Collins v. Janey
| Decision Date | 31 March 1923 |
| Citation | 249 S.W. 801,147 Tenn. 477 |
| Parties | COLLINS ET AL. v. JANEY ET AL. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Appeal from Chancery Court, Marion County; T. L. Stewart Chancellor.
Suit by L. M. Collins and others against J. R. Janey, as chairman of the Board of Education of Marion County, and others in which the City of South Pittsburg intervened and filed a cross-bill. Upon final hearing the chancellor dismissed the bill and entered a decree for City of South Pittsburg. Subsequently the city filed an original bill, the latter suit being consolidated with the former one. Bill dismissed, and all parties appeal. Decree affirmed.
Jos Higgins, of Nashville, L. R. Darr, of Jasper, and W. E McCurry, of Whitwell, for plaintiffs.
Alan S. Kelly, of South Pittsburg, and W. B. Stewart, of Dunlap, for defendants.
The original bill in this cause was filed on November 16, 1921, by the complainants, who are citizens and taxpayers of Marion county, against the board of education of Marion county, for the purpose of enjoining them from executing the following contract with the city of South Pittsburg, to wit:
"This contract and agreement, made and entered into on this the _____ day of August, 1921, by and between the city of South Pittsburg, Tennessee, acting through its board of mayor and aldermen and school board, herein referred to as the city, and Marion county, acting through its county board of education, and the county court of Marion county herein referred to as the county, witnesseth:
(1) The city hereby contracts and agrees to provide facilities in its white public school and to receive and teach therein all white children of school age residing outside of the corporate limits of the city and adjacent thereto, each year hereafter for the full term of the said school. The said children to be received and taught therein on the same terms and with the same privileges in said school that are allowed to children living within the corporate limits of the said city; no distinction is to be made between the said children with reference to enjoyment of the city's school facilities on account of the residence within or without the corporate limits of the city; and the city further agrees to provide the additional facilities required for compliance with its foregoing agreement and to contract and build such additional room as shall be necessary in its school building, and at its expense to provide the necessary teaching force to care for the aforesaid children of the county. The children referred to who are living outside of the city limits who are to receive the benefits of this contract are the children living in what is known as Hookey Hollow northwest of town, in Raulston Town, on the south side of the mountain west of the city limits, and children residing in Coburn Town, under Whiteacre's Point.
(2) The county, in consideration of the city's foregoing agreement on its part, agrees and contracts for the purpose of aiding the city to construct and equip the addition to the city school building necessary to care for the county's said children, to allow and to pay to the city for the said purpose the sum of approximately eighteen thousand ($18,000) dollars (but not more than said sum) or such sum not exceeding eighteen thousand ($18,000) as is necessary in addition to the city's pro rata part of the funds derived from the recent $200,000 bond issue for school purposes to make the city a fund of forty thousand dollars ($40,000) from this source for this purpose; the said sum to be contributed by the county to be paid to the treasurer of the school board of the city by the county board of education for use by the city for the purposes aforesaid, and county further agrees to receive into and teach in its colored school north of and adjacent to the city all colored children of school age residing within the corporate limits of the city, in all respects as the city is to receive and teach the white children of the county as provided in paragraph one of this contract.
(3) It is further agreed by and between the parties that the county of Marion, for the use of the school board of Marion county shall have and is hereby invested with an interest in the school building to be erected in accordance with the provisions of this contract to the extent of the county's contribution of funds for the construction of said building. It is further agreed that if hereafter the city should fail or refuse to comply with its contract and agreement as set out in paragraph one hereof and thus breaches the same, the city will pay to the county, if it demands the same, the sum contributed by it to the construction of the building as liquidated damages, and interest from the date of the breach of the contract, and that if the city should fail to pay the same on demand of the county, the county may at its election retain the city's pro rata part of the county's school funds thereafter until the said sum has been paid, or proceed to the collection of the same by action at law as it may deem best.
(4) It is further agreed between the city and county that the pro rata of school funds for school purposes for the city of South Pittsburg hereafter to be made is to be made on the basis of the city's actual scholastic population instead of the population served; as has been done heretofore.
(5) This contract and agreement is to become effective and operative when formally authorized to be executed by resolution of the board of mayor and aldermen of South Pittsburg and when the board of education of Marion county shall, at a regular or special meeting called as required by law, formally authorize its execution and when signed and executed by the mayor of South Pittsburg and the recorder, and signed by the chairman of the board of education of South Pittsburg and its secretary and signed and executed by the county board of education by its chairman and when formally ratified and approved by the county board of Marion county at a regular quarterly session of the court or at a special session to be called for that purpose. Said contract is to be properly acknowledged before an officer authorized to take acknowledgments of deeds, and when so formally executed is to be registered in the register's office of Marion county.
To the faithful performance of
the provisions of this contract the respective parties bind themselves and their successors in office.
Executed in triplicate the day and date set out above. City of South Pittsburg, by Alan S. Kelly, Mayor. Attest: W. M. Cameron, Recorder and Secretary. Board of Education, South Pittsburg, Tenn., by Alan S. Kelly, Chairman."
The defendants answered the bill, denying that they had executed said contract, or that they intended to execute same.
Thereupon the city of South Pittsburg intervened by petition, and was permitted by the court to file an answer and cross-bill, in which it charged that said contract had been duly entered into, and that the parties had been operating under same since September 1, 1921; that Mr. Janey, the chairman of the board, had arbitrarily, and in violation of the order of the board and in violation of his promises, failed and refused to formally execute said contract; and it charged that, on account of such failure, those intrusted with the funds of the county had refused to pay same over; and it prayed that said contract be specifically performed, and that a decree be entered in its favor for $18,000.
Issue was taken upon the cross-bill, by proper pleadings, and proof was taken.
Upon final hearing the chancellor dismissed the original bill, and entered a decree in favor of cross-complainant in conformity with the prayer of its bill.
It should be stated that the county court of Marion county, by authority of various statutes, in February, 1921, issued bonds to the amount of $200,000, the proceeds of which were to be used in repairing old and in erecting new school buildings in the county.
Under the law the funds were apportioned among the various school interests...
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