act is in three sections. By section 1 the act of 1915 is expressly repealed. By section 2 the auditor is directed to draw his warrant for the sum of $10,000 and accrued interest in favor of the county board of education of Clarke county. Section 3 reads: "That said fund shall be received by said county board of education of Clarke county Alabama, and expended by said board for...