Long v. Fuller

• Decision Date: 23 March 1871
• Parties: Long <I>et al. versus</I> Fuller <I>et al.</I>
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

68 Pa. 170

Long et al. versus Fuller et al.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

March 14, 1871.

March 23, 1871.

March 14th 1871.

Before THOMPSON, C. J., READ, AGNEW and SHARSWOOD, JJ. WILLIAMS, J., at Nisi Prius

Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Bradford county: No. 20, to July Term 1870.

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E. Smith and H. W. Patrick, for plaintiffs in error.

D. Rockwell (with whom was W. H. Carnochan), for defendants in error, cited Pittsburg v. Scott, 1 Barr 314; 1 Bouvier's Inst. 77; Kittanning Academy v. Brown, 5 Wright 269; Yost's Report, 5 Harris 532.

The opinion of the court was delivered, March 23d 1871, by READ, J.

The question in this case is, whether the first section of "A further supplement to an act for the regulation and continuance of a system of education by common schools, approved 8th day of May, A. D. 1854," passed 9th April 1867, for the selection of sites for school-houses, is constitutional. This section is in reality, a transcript of a local act applying only to the counties of Chester and Delaware, passed on the same day with the General School Law of the 8th May 1854, and extended to other counties by subsequent acts. The School Law authorized the purchase of real estate to erect school-houses on, but gave no power to take the land making compensation. The compulsory power had however worked so well in the counties in which it had been tried, that it was determined to make the provision general and applicable to all the school districts in the Commonwealth; all the provisions of this section have been determined to be constitutional in former cases, and the only question is, can the school directors exercise them.

The common school system pervades the whole Commonwealth, and is its creature, acting in the several school districts by its boards of directors or controllers, who are simply the agents of the state in carrying out the wise, benevolent and far-sighted policy of the government. Every man, woman and child in a republic, should be able to read and write, and this is the object aimed at by the Common School Law. School-houses are an essential part of the system, and the compulsory power is as necessary to it, as the taking of land for a public highway. In both the uses are public, and the state provides in both adequate security and an adequate fund for compensation for damage, by a pledge of the funds raised by taxation in the county or district as the case may be. The security is given in the 1st se...