City of Corinth v. Robertson

• Decision Date: 14 March 1921
• Docket Number: 21383
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: CITY OF CORINTH et al. v. ROBERTSON, STATE REVENUE AGENT, TO USE OF ALCORN COUNTY CHICKASAW SCHOOL FUND

87 So. 464

125 Miss. 31

CITY OF CORINTH et al. v. ROBERTSON, STATE REVENUE AGENT, TO USE OF ALCORN COUNTY CHICKASAW SCHOOL FUND

No. 21383

Supreme Court of Mississippi

March 14, 1921

1. PUBLIC LANDS. State held to have acquired school sections only upon survey and extinguishment of Indian rights,

The state of Mississippi acquired the right to the sections No 16 granted to it for the use of schools by the Act of Congress of March 3, 1803, when, but not until, the right of occupancy of the Indian tribes was extinguished and the sections had been surveyed as provided by law.

2. PUBLIC LANDS. Federal act held, controlling as to terms of trust of school lands in Chickasaw Cession.

The terms of the trust upon which the land was granted to the state by the federal government for the use of schools in the Chickasaw Cession must be gathered from the Act of Congress of July 4, 1836, by which the grant was made.

3. PUBLIC LANDS. Act granting land to state for schools in Chickasaw Cession held not to require use for schools in particular township.

The Act of Congress of July 4, 1836, by which land was granted to the state for the use of schools in the Chickasaw Cession, does not require any part of the land, its proceeds, or the interest theron, to be used for schools in any particular township.

4. PUBLIC LANDS. Congressional act authorizing state to sell land reserved for schools does not affect trust under which state holds lands in Chickasaw Cession.

The Act of Congress of May 19, 1852, authorizing the state to sell the land reserved for the use of schools, has no effect upon the terms of the trust under which the state held the lands granted to it for the use of schools in the Chickasaw Cession.

5. PUBLIC LANDS. Upon vesting of title to school lands in Chickasaw Cession, state has full power of disposal.

After the title of the state to the land granted to it by the Act of Congress of July 4, 1836, for the use of schools in the Chickasaw Cession had vested, the state had full power to dispose of the land without the consent of Congress, and it was also beyond the power of Congress to change the terms of the grant.

6. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. State agent administering trust fund for educational purpose under state law not personally liable to cestui que trust for diversion resulting from compliance with law.

When the agent or officer of a state charged by its laws with the duty of administering a fund held in trust by the state for educational purposes, administers it in accordance with the laws passed by the Legislature of the state for that purpose he is not personally liable to the cestui que trust for any diversion of the trust fund which may result because of his having disposed of it as he was directed by law so to do.

7. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. Neither muncipal treasurer nor district liable for diversion of interest on Chickasaw school fund where administered according to law.

The treasurer of a municipality constituting a separate school district in receiving and disbursing the interest on the Chickasaw school fund apportioned to the separate school district under the laws of the state for the maintenance of its public schools acts as the state's agent, and if he complies with the law in making the disbursement, neither he nor the municipality can be held liable for any diversion of such interest from the use for which the fund is held by the state, which may thereby result from the method adopted by the state for administering the trust.

HON. A J. MCINTYRE, Chancellor.

APPEAL from chancery court of Alcorn county, HON. A. J. MCINTYRE Chancellor.

Suit by Stokes V. Robertson, State Revenue Agent, to the use of Alcorn County Chickasaw School Fund, against the city of Corinth and another. A demurrer to the bill was overruled and defendants appeal. Reversed, demurrer sustained, and cause dismissed.

Decree reversed, demurrer sustained, and cause dismissed.

J. M. Boone and W. H. Kier, for appellant.

Complainant makes exhibit to his bill chapter 335 of the Act of Congress of 1836, approved July 4, 1836. The second section of that act is the only part of said act that bears upon the controversy in this case. Inasmuch as all of the land in the territory ceded by the Chickasaws had been sold, this Act of Congress of 1836, provided in the second section thereof that there should be reserved from sale in the state of Mississippi a quantity of land equal to one thirty-sixth part of the lands ceded by the said Chickasaws aforesaid out of any public lands remaining unsold contiguous to the said lands within said state so ceded by the Chickasaws:

"Which lands when so selected as aforesaid, the same shall vest in the state of Mississippi for the use of said territory in said state so ceded as aforesaid by the Chickasaws; and said lands, thus selected, shall be holden by the same tenure and upon the same terms and conditions, in all respects, as the said state now holds the lands heretofore reserved for the use of school in said state." Complainant's contention is that the same construction ought to be put upon this act as is expressly provided in the Acts of Congress relative to the 16th sections.

We contend that this is an impossibility. The law with reference to the sixteenth section provides that the funds arising from the said sixteenth section shall be used within the township in which said sixteenth section is situated. But, it is impossible for this rule to apply with reference to the Chickasaw territory, as the land provided for in said Act of Congress above did not lie in any township or in any county in the Chickasaw territory and therefore the law with reference to the sixteenth section fund could not be applied.

Appellee, in the court below, as we understood him, bases his whole contention upon the last clause in said section 2 of the Act of Congress of 1836; which is in this language: "The said lands thus selected shall be holden by the same tenure and upon the same terms and conditions, in all respects, as the said state now holds the lands heretofore reserved for the use of schools in said state." It will be observed that the above clause has nothing whatever to do with the distribution of the money arising from the sale of said lands. It simply has reference to the land itself; that the land shall be held by the same tenure, terms and conditions, but not that the distribution of the funds arising from said lands should be distributed otherwise than for the use of the schools within the territory. As to how it should be distributed among the different schools in said territory is left entirely with the legislature of the state of Mississippi. The only thing the schools of the Chickasaw territory was interested in, was that they should receive one thirty-sixth part of the money arising from said lands selected in lieu of the sixteenth sections in the Chickasaw territory. It is true the land must be held just like all other land ceded to the state for school purposes should be held, same tenure, same conditions, same terms; that is to say by the same title and for the same use and purposes, no more no less.

The state of Mississippi assumed this trust of handling this Chickasaw fund arising from the lands selected and has from the beginning shown that this fund was not understood to be distributed as a township fund as a unit rather than the county as a unit.

Chapter 3, Acts of 1848, of the legislature of Mississippi, made provision for the disposal of the lands ceded by the Act of Congress for the use of schools in the Chickasaw cession, in lieu of the sixteenth sections of said cession, and in the fifth section of said act it is provided that the auditor of public accounts should open an account between the state of Mississippi and the fund realized from the lease of lands in a book to be kept for that purpose, in which he should charge the state with the amount received on account of said lands, and the whole amount of said money, after deducting expenses, to be held in trust by said state for the use of schools in the Chickasaw cession and to be applied for that purpose as hereafter to be provided by law.

Chapter 27 of the act approved March 12, 1856, Acts of 1856-57-61, page 81, provides in the first section thereof that the pro rata share of the net proceeds of the Chickasaw school lands to which the counties therein named, including Tishomingo county, which at that time covered the territory which is now called Alcorn county, together with all monies arising from other sources, such as fines, forfeitures, etc., and all other school funds belonging to said counties or which may hereafter be created for them by any law, should constitute the school fund for the same, and section 8 of said act provided: "That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent said commissioners, after providing for all proper beneficiaries, from expending the whole of the remaining current interest from time to time as equally as may be between all the schools applying for aid." This demonstrates that the funds arising from the Chickasaw lands were appropriated to counties, as counties, independent of the question of township.

It will be observed from the quotation of the Act of 1848, above, that it was provided that the funds arising from this land should be applied as hereafter to be provided by law; and now, to put at rest how it should be applied as above provided, we find in chapter 56 of the Acts of 1856-61, pages 141-142, and in the third section of said act, the following:

"That the secretary of state is hereby required to make out and furnish to the auditor of public accounts a calculation based on the area of territory in the Chickasaw purchase, of the proportionate...