State v. Bryan

• Citation: 50 Fla. 293,39 So. 929
• Parties: STATE ex rel. MOODIE et al. v. BRYAN et al.
• Decision Date: 19 December 1905
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

39 So. 929

50 Fla. 293

STATE ex rel. MOODIE et al. v. BRYAN et al.

Florida Supreme Court

December 19, 1905

In Banc. Quo warranto by the state, by W. H. Ellis, Attorney General, upon the relation of F. B. Moodie and others against N. P. Bryan and others, as the state board of control. Demurrer sustained, and information quashed.

Rehearing denied January 23, 1906.

COUNSEL A. J. Henry, Cooper & Cooper, and M. M Scarborough, Jr., for relators.

A. W Cockrell & Son, H. H. Buckman, and Fred T. Myers, for respondents. The Florida Legislature, at its session of 1905, enacted the following statute:

'Chapter 5384.--(No. 13.) 'An act to abolish the Florida Agricultural College, now officially designated as the University of Florida, located at Lake City; the West Florida Seminary, now known as the Florida State College, located at Tallahassee; the White Normal School, located at De Funiak Springs; the East Florida Seminary, located at Gainesville; the South Florida College, located at Bartow; the Florida Agricultural Institute, located in Osceola county, and to vacate and revoke their charters, powers, franchises and privileges, and to abolish their boards of trustees, managers and officers; to declare their assets and property the property of the state of Florida, and to vest the title to same in the state board of education in trust for the purposes provided in this act, to require the conveyance of title and the delivery of all property and assets of said abolished institutions to the said state board of education by the trustees, managers or other persons having the title, possession, custody or control of the assets of said institutions; requiring an accounting and reports therefrom, including a statement of all their liabilities and the auditing of the same; providing for the payment of the indebtedness of said institutions; revoking and abolishing all continuing appropriations made or granted thereto; for the repeal of sections 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 287, 288, 289, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298 and 299 of the Revised Statutes of Florida, relating to the creation and establishment of the Florida Agricultural College, its organization, powers, rights and privileges and matters pertaining thereto; for the repeal of sections 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 320, 321, 322, 323, 325, 326 and 327 of the Revised Statutes of Florida relating to the organization, creation and establishment of the seminaries east and west of the Suwannee river, their location, powers, rights, privileges and matters pertaining thereto; the repeal of section 268 of the Revised Statutes of Florida relating to the establishment of a white normal school at De Funiak Springs, and providing for the election of a faculty therefor; the abolishing of the normal and industrial department created in the St. Petersburg Normal and Industrial School located at St. Petersburg, and the repealing of chapter 4998 of the Laws of Florida, entitled 'An act to assist in the maintaining an industrial and normal department in the St. Petersburg Normal and Industrial School; to create scholarships therein and to make appropriations therefor,' approved May 31, 1901; providing that no further appropriations or state aid shall be made to the said institution, the striking from the name of said institution of the words 'Normal and Industrial,' and the relinquishing to the county of Hillsborough of all interest possessed by the state in and to the said school or its property by reason of the appropriations made and aid granted thereto; for the amendment of section 269 of the Revised Statutes of the state of Florida relating to the establishment of a normal school for colored teachers, and providing for the election of a faculty therefor; the establishment, creation and location of the university of the state to be known as the University of the State of Florida, and one female seminary to be known as the Florida Female College, and for the maintenance and support of same; providing for the change of location of the Institute for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb now located at St. Augustine, and its enlargement, maintenance and support; providing for the maintenance, support and greater efficiency of the Colored Normal School located at Tallahassee, and for the change of location of the same as may be desired; for the creation of a board of control to manage and control all of said several institutions created and provided to be supported and maintained by this act, and to provide for their appointment, terms of office, manner of their succession, organization, compensation, modes and manner of payment and matters connected therewith; granting unto said board, the control and management of said institutions and every department thereof, full power and authority to that end, and for the employment of all instructors, teachers, servants and employés; for the purchase of all property, furniture, paraphernalia and matters for said institutions and the proper administration of the same, and the mode and manner by which the expense of their operation, support and maintenance shall be provided and paid; making the said board and its actions subject to the control and supervision of the state board of education, and providing for joint meetings of the same; creating the said board of control a body corporate and prescribing its powers and duties; appropriating the assets and property of such institution so selected to the location, establishment, support and maintenance of the said institution or institutions that may be so located; providing as to how the said funds, assets and property of the abolished University of Florida shall be disposed of, including the funds arising under the Hatch and Morrill acts, and as to the establishment of the experiment station provided by the United States; providing for the disposition of any endowment or funds belonging to the said State College and not the property of the state of Florida in case none of said institutions created or maintained by this act shall be located at Tallahassee, and in case one of said institutions created by this act shall be located there, and for any necessary accounting between the city of Tallahassee and the state of Florida in regard thereto; providing for the establishment in the University of the State of Florida created by this act of an agricultural, industrial and mechanical department and normal department for the instruction of white teachers, summer schools, a classical and scientific department, and such other departments of higher education as the said boards shall deem necessary; providing for the design of deucation; for the admission of students; for scholarships; for rules and regulations in that regard, and as to grades of education, and the powers of said boards in regard thereto; providing for the appropriation of the seminary Morrill and Hatch funds and the interest thereon as required by the acts of Congress granting the same; providing for a settlement with the city of Gainesvile and the town of Lake City in case neither of the institutions created or maintained by this act shall be located at either of said places and for the refunding of donations made by said places respectively to the institutions formerly located thereat and abolished by this act, in case that none of the institutions are located by said boards at such points; providing for the sale and disposal of all the assets by this act not specifically appropriated, and for the creation of a fund arising from any surplus assets and property, and the disposal of the same; providing for an appropriation by the state for the purpose of aiding and assisting in carrying out the provisions of this act, and for continuing appropriation for the maintenance and support of said institutions as may be requisite and necessary from time to time; providing for the auditing and approving of all accounts in the operation, enlargement, maintenance and conduct of the institutions provided for and maintained by this act, and the modes and manner of their payment; providing as to who shall keep and have possession of all funds provided for under this act and subsequent acts in relation thereto; as to how the same shall be paid out and disposed of; providing for the powers and duties of the board of control in relation to the prescribing of examinations and the forms thereof in the public schools of this state and as to admission therefrom and from other institutions of learning into the said institutions created and maintained by this act, and the issuance of certificates in regard to the same; for the vesting in the state board of education of the title to all the assets and property of the Colored Normal School and the Institute for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb; requiring the abolition of such trustees, managers and officers and the surrender of the management, possession and control of such institutions and their property to the board of control--the vesting in said board of all powers now provided by law and this act in regard thereto; the duties of the State Treasurer, Comptroller, Superintendent of Public Instruction, state board of education and board of control in regard to said institutions; to provide for a normal department and summer school for white teachers in the Florida Female College and a summer school for colored teachers in the Colored Normal School--whenever necessary, and to repeal all laws in conflict with the provisions of this act.

'Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Florida:

'Section 1. That the several and respective institutions of learning and education heretofore created, chartered, fostered and maintained by this state, to-wit:

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