Lanning v. Comm'rs of Pub. Instruction of City of Trenton

• Decision Date: 24 March 1902
• Citation: 51 A. 787,63 N.J.L. 1
• Parties: LANNING et al. v. COMMISSIONERS OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION OF CITY OF TRENTON et al.
• Court: New Jersey Court of Chancery

51 A. 787

63 N.J.L. 1

LANNING et al.

v. COMMISSIONERS OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION OF CITY OF TRENTON et al.

Court of Chancery of New Jersey.

March 24, 1902.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Action by William M. Lanning and others against the commissioners of public instruction of the city of Trenton and others. Decree for complainants.

John T. Bird, for complainants.

The Attorney General, pro se.

MAGIE, Ch. This is a bill filed by William M. Lanning et al., citizens of the city of Trenton, in behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated and interested in the matters exhibited in the bill, against Samuel H. Bullock et al., as individuals, and "the commissioners of public instruction of the city of Trenton." The bill states that on or about the ——day of May, 1879, Charles Skelton died, leaving a last will and testament and a codicil thereto, which were afterwards admitted to probate by the surrogate of the county of Mercer. The pertinent portions of the will and codicil may be thus described: He thereby bequeathed to "the superintendent and trustees for public schools in the city of Trenton," and their successors in office, his library and bookcases, in trust for the use of teachers and pupils of the public schools of the city, apprentices, mechanics, and such other persons as the said corporation should deem expedient and most conducive to the public good; and after directing the investment of the residue of his personal property, and giving the income upon such investments to certain persons named for life, he bequeathed such Income after the death of the last of the life beneficiaries to "the superintendent and trustees of public schools for the city of Trenton," for the purposes thereinafter described. After devising his real estate to different persons for their natural lives, he devised the remainder after the termination of the life estates to "the superintendent and trustees of public schools for the city of Trenton," for the purposes thus expressed, viz.: "That they and their successors in office shall have and hold the said premises and properties, take and receive the rents, issues, and profits accruing from same, and therewith make all necessary repairs, or rebuild, and pay all taxes and necessary expenses and charges in and about the same, and keep the same sufficiently insured against loss by fire; and, after such payments deducted, they shall invest once at least every year the clear, net income of the same in good books, which shall always be added to the library which I have bequeathed to the said corporation. It is my will, and I do order and direct, that all the books purchased by the aforesaid income of said property shall be strongly and firmly bound, and shall consist of works, treatises on the arts and sciences, especially on mechanics, engineering, mathematics, astronomy, geography, natural philosophy, chemistry, architecture, history, travels, and biography, but no mere tales and works of fiction. Truth is always more profitable than falsehood. Life is too earnest and time too precious to be wasted on fictions which give no knowledge. A single great practical truth is of more value than all the fictions ever invented by novelists. I acquired the property hereby devised by a life of honest industry, frugality, and temperance, and I desire that it may be employed to inculcate these virtues, without which our republican institutions, based on the sovereignty of the people, must soon perish." The codicil did not materially vary the provisions of the will in the respects above mentioned. The bill states that some of the complainants are teachers employed in the public schools of the city of Trenton, and others are mechanics of said city, and that all of the complainants are interested in the trust created by the will of Charles Skelton, and are beneficiaries therein, entitled to the full benefit and advantage thereof. The bill further states that at the time of the death of Charles Skelton there was a corporation existing by the title of "The Superintendent and Trustees of Public Schools of the City of Trenton," created by the act entitled "An act respecting public schools in the city of Trenton," approved March 10, 1856 (Laws 1856, p. 175). An examination discloses that the corporation created by that act was thereby given power to take and hold in their corporate name such estates, real, personal, or mixed, as might from time to time be conveyed to it by gift, grant, devise, or any other lawful mode, for the purpose of promoting the cause of public education in said city, and may execute any trust having such object in view. The bill further states that by the provisions of the act entitled "An act to provide for the establishment of a commission of public instruction in cities of the second class in this state, whose population now exceeds or may hereafter exceed 50,000," passed March 10, 1892 (3 Gen. St 3096), the previous corporation, the superintendent and trustees of public schools of the city of Trenton, was abolished, and a new corporation took its place, under the name of the "Commissioners of Public Instruction of the City of Trenton." An examination of that act discloses that the commissioners of public instruction thereby provided for were invested with, and declared to possess and exercise all, the powers vested in the previous corporation having the management and control of the public schools in the city of Trenton. The last-named act has been declared by the supreme court to be within the constitutional authority of the legislature. Oler v. Ridgeway, 55 N. J. Law, 10, 25 Atl. 936. The supreme court further construed the last-named act as not abrogating or diminishing the powers or duties of previously existing school boards in the various cities to which it applied. It was held that the purpose of the act was to change the mode of selection of the school board, which was thereafter to have the powers of the previously existing school board, and some additional power thereby granted. Rose v. Hufty, 63 N. J. Law, 195, 42 Atl. 836. The bill further charges that the life beneficiaries under the will and codicil have all died, and that the last-named corporation, the commissioners of public instruction of the city of Trenton, have come into the possession of the fund created by the will of Charles Skelton, and have now in their possession about $8,000, invested, upon which they receive the income, and have received and are receiving the rents of the real estate. The bill further charges that under the provisions of the act entitled "An act to authorize the establishment of free public libraries in the cities of this state," passed April 1, 1884 (2 Gen. St p. 1950), the city of Trenton has accepted the provisions of the act and has established a scheme for a public library, and appointed trustees thereof, who have become a body...