City of Knoxville v. State ex rel. Hayward

• Decision Date: 25 November 1939
• Citation: 133 S.W.2d 465,175 Tenn. 159
• Parties: CITY OF KNOXVILLE et al. v. STATE ex rel. HAYWARD.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

133 S.W.2d 465

175 Tenn. 159

CITY OF KNOXVILLE et al. v. STATE ex rel. HAYWARD.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

November 25, 1939

Error to Circuit Court, Knox County; L. H. Carlock, Judge.

Mandamus proceeding by the State of Tennessee, on the relation of Claudia Brooks Hayward, against City of Knoxville and others. To review a final decree for the relator, defendants bring error.

Affirmed.

Hartman Lockwood & Carson and Grimm & Tapp, all of Knoxville, for plaintiffs in error.

Charles E. Rader, Williston M. Cox, and S.E. Hodges, all of Knoxville, for defendants in error.

DeHAVEN Justice.

This is a mandamus suit. The relator, Claudia Brooks Hayward, filed her petition herein seeking to compel the defendants, City of Knoxville and the Board of Education of Knoxville, to restore her as teacher in the public schools of the city, from which position she avers she was illegally discharged.

The trial judge found as a fact that relator was elected teacher by the Board of Education of Knoxville for three consecutive years, the last of said elections being in April, 1937, for the school year 1937-8. The trial judge further found that relator was dismissed by the Board of Education solely on account of her marriage on December 26, 1937; that such dismissal was without right or authority under Chapter 800 Private Acts 1937, and was null and void.

From the final decree ordering defendants to restore relator to her office as teacher, defendants have appealed to this court and assigned errors.

The trial judge having rendered his judgment, defendants made no motion for a new trial. Such motion is necessary to authorize a review of the facts on appeal in error from a common law court. Board of Equalization v. Railroad, 148 Tenn 676, 257 S.W. 91; Railroad Co. v. Johnson, 114 Tenn. 632, 640, 88 S.W. 169; Rogers v. Colville, 145 Tenn. 650, 238 S.W. 80; Nashville, C. & St. L. R. R. v. Smith, 147 Tenn. 453, 455, 249 S.W. 377; Supreme Court Rule 14 (5). Having made no motion for a new trial, errors apparent upon the record proper are alone open to review. Board of Equalization v. Railroad, supra. The assignments of error made here challenging the facts as found by the trial judge must, under the above rule, be overruled.

Under certain of the assignments of error it is contended that Chapter 800, Private Acts 1937, violates both Article 1, section 8, and Article 11, section 8, of the Constitution of Tennessee, in that it seeks to grant the teacher and others referred to therein preferences, privileges and immunities afforded them in their private relations, other than those conferred by the general laws of the State, and attempts to impose limitations, restrictions, duties, responsibilities and burdens on the City of Knoxville and its Board of Education other and different from those imposed by the general laws of the State.

Chapter 800, Private Acts 1937, referred to as civil service or permanent tenure bill, became a law on May 21, 1937. The caption of the Act in question is as follows.

"An Act to amend an Act entitled, 'An Act to incorporate the City of Knoxville, in Knox County, Tennessee, and to define the rights, powers and liabilities of the same: To fix the boundaries of said municipality, and to repeal all Acts and parts of Acts in conflict with this Act,' being Chapter 412 of the Private Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, for the year 1923, and all Acts amendatory thereof, so as to provide that civil service or permanent tenure shall apply to certain employees of the Board of Education, defining their qualifications, providing for the filing of charges for the infraction of certain rules and regulations, hearings upon such charges, the enforcement of the attendance of witnesses on such hearings, and for appeals to the Board of Education, and to repeal all laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act."

Section 1 of the Act provides Chapter 412, Private Acts 1925, being the Charter of the City of Knoxville,

"*** be, and the same is hereby amended, so as to provide that civil service or permanent tenure shall apply to all employees of the Board of Education occupying the positions of principals, teachers, supervisors, clerks, secretaries, stenographers, and chief maintenance men; provided, that no persons occupying the positions of principals, teachers, or supervisors shall be deemed to be under civil service or permanent tenure unless they hold a certificate from the Department of Education of the State of Tennessee, and have been employed by the Board of Education of the City of Knoxville for the third year from the time of their appointment or employment; and, provided, further, that no persons occupying the positions of clerks, secretaries, stenographers or chief maintenance men shall be deemed to be under civil service until after they have occupied such positions for a period of two years from the time of the appointment or employment."

Section 2 of the Act is as follows:

"Be it further enacted, That neither the Board of Education, nor any member thereof, nor the Superintendent of Schools, nor any other official of the Department of Education shall have any right to dismiss, discharge, demote or change any employee made subject to civil service or permanent tenure by the provisions of this Act, from one position or class to another position or class within the Department of Education or otherwise at a reduced salary, unless and until charges as specified hereinafter shall have first been filed and sustained against such employee in the manner hereinafter provided; provided, however, that if in making up the school budgets the Board of Education ascertain that there is a surplusage of employees in the system, by reason of a natural diminution of the number of pupils in any school, or otherwise, the Board of Education may reduce the number of employees in the system, to the number required by first dismissing any or all of those who have not been appointed or employed for the third year, if the reduction so made is inadequate or insufficient in the opinion of the board, the board may then dismiss civil service employees without charges being filed or sustained but said dismissals shall be made according to seniority of service."

Section 3 of the Act provides as follows:

"Be it further enacted, That employees under civil service by the provisions of this Act may be suspended, discharged, demoted or otherwise punished, upon conviction of any crime or for inefficiency, incompetency, neglect of duty, use of narcotics or intoxicating liquors, immorality, conduct unbecoming to their profession, failure or refusal to pay his or her taxes, or failure or refusal to pay his or her honest debts, in the following manner."

This section then goes on to provide under four lettered paragraphs the method of filing charges against such employees, notice to the accused employee, the hearing before the Superintendent of Schools, the right of the employee to appeal to the Board of Education.

By Chapter 115, Public Acts 1925, there was created a uniform system of education in this State. This Act is carried into the Code under sections 2306, et seq. We find nothing in the 1925 Act which conflicts with the provisions of the Act here under investigation, which is an amendment to the charter of the City of Knoxville, and deals with the City's schools. Defendants rely on the case of State ex rel. Bales v. Hamilton County, 170 Tenn. 371, 95 S.W.2d 618, 619. The court had under consideration in that case two special Acts of the legislature passed according to population classification, applicable to Hamilton County alone. The Acts fixed a minimum pay or salary for school teachers of Hamilton County. The demurrer to the bill made the point that the two Acts created an arbitrary discrimination against Hamilton County and imposed a burden on it not common to other counties in violation of section 8, Article 1, and section 8, Article 11, of the State Constitution. This contention was upheld. The court said, inter alia, "The act before us requires Hamilton county to pay its teachers a minimum wage, regardless of the condition of the county's treasury. It deprives the county of the right to contract according to its ability, imposing a burden on Hamilton county placed on no other county in the state--all in conflict with the general school law--and the act must accordingly fall." No such situation exists in the instant case. Here, by amendment to the charter of the City of Knoxville, a civil service is provided for the teachers in its public schools. Education being a governmental function, the legislature could directly and without the intervention of the City employ its entire force of teachers on such terms as the legislature saw fit. This was expressly held to be true as to firemen. Smiddy v. City of Memphis, 140 Tenn. 97, 203 S.W. 512. In City of Nashville v. Martin, 156 Tenn. 443, 3 S.W.2d 164, 166, the court said:

"In Scopes v. State, 154 Tenn. 105, 289 S.W. 363, it was shown that the Legislature might freely prescribe the terms and conditions upon which employees of the state or of municipalities of the state should work, unhampered by section 8 of Article 1 of the Tennessee Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, U.S.C.A."

And in City of Nashville v. Martin, the court further said:

"As to the police officers of the City of...