Butcher v. Charles

• Decision Date: 09 November 1895
• Citation: 32 S.W. 631
• Parties: BUTCHER v. CHARLES et al.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 631

32 S.W. 631

BUTCHER v. CHARLES et al.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

November 9, 1895.

Appeal from chancery court, Hawkins county; H. G. Kyle, Chancellor.

Petition for writ of mandamus by M. J. Butcher against J. F. Charles and others. From a decree for petitioner, defendants appeal. Affirmed.

Smith & Chestnut, for complainant. Jarvis & Armstrong, for defendant.

CALDWELL, Special Judge.

This is a petition by a school teacher for mandamus upon school directors, requiring them to direct a county trustee to draw his warrant for an amount alleged to be due the teacher as part of his earned salary. The chancellor granted the preliminary alternative writ, and upon the hearing decreed that it be made peremptory. Defendants appeal.

On the 12th of July, 1894, J. W. Bailey and H. E. Dykes, school directors of the 18th district, Hawkins county, who appear to have been the only acting directors, employed M. J. Butcher to teach public school No. 3 of said district from August 6, 1894. A written contract was entered into in the following words: "State of Tennessee, Hawkins County. Contract with the directors of school district No. 18. This contract, entered into this 12th day of July, 1894, between the school directors of the 18th district of Hawkins county, state of Tennessee, witnesseth: That the said directors have engaged the said M. J. Butcher as a teacher of school No. 3 in said district from the 6th day of August, 1894, and agree to pay him the sum of twenty-five dollars per month for his services. The said M. J. Butcher agrees to give instructions in the studies required to be taught in said school, and prescribed by the school law, to such pupils as may attend the said school during the said term; to keep the record of said school accurately, according to law; to make at the end of each month, to the clerk of the district and to the said county superintendent, the report or summary prescribed by the school regulations; to deliver the register to the clerk of the district and the county superintendent, the teacher's abstract, properly filled out, every item, immediately after the close of the school; and discharge faithfully all other duties required by law of school teachers. It is agreed between the parties that the said teacher shall not be entitled to demand from the directors a warrant for the payment of his salary for any month until the said teacher has delivered to the school directors named above the report, register, or abstract which is at the time due from him. And it is further agreed that the directors may close the school whenever the average daily attendance for the month shall fall below 12 pupils, or whenever the funds for the support of the school shall be exhausted." At the August election, 1894, defendants, J. F. Charles, W. A. Harris, and E. Roark, were elected school directors of the district, to succeed the directors who had employed Butcher, and went into office in the succeeding September. School No. 3 was taught in a Methodist church, the property of that denomination. Shortly after the opening of the school, the new directors undertook to paint this church at a cost of about $50, using the school money. Petitioner Butcher and another filed a...