Parker v. Town of Lyndeborough

• Decision Date: 06 November 1918
• Citation: 105 A. 7,79 N.H. 99
• Parties: PARKER v. TOWN OF LYNDEBOROUGH et al.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

105 A. 7

79 N.H. 99

PARKER

v. TOWN OF LYNDEBOROUGH et al.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire. Hillsborough.

Nov. 6, 1918.

Transferred from Superior Court, Hillsborough County; Marble, Judge.

Action of assumpsit by Elmer B. Parker against the Town of Lyndeborough and Lyndeborough School District. Transferred without ruling. Judgment for plaintiff against the school district and for the defendant town.

Assumpsit, under Laws 1901, c. 96, for tuition paid to Wilton. The case was tried by a referee who found the facts. The plaintiff's son attended the junior high school in Wilton, and the plaintiff paid his tuition. It appeared that in the Lyndeborough schools the scholars could take many, but not all, the studies taken in the Wilton junior high school, and the scholars going from the Lyndeborough schools to Wilton frequently had to take the grades over. The Wilton school was approved by the state superintendent, and the Lyndeborough school was not so approved. It was found that Lyndeborough did not maintain a school of a grade corresponding to that attended by the plaintiff's son.

The plaintiff did not notify the school board what school his child had elected to attend but the board knew the fact. The question whether the plaintiff could recover was not passed upon by the referee, and at the request of the parties the case was transferred without ruling from the September term, 1917, of the superior court.

Cobleigh & Theriault, of Nashua, for plaintiff.

Wason & Moran, of Nashua, for defendants.

PEASLEE, J. "Any town not maintaining a high school or school of corresponding grade shall pay for the tuition" of certain scholars. Laws 1901, c. 96, § 1.

"By the term 'high school' or 'academy' as used in this act, is understood a school having at least one course of not less than four years, properly equipped and teaching such subjects as are required for admission to college, technical school, and normal school. * * * " Id. § 4, as amended by Laws 1905, C. 19.

The purpose of these enactments was "to enable the children to graduate from an approved school" (New Hampton Institution v. School District, 74 N. H. 412, 416, 68 Atl. 538); and they are to be so construed as to give effect to this intent as far as their language will permit of such result it appears that the school attended by the plaintiff's child was not a "high school" or an "academy" within the meaning of the terms as commonly employed in 1901. The subjects studied were in part those then taught in high schools and in part those covered by the grammar grades. But the act of 1901, as amended, gives a broader application to these terms. Under these provisions two requisites are essential to make the school one at which a pupil from another town may attend at the public expense. The subjects taught must be such as are required for admission to college, etc., and it must appear that the town, sought to be charged does not maintain a school of corresponding grade. If the local school goes only to the sixth grammar...