Flanary, County Superintendent v. Barrett

• Decision Date: 09 February 1912
• Citation: 146 Ky. 712
• Parties: Flanary, County Superintendent v. Barrett.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

Page 712

146 Ky. 712

Flanary, County Superintendent v. Barrett.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

Decided February 9, 1912.

Appeal from Pike Circuit Court.

J. F. BUTLER and JAMES BREATHITT, Attorney General for appellant.

CHILDERS and CHILDERS for appellee.

OPINION OF THE COURT BY WILLIAM ROGERS CLAY, COMMISSIONER — Reversing.

Plaintiff, A. E. Barrett, a school teacher of Pike County, brought this action against defendant, W. E. Flanary, County Superintendent of Schools, for a mandamus compelling the defendant to pay to him the sum of $207.88, alleged to be due him for services. Defendant's demurrer to the petition was overruled, and having declined to plead further, judgment was entered granting plaintiff the relief prayed for. The defendant appeals.

The petition discloses the following facts: Plaintiff was employed by the Division Board of Educational Division, No. 8, of Pike County, to teach in sub-district No. 80, for the school term ending June 30, 1911. There were more than one hundred pupil children in said sub-district. G. T. Hawkins was the principal teacher, while plaintiff was employed as assistant. The two taught the school for six months. Their reports signed and certified by them and the trustees were regularly made and filed by the defendant in his office as required by law. These reports show that the school was regularly taught. Plaintiff holds only a qualification certificate of the third class. The funds alleged to be due him for teaching are in the hands of the defendant, who refused to pay him.

The question presented is, does a certificate of qualification of the third class entitle the holder to teach as assistant teacher in a district reporting fifty-five or more pupil children?

Section 4503, Kentucky Statutes, provides in part as follows:

"After July first, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four, a certificate of the third class shall not entitle the holder to teach in any district reporting fifty-five or more pupil children, nor shall a certificate of the second class entitled the holder to teach in any district reporting seventy-five or more pupil children."

The trial court was of the opinion that the above provision was intended to apply only to the principal teacher and not to the assistant, and based this opinion to some extent on Section 4366, Kentucky Statutes, which is as follows:

"Twenty school days, or days in which teachers are actually employed in the school room, shall constitute a school month in the common schools of the State; but no teacher shall teach on Saturdays. Teachers shall have the benefits of only such legal holidays as they actually observe. Six hours of actual school work in the school room shall constitute a school day; and, under no circumstances, shall the daily session, including recesses and intermissions, exceed nine hours in length. When the attendance exceeds fifty, the teacher may employ, during such attendance, an assistant, whose scholarship and competency shall be acceptable to the trustees. When the school shall require an assistant to serve regularly at a salary, such assistant shall hold a certificate of qualification, and be...