First Dist. Agricultural & Mechanical School v. Reynolds

• Decision Date: 09 October 1912
• Docket Number: 4,222.
• Citation: 75 S.E. 1060,11 Ga.App. 650
• Parties: FIRST DIST. AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL SCHOOL et al. v. REYNOLDS.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

75 S.E. 1060

11 Ga.App. 650

FIRST DIST. AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL SCHOOL et al. v. REYNOLDS.

No. 4,222.

Court of Appeals of Georgia

October 9, 1912

Syllabus by the Court.

The industrial and agricultural schools organized, established and maintained in each congressional district of this state in accordance with the provisions of the act of 1906 (Laws 1906, p. 72 [Civil Code 1910, § 1552 et seq.]) are not such public institutions of the state as would exempt them from suit for contract made by their trustees within the scope of authority delegated to them by the terms of the act in question.

These branch schools are made departments of the University of Georgia by the act creating them, and the University of Georgia is expressly incorporated as a body corporate and politic, with the right to sue and be sued; and it was the purpose of the Legislature in creating these branch schools that they should stand in the same relation to the state and to the public in this respect as the University stood.

A contract made by the trustees of the First District Agricultural and Mechanical School for the purchase of furniture for the purpose of equipping the school was within the scope of the authority delegated to them, and is enforceable against the school and the trustees thereof in their official capacity.

Error from City Court of Statesboro; H. B. Strange, Judge.

Action by J. H. Reynolds against the First District Agricultural and Mechanical School and others. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendants bring error. Affirmed.

T. S Felder, Atty. Gen., and Brannen & Booth, of Statesboro, for plaintiffs in error.

Dean & Dean and J. M. Hunt, all of Rome, and Johnston & Cone, of Statesboro, for defendant in error.

HILL C.J.

The Ware-Hatcher Furniture Company of Atlanta sold some furniture on open account to the First District Agricultural and Mechanical School, located at Statesboro. $1,000 was paid on the account, leaving a balance of $627.60 due. The vendor was subsequently adjudicated bankrupt, and the trustees, under an order of the bankruptcy court, sold and transferred this account to J. H. Reynolds, who sued out a purchase-money attachment in the city court of Statesboro, naming as defendants in his suit the school and its trustees by name. The defendants, at the appearance term, made a motion to dismiss the suit, on the ground that the school was an integral part of the state, being a state institution, and was therefore exempt from suit, in the absence of legislative consent. The motion was overruled, and, in the absence of any defense, the plaintiff made out formal proof of his account and took judgment. The defendants excepted.

The First District Agricultural and Mechanical School was authorized and established under the provision of the act of 1906 (Georgia Laws 1906, p. 72), as codified in section 1552 of the Civil Code of 1910. By this act it is declared that said schools "shall be branches of the State College of Agriculture, a department of the University of Georgia." By section 1553 provision is made for the maintenance of these schools from fees received from the inspection of fertilizers, oils, and other inspection fees received by the department of agriculture in this state. By section 1554 the Governor is authorized to appoint trustees of these schools and section 1555 provides for the acceptance by the trustees of donations made by any citizen of land, or other property for the maintenance of said schools, and for the location of such schools; and other sections of the Code give to the trustees authority to equip the schools, and to build and rent property in connection with the schools; and it is contemplated by the act that these schools shall be supported and maintained, not only by limited appropriations made annually by the state, but by private and personal donations. It may be stated that the agricultural and mechanical schools thus established and declared to be branches of the State College of Agriculture, the latter being a department of the State University, are state institutions to a certain extent.

A careful examination of the act creating these schools in the different congressional districts of the state makes it apparent that it was the intention of the Legislature to make them all a part of the State University, standing in the same relation to the state that the State University stands. Now the trustees of the University are expressly created "a body corporate and politic, by the name of the 'T...