State ex rel. Anderson v. Brand
| Decision Date | 27 April 1937 |
| Docket Number | 26560. |
| Citation | 7 N.E.2d 777,214 Ind. 347 |
| Parties | STATE ex rel. ANDERSON v. BRAND. |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Appeal from Wabash Circuit Court; Frank O. Switzer Judge.
Plummer & Plummer, of Wabash, and Paul R. Shafer and Thomas F O'Mara, both of Terre Haute, for appellant.
Raymond Brooks, of North Manchester, for appellee.
On petition for rehearing, appellant earnestly contends that the decision of this case gives a retroactive effect to a statute, and permits the impairment of the obligation of a binding contract. The original opinion was intended to be understood as expressing the view that no contractual right to be continued as a teacher from year to year is involved. The teachers' contracts are made for one year, and the terms may be changed annually. The tenure statute (Burns' Ann.St.1933, § 28-4307), in effect, grants a privilege to the teacher who has served five years, and signed a new additional contract to continue as a teacher, under certain conditions, by limiting the power of the local school officers to employ any one in the place of a tenure teacher. The teacher had no contractual right to continue in employment. The statute merely deprived the local school officers of power to employ any other teacher in place of the tenure teacher, and required that the tenure teacher be re-employed unless there was a necessary reduction in the number of teachers. Schools are under the control of the Legislature, and local governmental units act only as legislative agencies in the operation of the schools. The statutes, the Constitution, and the law, must be deemed to be a part of every teacher's contract. If appellant's contention could be sustained, it would mean that the statute, as it existed at the time a teacher acquired tenure status, could not be changed, even in respect to the grounds of cancelation or removal.
As pointed out in the original opinion, the Legislature, in enacting school laws, exercises one of the functions of sovereignty. The right to control public policy, in respect to the management and operation of schools, cannot be contracted away by one Legislature so as to fix a permanent public policy, unchangeable by succeeding Legislatures.
But if the relationship were considered as controlled by the rules of private contract, the provision for re- employment from year to year is not enforceable for want of mutuality. The teacher may terminate the tenure at any time, except during the school year and for thirty days previous to its beginning, by giving five days' notice. This provision clearly indicates that the statute was not intended to bind the state or the teacher to a permanent relationship; that it was intended only as a limitation upon the discretion of local school officers. Davis v. Davis, Director General of Railroads (1926) 197 Ind. 386, 151 N.E. 134; Kostanzer et al. v. State ex rel. Ramsey (1933) 205 Ind. 536, 548, 549, 187 N.E. 337, 342.
The latter case was an action by a teacher to mandate the school board to continue her as a teacher in the schools under the tenure statute. It is said in the opinion: 'The Tenure Act permits a teacher to cancel his contract at any time after the close of a school term up to thirty days prior to the beginning of the next school term, provided five days' notice is given, and appellant contends that there was no contract between appellee and appellants for the reason 'that a contract which does not bind both parties binds neither of them.' This proposition is undoubtedly supported by the law of contracts. But there is nothing in the law of contracts to prevent one party to a contract granting to the other the privilege of rescission or cancellation on terms not reserved to the former party. The local school corporations are agents of the state in the administration of the public schools and the General Assembly has the power to prescribe the terms of the contract to be executed by these agents.' The controlling principle is that local school...
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