Short v. Langston

• Decision Date: 23 May 1907
• Parties: SHORT ET AL. v. LANGSTON ET AL.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

102 S.W. 236

125 Ky. 816

SHORT ET AL. v. LANGSTON ET AL.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

May 23, 1907

Appeal from Circuit Court, Calloway County.

"To be officially reported."

Mandamus by the trustees of Dexter common school, on the relation of J. F. Short and another, against L. A. L. Langston and another, to compel them to accept a school census and certify it to the superintendent of public instruction. Demurrer to petition sustained, and plaintiffs appeal. Reversed and remanded.

Zeb A Stewart, for appellants.

Bennett Robbins & Thomas, for appellees.

HOBSON J.

This suit was filed by the trustees of Dexter common school district No. 78, in Calloway county, on relation of J. F Short and P. A. Smith, two of the trustees of the district against J. F. Padgett, the other trustee who was the chairman of the board, and L. A. L. Langston, the county school superintendent, to obtain a mandamus. The circuit court sustained a general demurrer to the petition, and the plaintiffs appeal.

It is alleged in the petition that Short, Smith, and Padgett are the duly elected and qualified trustees of the district; that the trustees of the district in the year 1906 made a census of the school children, and reported it to the county superintendent, as required by the statute; that under this census there were 69 school children in the district; that Langston refused to receive the census which they made, and Padgett had alone made a census which had not been adopted by the trustees and was fraudulent and incorrect, by which he had made it appear that there were 77 children in the district; that the census made by Padgett was not approved by the trustees or certified by them, but only by Padgett; that the county superintendent had accepted the census made by Padgett, and had refused to place upon the record the census made by the trustees and certified by them. The plaintiffs also set out in detail the different persons placed by Padgett in his census who were not pupils of the district within the ages required by the statute. They prayed a mandamus requiring the county school superintendent to accept the census which the trustees of the district had made and certified, and to certify it to the superintendent of public instruction as the census of the district. While the case was pending, M. C. Davis, on her petition, was allowed to file her petition in the action in which she joined with the plaintiffs, charging that she was a teacher by occupation; that she held a second-class certificate, and was so authorized to teach in any common school district not reporting more than 75 pupil children; that, at a regular meeting of the trustees of the district, she had been employed to teach the school for the year 1906; that she had begun the school and was teaching it; and that the census made by Padgett was fraudulently made by him to prevent her from teaching the school and obtaining the money for it. A number of other allegations are made which are not material to be set out here.

Section 4449, Ky. St. 1903, is as follows: "It shall be the duty of the trustees of each district, annually,...