Melgard v. Eagleson
| Decision Date | 30 April 1918 |
| Citation | 31 Idaho 411,172 P. 655 |
| Parties | H. MELGARD, Treasurer of the BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO, Plaintiff, v. JOHN W. EAGLESON, Treasurer of the State of Idaho, and CLARENCE VAN DEUSEN, Auditor of the State of Idaho, Defendants |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE FUND-MINISTERIAL DUTY OF STATE TREASURER-STATE AUDITOR-VOID ACTS OF STATE OFFICERS.
1. By certain acts of Congress $50,000 is appropriated annually for the use and benefit of agricultural and mechanical colleges in each state and territory, the beneficiary institutions to be selected by the several states and territories. These acts provide that this sum shall be paid by the secretary of the treasury of the United States to the state treasurer, who shall, upon the order of the trustees of the college immediately pay it over to the treasurers of the respective colleges or other institutions entitled to receive it. (U. S Comp. Stats. 1916, sec. 8872.) This money cannot properly be placed, when received by the state treasurer, in the general fund of the state, as its exclusive supervision is vested in the trustees of the institution designated by the state legislature as the beneficiary entitled to receive it.
2. The state treasurer, to whom the fund is transmitted by the secretary of the treasury, is charged with the ministerial duty of immediately paying it over to the treasurer of the board of regents of the University of Idaho, upon its order and the state auditor has no authority over, and no duty to perform with respect to it.
3. The acts of the defendants, state auditor and state treasurer, in attempting to place the money in the general fund of the state treasury, by making entries upon their books to that end, were mere nullities and did not affect its legal status.
Original proceeding to procure a Writ of Mandate. Writ granted.
Writ of mandate issued. No costs awarded.
Wm. Healy and J. R. Smead, for Plaintiff.
The fund in question is special and impressed with a trust, and neither it nor its income is a part of the general fund of the state. (Yale College v. Sanger, 62 F. 177.)
The control of the fund is vested in the supervisors of the institution and not in the legislature, which may not interfere in any way with the fund granted by Congress to a beneficiary which has been designated. (State Board of Agriculture v. Auditor General, 180 Mich. 349, 147 N.W. 529.)
The state treasurer could not change this trust fund into part of the general fund of the state by a mere bookkeeping transaction, and the state auditor has no function whatever to perform in the handling of the fund. (Blaine County v. Fuld, ante, p. 358, 171 P. 1138.)
T. A. Walters, Attorney General, and A. C. Hindman and J. P. Pope, Assistant Attorneys General, for Defendants, cite no authorities.
This is an original proceeding for a writ of mandate to compel the defendants to pay over to the plaintiff the sum of $ 50,000 for the use and benefit of the University of Idaho and to compel them to correct the books and records of their respective offices by canceling thereon all entries showing the aforesaid sum to be a part of the general fund of the state of Idaho, and for general relief. The petition alleges in substance that the fund in question was paid by the United States to the defendant Eagleson, as state treasurer, on July 10, 1917, under the provisions of the act of Congress August 30, 1890, 26 Stat. 417, as amended by the act of Congress March 4, 1907, 34 Stat. 1256, providing for the appropriation from the public treasury of the United States of the sum of $ 50,000 annually for the more complete endowment and maintenance of each of certain designated classes of colleges, of which the University of Idaho is one. That thereafter the board of regents duly made an order upon the treasurer that this sum be paid over to plaintiff in his official capacity. That on July 10, 1917, the defendant Van Deusen, as auditor, issued his certificate directing that the sum be deposited in the general fund; that the defendant state treasurer issued his official receipt for the sum and purported to deposit it in the general fund, and that the state auditor and treasurer respectively have carried the sum on their books as part of the general fund. That they have refused to pay the sum to the plaintiff or to correct their books in this respect and still carry the sum as a part of the general fund. That unless the fund be turned over to plaintiff as provided by the acts of Congress, the University will be unable to obtain any use or benefit of the same to its great and irreparable injury and detriment, and that plaintiff will be unable to report to the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary...
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