Rowan v. Bd. Of Educ. Of Logan County. Lon E. Browning
| Decision Date | 02 March 1943 |
| Docket Number | (No. 9396),(No. 9405),(No. 9406) |
| Citation | 125 W.Va. 406 |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | Mabel Rowan v. Board of Education of LoganCounty et al.Lon E. Browning v. Board of Education of LoganCounty et al.Vida Lee Browning v. Board of Education of LoganCounty et al. |
The holder of a "Teacher's Continuing Contract of Employment", provided for in Section 1, Chapter 53, Acts of the Legislature, 1939, who is by a Board of Education legally assigned to teach in a particular school, may not, without his consent, be transferred to another school, without a showing that such transfer is of a clearly regulatory nature, or to meet an emergency.
The acts of a de facto officer, performed in his own interest, are void.
Original proceedings in mandamus by Mabel Rowan, Lon E. Browning and Vida Lee Browning against the Board of Education of Logan County, and others, involving respondents' authority to assign relators to teach in schools other than the schools to which they were originally assigned.
Writ awarded as to Mabel Rowan and Vida Lee Browning; denied as to Lon E. Browning.
Lee, Blessing & Steed, for relators. R. Paul Holland, for respondents.
These are original jurisdiction proceedings in mandamus. The relators hold contracts as teachers in the public schools of Logan County, and respondents are the Board of Education and superintendent of schools of that county. The rights of the relators are each dependent upon the effect we give to certain actions of the board of education of said county, taken on May 12, 1942, and later on June 29th of the same year. The complaint of the relators is that they were unlawfully deprived of their legal rights in being assigned to certain schools by the board's action on June 29th, when, as they contend, they were legally assigned to other schools under the action of the board taken at its meeting on May 12th.
On May 12, 1942, the Board of Education of Logan County was composed of Frank White, P. C. Dingess, Louden H. White, R. L. Shelton and C. L. Williams, and Paul C. Winters was county superintendent of schools. At a meeting held on that day, the superintendent submitted to the board his recommendation for the assignment of teachers and principals for the school year 1942-43. Had that recommendation been adopted, Mabel Rowan would have been assigned as principal in the Stollings School. What the assignment of relators, Lon E. Browning and Vida Lee Browning, would have been is not stressed; nor does the record show the relationship, if any, between these parties, and reference thereto in the briefs of respondents cannot be considered. The recommendation aforesaid submitted to the board by Winters as superintendent was rejected, and thereupon, at the same meeting, charges were filed against Winters, as superintendent, and by a vote of three to two he was suspended as such, and Lon E. Browning was then selected as acting superintendent by the vote of Louden H. White, R. L. Shelton and C. L. Williams. Browning, after taking an oath as acting superintendent, and assuming to act as such, then made his recommendation to the board as to the assignment or placement of teachers and principals for the school year 1942-43, which was different from that submitted to the board by Winters, which recommendation was approved by the three members of the board who selected him as superintendent, the other two members, Frank White and P. C. Dingess, voting in the negative. Under the Browning recommendation, Mabel Rowan was assigned as principal of the Logan Central School; Lon E. Browning as principal of the Omar Junior High School and Elementary School; and Vida Lee Browning as principal of the Peach Creek Elementary School. It appears from the evidence that the actions of the board as to the filing of charges against Winters, the selection of Browning as acting superintendent, and the acceptance of the Browning recommendation as to the assignment of principals and teachers, including himself, had been agreed upon several days prior to the meeting of May 12th. While the minutes of this meeting were not signed, we do not treat this omission as of any importance.
Shortly before the meeting of May 12th, to-wit, on May 2nd, impeachment charges were filed in the Circuit Court of Logan County against Louden H. White, R. L. Shelton and C. L. Williams, and under such charges, they were, on May 21, 1942, removed as members of the board. This Court refused to suspend the action of the Circuit Court in removing White and Shelton, but did suspend such action with respect to the removal of Williams, and afterwards, on September 22, 1942, affirmed the action of the Circuit Court in the removal of White and Shelton, and reversed such action as to the removal of Williams.
While these matters were pending, a suit in equity was instituted in the Circuit Court of Logan County, by Winters and others, and against the Board of Education and certain individual members thereof and relator, Lon E. Browning, in which an injunction was awarded by said court, and made effective on May 19, 1942, by which Lon E. Browning was "enjoined and restrained from proceeding further to act as such acting county superintendent of schools of the county of Logan"; and the Board of Education of said county and Louden H. White, R. L. Shelton and C. L. Williams, members of said board, were "enjoined and restrained from attempting in any manner whatsoever to complete the hiring and placement of teachers in the school system of Logan County, West Virginia, for the school year 1942 and 1943 until such time as the teachers and the placement thereof has been regularly and properly approved and recommended by a duly appointed and qualified County Superintendent of Schools of Logan County, West Virginia." No such injunction was in effect at the date of the acts complained of, and cannot, therefore, be considered as having any bearing thereon. In the meantime, an appointment to take the place of either Louden H. White or R. L. Shelton on the board was made, and on June 23, 1942, there was a meeting of the board at which the charges against Winters were dismissed and he was restored to his position as superintendent. On June 29th, following, the board, assuming to treat the prior action taken on May 12th, as void and of no effect, proceeded to assign principals and teachers for the coming school year. This assignment was made by Winters, as superintendent, and approved by the board. Mabel Rowan was assigned, not to the Stollings School, but to the principalship of the J. B. Ellis School, commonly known as a four-room school, employing four teachers, the result of which was that her salary was materially reduced. Lon E. Browning was assigned as principal of the Earling Elementary School, a six-room school, and his salary reduced; Vida Lee Browning was assigned as a secondgrade teacher in the Earling Elementary School, and her salary likewise reduced. As to the two last named relators, other allegations are made with respect to the difficulty in reaching their places of employment, and other matters tending to show that the positions to which they were finally assigned were much less desirable than those assigned to them under the board's order of May 12th. No particular explanation is given as to why the assignments as to Lon E. Browning and Vida Lee Browning were changed, but it is attempted to justify the change as to Mabel Rowan by the statement that the Logan Central High School was and is now a twelve-room school, requiring high-class supervision, and the contention is made that the relator is a nervous woman; inefficient and unable to discharge the duties of such position; and that the change in her assignment was in the interest of school administration in said county. On this point, we are of the opinion that the evidence fails to disclose such justification for the board's action. True, there is some evidence which, as an original proposition, might have justified the selection of Mabel Rowan for a less responsible position than that of principal of the Logan Central School; but there is no explanation of why she was recommended for the position of principal of an important school at Stollings in May, 1942, and then within six weeks discovered to be capable only of teaching in and supervising a much smaller school.
The decision in these cases must rest upon whether the action of the board of education in rejecting Winters' recommendation on May 12, 1942, and substituting that of Browning was a legal action; and the further question of the rights, if any, which accrued to the relators thereunder. It must be admitted that the meeting of the board was regular; that the majority of the board had the right to control its decision; and that they did so...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
EEOC v. Sears, Roebuck & Co.
...10 N.J.Misc. 358, 158 A. 747 (N.J.Dist.Ct.1932); or to apply the doctrine for some other kind of benefit, Rowan v. Board of Education, 125 W.Va. 406, 24 S.E.2d 583, 586 (Ct.App. 1943); Mansur v. Morris, 355 Mo. 424, 196 S.W.2d 287, 295 (Sup.Ct. en banc 1946); or attempts by officials to jus......
-
Schwartz v. County Court of Hancock County
...all executive participants in its furtherance are in part clothed with the sovereign power of the State and therefore public officers. In the Rowan case we had this to say: 'In County Court v. Nicely, 121 W.Va. 767, 6 S.E.2d 485, we held that a county superintendent of schools was not a cou......
-
Harbert v. The County Court Of Harrison County
...which he occupies constitute him a public officer within the meaning of the above quoted constitutional provision. Rowan v. Board of Education, 125 W. Va. 406, 24 S. E. 2d 583; Jackson v. Board of Education, 128 W. Va. 154, 35 S. E. 2d 852. The command of the Constitution that the salary of......
-
The State Of West Va. Ex Rel. Freemont Miller. v. The Bd. Of Educ. Of The County Of Mason
...or merely a usurper, that question not being before us. However, Starkey's acts do not react to his benefit. Rowan v. Board of Education, 125 W. Va. 406, 24 S. E. 2d 583; Building & Loan Assn. v. Sohn, 54 W. Va. 101, 46 S. E. 222; Sections 23 and 203 Constantineau on De Facto Doctrine. Mere......