Carter v. City of Baltimore, 168

• Decision Date: 11 April 1951
• Docket Number: No. 168,168
• Citation: 80 A.2d 19,197 Md. 507
• Parties: CARTER et al. v. CITY OF BALTIMORE et al.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 507

197 Md. 507

80 A.2d 19

CARTER et al. v. CITY OF BALTIMORE et al.

No. 168.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

April 11, 1951.

Willis R. Jones, Baltimore (A. Risley Ensor and John K. Barbour, Jr., Baltimore, on the brief), for appellants.

C. Keating Bowie, Jr., Baltimore (Isaac Hecht, Thomas N. Biddison, City Solicitor and Lloyd G. McAllister, Asst. City Solicitor, all of Baltimore, on the brief), for appellees.

Before MARBURY, C. J., and DELAPLAINE, COLLINS, GRASON, HENDERSON and MARKELL, JJ.

DELAPLAINE, Judge.

This is the second appeal in the injunction suit brought by John M. Carter and other taxpayers to restrain the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and the board of trustees of the Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore City from closing the branch library in the Mt. Washington section and from transferring the use of the building to the Board of School Commissioners.

The Pratt Library was incorporated by Act of the Maryland Legislature in 1882, after Enoch Pratt, a resident of Baltimore, had offered to build a free library on Mulberry Street at a cost of $250,000 and to convey it when completed to the City of Baltimore, and also to give $833,333.33 on condition that the City would agree to pay $50,000 annually to a board of trustees for the maintenance of the Central Library and not less than four branches. The Act empowered the Mayor and City Council to accept the offer and to agree by ordinance, subject to the approval of the voters of the city, to make the stipulated annual payment. The Act made provision for a board of trustees with authority 'to do all necessary things for the control and management of said library and its branches.' It directed that the trustees shall make an annual report of their proceedings and of the condition of the library and its branches, with a full account of the moneys received and expended by them. It also provided that, in case of any abuse of the powers of the trustees, the Mayor and City Council shall have the right to resort to the proper courts to enforce the performance of the trust. Laws of 1882, ch. 181.

In 1883 Mr. Pratt and his wife deeded the Central Library to the Mayor and City Council. The deed authorized the City and the Library, by joint action, to sell and convey the real estate 'for the purposes of the trust,' the proceeds to be invested in other property for the same purposes.

In 1906 James A. Gary, president of the board of trustees, wrote a letter to Andrew Carnegie expressing the hope that he would feel disposed to render aid in the extension of library work in Baltimore. Mr. Carnegie replied that it would give him great pleasure to provide $500,000 for the City of Baltimore to erect twenty branch library buildings 'conditioned on a resolution of Council agreeing to maintain free public libraries in the buildings at a cost of not less than 10 per cent of that of the buildings themselves; conditioned also on sites being found for the buildings by the city.'

Mr. Carnegie explained in his letter that it was on those terms that he had furnished branch library buildings for New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and other cities. He then added: 'I have unusual pleasure in making this offer at your suggestion, remembering my dear friend, Enoch Pratt, whose donation to Baltimore for public libraries was one of the first that came to my notice. * * * I trust that the branch libraries in Baltimore will be considered part of his scheme and not a new departure. The libraries should be called the Enoch Pratt Branch Libraries.'

On May 11, 1907, the Mayor and City Council passed an ordinance accepting Mr. Carnegie's offer and agreeing to maintain the branch libraries 'by a yearly provision in the tax levy of a sum not less than ten per centum of the amount given by said Andrew Carnegie for the construction of each of said buildings, such annual appropriation by the Mayor and City Council to be expended by said Trustees for the maintenance as aforesaid in such manner as may be specified from year to year in the Ordinance of Estimates.'

Complainants alleged that the site for the Mt. Washington branch library was selected by the City and the library trustees in co-operation with relatives of John M. Carter, deceased. The site, which is located at Smith and Greeley Avenues, was bought by the City in 1919. The purchase price was $4,500, half of which was appropriated by the City, and the other half contributed by two children and two grandchildren of Mr. Carter. When the library was completed in 1920, two plaques were placed upon it, one stating that the building was erected from the fund given by Andrew Carnegie, the other that the acquisition of the site was made possible by the family of the late John M. Carter. Complainants contended that the trustees do not have exclusive authority to close the branch library, and that the property cannot be sold unless the sale is authorized by municipal ordinance.

On the contrary, the trustees claimed that their plan to sell the library is wise, not only because it will be for the benefit of the taxpayers of Baltimore, but also because it will provide better library service for the residents of Mt. Washington. The trustees reported that they had paid nearly $50,000 for a site for a new branch library in the Pimlico section about a mile and a half from the Mt. Washington library, and they plan to build a library there costing more than $100,000, and to use...