State v. Blease

• Decision Date: 26 February 1912
• Citation: 73 S.E. 769,90 S.C. 412
• Parties: STATE ex rel. TAYLOR et al. v. BLEASE et al.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

73 S.E. 769

90 S.C. 412

STATE ex rel. TAYLOR et al. v. BLEASE et al.

Supreme Court of South Carolina

February 26, 1912

Appeal from Common Pleas Circuit Court of Richland County; Ernest Gary, Judge.

"To be officially reported."

Mandamus by the State, on the relation of W. B. Taylor and another against Cole L. Blease and others. From a judgment denying the application, relators appeal. Affirmed.

George R. Rembert and C. S. Monteith, for relators. J. Fraser Lyon and W. H. Sharpe, for respondents.

WOODS J.

The statute of February 17, 1911, provides for the award of scholarships in the University of South Carolina, Clemson Agricultural College, the Citadel, and Winthrop Normal and Industrial College "by the State Board of Education upon the recommendation of the faculties of the respective institutions, or of such committees as may be appointed for that purpose by the boards of trustees of those institutions." Among other conditions of eligibility the statute imposes the following: "No applicant for a scholarship shall be eligible to stand an examination for a scholarship if such applicant has already attended the institution for which the scholarship is intended, or any other institution of higher learning known as a college or university: Provided, that this condition shall not apply where there is no other applicant."

The relator Guy B. Taylor stood the examination and was recommended by the faculty of Clemson College for appointment to a scholarship in that institution; but the Board of Education refused to appoint him, on the ground that he had already attended Clemson College, and was therefore ineligible under the terms of the statute. Thereupon a petition was filed, praying for a writ of mandamus requiring the Board of Education to make the appointment. Without stating the pleadings in detail, it is sufficient to state that the cause depends on the admitted fact that Guy B Taylor was a student in the preparatory class, a department of Clemson College, during the college year of 1910-11, and received free tuition at the hands of the trustees. The appeal is from an order of the circuit judge refusing the writ, on the ground that attendance as a student in a preparatory class at Clemson College fell within the terms of the statute, and that Taylor was therefore ineligible to appointment.

We think there can be no doubt that the State Board of Education and the circuit judge correctly...