Redcay v. State Bd. of Educ.

• Decision Date: 18 April 1942
• Docket Number: No. 236.,236.
• Parties: REDCAY v. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION et al.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

25 A.2d 632

128 N.J.L. 281

REDCAY

v. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION et al.

No. 236.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

April 18, 1942.

Certiorari proceeding by Paul I. Redcay against the State Board of Education and another to review a decision of the State Board of Education affirming a judgment of the State Commissioner of Education sustaining an order of dismissal of prosecutor as principal of Middletown Township High School by the Board of Education of the Township of Middletown.

Case remanded to the State Board of Education.

October term, 1941, before BODINE, PERSKIE, and PORTER, JJ.

Lester C. Leonard, of Asbury Park, for prosecutor.

David T. Wilentz, Atty. Gen. (John F. Bruther, Asst. Atty. Gen., of counsel), for State Board of Education.

Lawrence A. Carton, Jr., of Red Bank, for Board of Education of Township of Middletown.

PERSKIE, Justice.

The basic question requiring decision in this cause is whether prosecutor was improperly dismissed as principal of the Middletown Township High School.

Prosecutor, Paul I. Redcay, has been principal of the Middletown Township High School since 1923, and as such was and is concededly entitled to the protection afforded him by our tenure act for teachers and principals. N.J.S.A. 18:13-16 et seq.

On April 17, 1939, prosecutor was notified by the supervising principal of the Board of Education of the Township of Middletown (hereafter referred to as respondent), that, at a meeting held by respondent, on April 11, 1939, he was elected principal for the school year 1939-1940 at the salary of $3,800. Prosecutor accepted the position.

Thereafter, on August 11, 1939, a series of charges were preferred against prosecutor by a former president of the local board, a present member of the local board, and by the supervising principal. In our view of this cause, it will serve no purpose to state even in epitomized form the details of these extensive charges. Suffice it to observe that they charged prosecutor with inefficiency, incapacity, insubordination, lack of cooperation, unfitness and conduct generally unbecoming a principal.

After conducting 19 hearings, taking testimony and 150 exhibits resulting in a record of some 1,400 typewritten pages, the local board (the member thereof who had filed charges not voting), on December 12, 1939, found prosecutor guilty on most of the specifically alleged charges and accordingly dismissed him as principal and teacher.

Prosecutor appealed to the State Commissioner of Education who, on May 24,

1940, sustained the local board. On further appeal to the State Board of Education, the judgment of the State Commissioner was affirmed on November 2, 1940.

Prosecutor obtained a writ of certiorari to review his dismissal. The case was submitted to us on briefs. We ordered oral argument which was heard on February 5, 1942. Leave was given respective counsel to file supplemental briefs, the last of which was received by us on March 18, 1942.

We are met, at the outset of our consideration and disposition of this cause, with the contention that the State Board of Education did not, as was its bounden duty, decide prosecutor's appeal, N.J.S.A. 18:2-4, subd. d, but if it did decide the appeal its decision was made to rest on votes of its members who neither read nor considered the testimony, nor heard nor considered oral argument made, nor read nor considered the briefs submitted.

The facts in support of the contention are stipulated in the return to the writ; they are free from any substantial dispute.

The State Board of Education (hereafter referred to as State Board), consists of "ten members" (N.J.S.A. 18:2-1) who receive "no compensation" for their services save "their necessary expenses." N.J.S.A. 18:2-3. Pursuant to its asserted power (N. J.S.A. 18:2-4, subd. b), the State Board, in 1911, adopted rules concerning appeals to it from the decision of the State Commissioner of Education. Under these rules, as lastly amended, a "Law Committee", consisting of four members of the State Board, hears and considers all appeals and reports and recommends its considerations to the State Board.

This appeal was heard by three of the four members of the "Law Committee." The "record and all of the briefs were thoroughly examined * * *" by them, and all four "agreed" on its recommendations and conclusions resulting in prosecu tor's dismissal. Six of the ten members of the State Board were present at the meeting held on November 2, 1940. Three of the six were members of the "Law Committee." Two of these three were those who had made a thorough study of the case, while the third was the one who merely studied his colleagues' report and concurred therein. The remaining three members of the State Board made no study of the proofs, and briefs, nor did they hear argument. In short, the State Board adopted the conclusions of its Law Committee as its decision in the case. Application to reopen and vacate its decision was denied on the recommendation of the Law Committee at the meeting of the State Board on December 14, 1940. Of the eight members present at this meeting, four were members of the Law Committee and the remaining four did not consider the proofs nor briefs submitted, nor hear argument on which the State Board adopted the conclusions of the Law Committee resulting in prosecutor's dismissal.

There is no occasion, under the facts exhibited, to add to the much discussed question as to how far the State Board could under its asserted power delegate its statutory duty to make a decision. Suffice it...