Engel v. Mathley
| Decision Date | 10 May 1943 |
| Docket Number | 16859. |
| Parties | ENGEL v. MATHLEY. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Walter Prentice, Robert Prentice, Wilmer T. Fox, and Charles C. Fox all of Jeffersonville, for appellants.
Jonas G. Howard, James W. Sweeney, and Ellis Deibel, all of Jeffersonville, and Lutz, Johnson & Lutz and James E Tucker, all of Indianapolis, for appellee.
This was an action filed August 29, 1939 by the appellee versus the appellant, individually and as trustee of Silver Creek School Township, for a judgment declaring her to be a permanent teacher in that township and for a mandatory injunction to compel appellant to permit her to teach in that township during the school year of 1939-1940 under a definite contract to teach.
The appellant answered in five paragraphs, the first being a general denial and the other paragraphs being based upon the contention that appellee had herself cancelled, abandoned and rescinded her tenure contract and that if wrongfully breached by another she had acquiesced in the breach thereof and by her delay in asserting her rights had slumbered thereon and by laches is now barred from obtaining the equitable relief prayed for. The issues were closed by appellee's reply in general denial to appellant's affirmative paragraphs of answer.
The cause was tried by the court without the intervention of a jury, all of the facts being stipulated in writing by the parties, and the trial court found for the appellee affirming her status as a permanent teacher and ordering the appellant to enter into an indefinite contract with appellee for the school year of 1940-1941 and subsequent years.
Appellant's motion for a new trial, asserting that the finding and decision of the court was (1) not sustained by sufficient evidence and (2) contrary to law, was filed and overruled and this appeal properly perfected.
The agreed statement of facts shows that the appellee, then a tenure teacher of Silver Creek School Township, was shortly before July 29, 1931, in response to her request for a teacher's contract, notified by one E. Raymond Stoner the then trustee, that he would not employ her and on July 29, 1931, he mailed to her the following notice:
Speed, Indiana.
July 29, 1931.
Mrs. Clara Weber Mathley,
Sellersburg, Indiana.
Dear Madam:
Please be advised that on August 28, 1931, at 1:00 P.M. at the Silver Creek Township High School, your contract with the Silver Creek School Township will be considered cancelled.
Yours very truly,
(Signed) E. Raymond Stoner.
ERS:MT."
This was the only notice served upon her and at the time there was no decrease in the number of teaching positions in that township.
Immediately after the receipt of this notice she called upon Stoner and demanded that he enter into a definite contract with her for the school year 1931-1932 which he refused, assigning as his only reason therefor the fact that she was married. She never again tendered her services to Stoner or demanded from him employment as a teacher.
On August 15, 1931, she entered into a definite contract with the trustee of Charleston Township and taught there during the school year 1931-1932 and under another definite contract during the school year 1932-1933. She then taught under definite contracts with the trustee of Bethlehem Township during the school years 1933-1934 and until January 1935 when she resigned.
Arthur Beyl succeeded Raymond Stoner on January 1, 1935, and served as trustee of Silver Creek Township until December 31, 1938, during all of which time and until the summer of 1939, the appellee taught in the schools of that township under definite yearly contracts to teach.
The appellant John P. Engel succeeded Beyl on January 1, 1939, and has failed and refused to enter into a definite contract with the appellee to teach in that township for the school year 1939-1940. It is further stipulated that the appellee has at all times been competent to teach and has at no time been guilty of any act which would justify the cancellation of her contract and that there has been no decrease in the number of teaching positions in Silver Creek Township. No charges have ever been preferred against her and of course no hearing held.
Section 1 of the Act under consideration, Ch. 97, Acts of 1927, defines a permanent teacher and provides that
Section 2 of the Act recites the only manner in which such a contract may be cancelled and provides for notice to the teacher, and a written statement of the reasons for cancellation and a hearing of the charges upon request of the teacher and it further defines the grounds for cancellation of the contract.
Section 4 of the Act provides that no permanent teacher shall be permitted to cancel his indefinite contract during the school term for which his said contract is in effect nor for a period of thirty days previous to the beginning of such school term unless such cancellation is mutually agreed upon and that such permanent teacher shall be permitted to cancel his indefinite contract at any other time by giving a five days' notice to the school corporation.
By the amendatory Act of 1933, ch. 116, p. 716, § 28-4307 et seq., Burns' 1933, township school corporations were omitted from the provision of the Act of 1927 but this does not affect the appellee's previously acquired status as a permanent teacher. State of Indiana ex rel. Anderson v. Brand, 1938, 303 U.S. 95, 98, 58 S.Ct. 443, 82 L.Ed. 685, 113 A.L.R. 1482.
By the Act of 1939, Ch. 155, p. 730, it is provided that a permanent teacher "shall not be discharged or have such contract cancelled except upon the grounds and in the manner provided in the act by virtue of which such teacher became a permanent teacher with an indefinite contract with such corporation."
Under the foregoing admitted facts the appellee was on the 29th day of July, 1931, a tenure teacher with all of the rights and privileges lawfully accruing to her by virtue of the Act of 1927. Her discharge and the attempted cancellation of her contract by trustee Stoner was in direct violation of law and was ineffectual to terminate her status as such, and no appropriate action has ever been taken by him or either of his successors which would effectually do so. Has she then by her own act or failure to act terminated her status as a tenure teacher or made it impossible for her to enforce her rights as such?
It is contended by the appellant that the appellee's execution of a contract to teach elsewhere on August 15, 1931, thirteen days before the letter of cancellation was to become effective, and her employment pursuant thereto rendered performance on her part an impossibility and constituted an abandonment and cancellation of her tenure contract and amounted to the giving by her of the five day notice of cancellation "several hundred fold".
We do not agree with this contention. We do not believe that the appellee was required, after she had been notified that she would be denied a contract, to remain idle and thus be in a position at all times to later accept an employment that had been unequivocally denied her, nor do we believe that she was under any duty to again tender her services as a teacher during the...
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Engel v. Mathley, 16859.
...113 Ind.App. 45848 N.E.2d 463ENGELv.MATHLEY.No. 16859.Appellate Court of Indiana, in Banc.May 10, Appeal from Washington Circuit Court; William Fitzgerald, Judge. Action by Clara Mae Mathley against John P. Engel, individually and as trustee of the Silver Creek School Township, for a judgme......