Fowler v. Town of Enfield

• Decision Date: 05 February 1952
• Citation: 86 A.2d 662,138 Conn. 521
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: FOWLER et al. v. TOWN OF ENFIELD. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut

Page 662

86 A.2d 662

138 Conn. 521

FOWLER et al. v. TOWN OF ENFIELD.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

Feb. 5, 1952.

William S. Gordon, Jr., and Charles S. House, Hartford, with whom were Stephen M. Riley, Hartford, and, on the brief, Mary C. Fitzgerald, Hartford, for appellants.

Hugh M. Alcorn, Jr., Hartford, with whom were Francis J. Fahey, Thompsonville, and, on the brief, Henry P. Bakewell, Hartford, for appellee.

Before, BROWN, C. J., and JENNINGS, BALDWIN, INGLIS and O'SULLIVAN, JJ.

BROWN, Chief Justice.

The plaintiffs in this action are teachers or other members of the personnel employed in the public schools of the defendant town for the school year 1946-47. Each of them seeks to recover $150 as the unpaid balance of a $250 increase in salary claimed to have been granted, as an amendment to his contract, by the defendant's board of education towards the end of the school year. The defendant denied liability because its board of finance had refused to recommend to a special town meeting an additional appropriation to provide the essential funds and avoid creation of a deficit, with the result that no appropriation was made. The defendant counterclaimed to recover the $100 paid to each plaintiff on account. The court rendered judgment for the defendant on the complaint and for the plaintiffs on the counterclaim. The plaintiffs have appealed.

Much of the record, consisting of 432 printed pages and a mass of exhibits, has no essential bearing upon the issue decisive of the appeal. Even if deemed material during the trial, it might better have been eliminated by stipulation from the present record. The decisive question is whether the action of the board of education in entering into the purported amendment of its contracts with the plaintiffs providing a $250 increase in salary for the school year 1946-47 was valid and effective to render the defendant town liable for the unpaid $150 balance of this increase. In reaching our decision, we restrict our discussion of the facts found, the court's conclusions and the principles of law to those material and controlling in the determination of this issue. The complaint was in four counts corresponding to the four classifications of board of education employees. No claim is mand that there are any differences in their legal status, and when we refer to the plaintiffs we refer to all plaintiffs. We summarize the facts found. They are subject to no correction which will advantage the plaintiffs.

The town of Enfield does not have a special charter; it functions under the General Statutes through its board of selectmen, board of finance, board of education and such service departments as police, street and public health, the necessary funds for which are provided by the town. The statutes give to the board of finance the general supervision and management of the defendant's financial affairs. General Statutes, c. 36. In discharge of those duties, the board prepares and recommends a budget for approval by the annual town meeting in May, and the tax is set at a rate sufficient to provide funds to meet the budget as approved. General Statutes, § 777. The board of education manages the public schools of the town pursuant to the applicable statutes. In May, 1946, the board of education entered into a contract with each of the plaintiffs for the school year 1946-47 specifying the salary at which he was employed by the town. The salaries so provided for, and subsequently paid, were larger than those budgeted and paid for the school year 1945-46. The contract provided that the plaintiffs should be notified of any adjustment of salary by the first of June preceding the opening of the school year in which the change was to become effective and that the plaintiffs agreed to accept and the town to pay the specified salary, and it included this further specific undertaking by each plaintiff: 'I will abide by the terms of the contract given me at the time of this appointment.' It further stated that either party might terminate the contract upon thirty days' written notice. After the board of education had entered into these contracts with the plaintiffs, it submitted its budget to the board of finance as the statute requires. General Statutes, § 1480. Incorporated in the budget was an item to meet the amount of the salaries to which the plaintiffs were entitled during the school year by virtue of their executed contracts. The budget was approved by the board of finance without material change and thereafter the town meeting made an appropriation to provide for the expenses so shown. The funds sought by the board of education were thus made available to it to meet all expenses for the operation of the schools, including the payment of the salaries for which the plaintiffs had agreed they would render services for the entire school year. The plaintiffs worked and were paid as agreed under these contracts for the entire school year of 1946-47. In addition they received the $100 adjustment referred to below. During the school year they gave no notice of intention to terminate their contracts.

On December 10, 1946, the welfare committee of the Enfield Teachers' Association appeared before the board of education, petitioned for a 'minimum salary adjustment of $500.00 retroactive to September 4, 1946' and demanded that the chairman of the committee be notified by December 18, 1946, of the board's action upon the petition. The board learned by informal inquiry of the board of finance that that body was not disposed to approve the increase demanded. On January 19, 1947, the board of education by formal vote requested approval from the board of finance of a salary increase of $250 for each full-time employee. In response to this vote, the latter board on February 5, 1947, advised the former that it had considered the demand for the salary increase and that it was denied. Meantime the teachers' welfare committee was also negotiating with the board of education for a requested salary increase of $500 for the year 1947-48. On February 11, 1947, after a full discussion in a joint meeting with representatives of the board of education, the acting superintendent of schools and the teachers' association, the board of finance declined to approve the increase for 1946-47. On February 24, 1947, the board of finance met again and considered not only the teachers' demand for an increase for the current year but also requests for increases by employees in other departments of the town. At this meeting the board voted to deny all requests for 1946-47 salary increases. Although on March 11, 1947, the board of education, notwithstanding the disapproval of the board of finance, 'went on record' as favoring the $250 increase and requested a written decision on it from the board of finance, the latter did not alter its prior decision disapproving the demanded increases.

On March 16, 1947, the board of education met jointly with the teachers' welfare committee and the Connecticut State Teachers' Association, which had openly entered the controversy. The welfare committee and the state association were exerting the greatest possible pressure upon the board, insisting that definite action be taken upon the plaintiffs' demands and stating that otherwise 'it was very probable an emergency would result.' A representative of the state association who attended the meeting urged that the teachers' demands be complied with, stating that 'otherwise the situation would become uncontrollable.' For several days subsequent to March 16, 1947, the welfare committee and the state association continued to apply heavy pressure on the board of education to grant their demand for the salary increase, and it appeared to the board that 'the teachers were prepared to take drastic steps.' The board voted on March 21, 1947, to grant the demand for an increase of $250 for the current school year over and above the amounts for which the plaintiffs had respectively agreed to render services to the town. When this action was reported to a meeting of the board of finance on March 26, 1947, the latter adhered to its previous action disapproving the increase.

At the time of its meeting on April 8, 1947, the board of education recognized that if the salary increase was granted its appropriation would be exceeded and a deficit would result. Accordingly, it voted to defer further action until assured by counsel that its action would be legal. On April 15, 1947, however, the teachers' welfare committee gave the board of education the ultimatum that the committee had been authorized to 'call a work stoppage at their discretion if the Board voted not to grant the increase' and that upon the denial of their demand 'a work stoppage would undoubtedly follow very soon.' These declarations constituted a clear threat to the board as the culmination of the long campaign of pressure to which it had been subjected. The statements neither referred to nor contemplated action pursuant to the contract provision regarding thirty days' notice of termination. Immediately upon receipt of this ultimatum the board of education voted to grant the plaintiffs' demand for an increase of $250 for the current school year and to amend the existing contracts accordingly, notwithstanding its...