Regents of State University v. Hart

• Decision Date: 01 January 1862
• Citation: 7 Minn. 45
• Parties: REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA et al. vs. ALEXANDER HART et al.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

7 Minn. 45

REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA et al.vs.

ALEXANDER HART et al.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Appeal from order of the district court, Hennepin County.

The action is on notes executed by the regents, for work done in constructing a building for the university.

Gordon E. Cole, Attorney General.

Bond & Clark, for respondents.

FLANDRAU, J.

The regents of the university of Minnesota are made a corporation by ch. 23, p. 350, of the Comp. Stat. Section one establishes the university. Section two provides a fund for the support of the same from the proceeds of the lands that may be granted by the United States to the territory for that purpose. Section three declares the object of the university to be purely educational. Section four vests the government of the same in a board of regents, and, together with section five, provides the manner of their election. Section seven makes them a body corporate, with the right, as such, of suing and being sued, contracting and being contracted with, and of making, using, and altering, a common seal. Section eight authorizes the regents to appoint a secretary, treasurer, and librarian, and defines the duties of the first two officers. Section nine confers upon the regents certain powers, among which are to elect a chancellor, who shall be ex officio president of the board of regents, and in his absence, authorizes them to appoint one of their own number president pro tem. Section thirteen locates the university at St. Anthony, and authorizes the selection of a site for the same, and the erection of the buildings as soon as funds may be provided for that purpose. Section fifteen authorizes the regents to expend such portions of the fund which, by the provisions of said chapter 23, may come under their control, as they may deem expedient, for the erection of buildings, &c. These are the only portions of the chapter that it is necessary to refer to in this case. The regents were confined in all their expenditures to the particular fund referred to, and provided by that chapter, and persons dealing with them would be held chargeable with knowledge of their rights and powers. In 1856, they were, by act of the legislature, (Comp. Stat 352) empowered to issue the bonds of the university to the amount of $15,000, secured by mortgage on the lands referred to in chapter 23 above mentioned, for the purpose of liquidating a debt incurred in the purchase of the site authorized by section 13 of said chapter, to the amount of $5,000, and the balance of $10,000 to be expended in the erection of the buildings also provided for in section 13. By a subsequent act, passed March 8, 1858, (Comp. Stat. 353) the regents were empowered to raise by the same means the sum of $40,000, about the disbursement of which nothing is said.

We think these three acts must be construed together, and the two latter be understood as providing the fund spoken of in the first. They, however, depart to a certain extent, from the original design of applying the fund. The first act declares that the proceeds of all lands that may hereafter be granted by the United States to the territory, for the support of a university, shall be and remain a perpetual fund to be called the "University Fund," the interest of which shall be appropriated to the support of a university. It was the design of this act to retain all the proceeds that might arise from the sale or mortgage of the university lands, as a principal fund, which was not to be encroached upon, but was to be invested to produce a revenue for the support of the university. The interest alone was to be expended....