Trustees of Rutgers College in N. J. v. Richman

• Decision Date: 03 August 1956
• Docket Number: No. C--1142,C--1142
• Citation: 125 A.2d 10,41 N.J.Super. 259
• Parties: The TRUSTEES OF RUTGERS COLLEGE IN NEW JERSEY (a body corporate and politic heretofore designated the State University of New Jersey), and John H. Bosshart, Charles H. Brower, Robert A. Cooke, Marie H. Katzenbach, Rosamond S. Moxon, Roy F. Nichois, Carrol M. Shanks, Lansing P. Shield, Frederic W. Smith, Howard A. Smith, Tracy S. Voorhees and Ralph P. White, individually and as members of and representatives of the membership of the Board of Trustees of the corporate plaintiff and as members of a special committee of the Board on the Reorganization of the Board of Trustees, Plaintiffs, v. Grover C. RICHMAN, Jr., Attorney General of the State of New Jersey, Robert L. Finley, Acting and Deputy Treasurer of the State of New Jersey, and The State Board of Education, Defendants. . Chancery Division
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court

Page 259

41 N.J.Super. 259

125 A.2d 10

The TRUSTEES OF RUTGERS COLLEGE IN NEW JERSEY (a body corporate and politic heretofore designated the State University of New Jersey), and John H. Bosshart, Charles H Brower, Robert A. Cooke, Marie H. Katzenbach, Rosamond S Moxon, Roy F. Nichois, Carrol M. Shanks, Lansing P. Shield Frederic W. Smith, Howard A. Smith, Tracy S. Voorhees and Ralph P. White, individually and as members of and representatives of the membership of the Board of Trustees of the corporate plaintiff and as members of a special committee of the Board on the Reorganization of the Board of Trustees, Plaintiffs, v. Grover C. RICHMAN, Jr., Attorney General of the State of New Jersey, Robert L. Finley, Acting and Deputy Treasurer of the State of New Jersey and The State Board of Education, Defendants.

No. C--1142.

Superior Court of New Jersey.

Chancery Division.

Aug. 3, 1956.

Waldron M. Ward, Newark, argued the cause for plaintiffs (Pitney, Hardin & Ward, Newark, attorneys; Roger C. Ward, Newark, on the brief).

Grover C. Richman, Jr., Newark, and David D. Furman, Trenton, argued the cause for defendants (Grover C. Richman, Jr., Atty. Gen., attorney; David Landau, Union City, on the brief).

Samuel A. Larner and Roger H. McGlynn, Newark, argued the cause as amici curiae.

SCHETTINO, J.S.C.

Plaintiffs move for summary judgment on the record which comprises the amended and supplemental complaint, with exhibits annexed; the answer thereto; affidavits of nine individuals; a certified copy of the corporate plaintiff's charter and all amendments thereto; a certified copy of Charter Provisions and Rules and Regulations (1951 edition); and the text of chapter 61 of the Laws of 1956, N.J.S.A. 18:22--15.25 to 15.61.

History, Nature and Organization of Rutgers

Rutgers University has its origin in Queen's-College, chartered by George III of Great Britain in 1766 in response to a petition of Dutch settlers of New York and New Jersey. It was organized under an amended charter dated March 20, 1770, and instruction commenced in 1771, at New Brunswick.

The original charter provided:

a. The right and power to establish and conduct a college

'For the education of youth in the learned languages, liberal and useful arts and sciences, and especially in divinity; preparing them for the ministry and other good offices';

b. The provision that the President shall be a member of the Dutch Reformed Church;

c. The incorporation of the Trustees in perpetuity, under the name 'Trustees of Queen's-College in New Jersey,' with appropriate corporate powers;

d. Full power in the Trustees over the government of the college, to make 'ordinances, orders and laws' for the government of the college, and to execute the same;

e. Election by the Trustees of a President, a Professor of Divinity, professors and tutors, treasurer, the clerk, the steward, and other inferior officers and ministers to serve during the pleasure of the Trustees;

f. The membership of the Trustees, originally consisting of the Governor or Commander-in-Chief, the President of the Council, the Chief Justice and the Attorney-General of the colony for the time being, and 37 named Trustees of the Colony of New Jersey and the Provinces of New York and Pennsylvania, without stated term, with power in

'The said Trustees, or any twelve, or greater number, * * * to elect * * * any number of persons or trustees, at any, and upon any vacancy, so that the whole number of trustees do not exceed forty-one, and that not above one-third of the said number, at any time, be of those ordained ministers of the gospel.'

After the American Revolution the charter was amended and confirmed by the State of New Jersey in 1781 upon petition of the Board of Trustees, an interesting change being the removal of the one-third restriction upon ordained ministers as trustees. Wilson's Laws, p. 192. Again in 1799 upon the Board's petition the charter was amended in minor respects and confirmed. Paterson's Laws, p. 384. In 1825 the name was changed to 'The Trustees of Rutgers College in New Jersey' in recognition of Colonel Henry Rutgers, a generous donor, and the charter was amended in minor respects. L.1825, p. 44.

Originally the trustees were shackled by a limit that the institution's property holdings could not exceed 3,000 sterling yearly value. This limitation was raised to $100,000 by L.1869, c. 224, a limitation since removed by general law. The preamble of this statute recited

'that it is desirable and necessary for the purpose of better carrying out the benevolent and laudable designs of the founders of the institution, and for promoting the liberal views of the state, in regard to the advancement of agricultural science in all its various branches, that the value of the property which the said trustees are authorized to hold, shall be increased.'

For the purpose of complying with the so-called 'First Morrill Act,' 12 Stat. 503 (1862), 7 U.S.Code, secs. 301, 304 (1946), 7 U.S.C.A. §§ 301, 304, the New Jersey Legislature, by the Laws of 1864, chapter 369, designated the Rutgers Scientific School, a department of the college, as the 'New Jersey Land Grant College'; and it was thereafter referred to as the 'Agricultural College,' or by similar terminology. As such it was made subject to the 'general powers of supervision and control' of a Board of Visitors created for the purpose and appointed by the Governor. In 1917, when the Agricultural College was designated the 'State University of New Jersey,' it continued under the same general powers of supervision and control of the Board of Visitors. L.1917, c. 32; R.S. 18:22--15, N.J.S.A.

The formal excision from the charter of all religious and sectarian qualifications both generally and with specific reference to the President's membership in the Reformed Church in America and to the maintenance of a professorship of divinity, was made by Board resolution of 1920.

In 1927 the Board increased the number of Ex officio trustees from three to seven by adding the Chancellor, the President of the Senate, the President of the State Board of Education, and the Commissioner of Education for the purpose of promoting 'a closer cooperation in educational work between this Institution and the other educational agencies of the State of New Jersey.'

In 1928 the Legislature adopted a joint resolution (L.1928, p. 792) appointing a commission 'to examine the existing relations of the State with Rutgers University and to recommend to the present Legislature (or to the succeeding Legislature) such reorganization and means of adequate support as may be deemed to be to the best interests of the State.' After hearings and full consideration, the commission reported that 'Rutgers has rendered most valuable service to the State in its work of higher public education'; reported against disturbing 'radically' the relation between Rutgers and the State and, in particular, against an attempt to create a 'distinctive State University' accomplished by a reorganization of the Board of Trustees providing for membership thereon of a majority who should be appointed by the Governor, and recommended that the New Jersey State Board of Regents be created,

'who shall be charged with the care, custody and control of such property as the State new has or shall hereafter acquire at Rutgers or at any other institution of higher education receiving State aid; * * *'

and that the Regents should meet at least once a year

'with the Board of Trustees of said institution in order that it may effect a complete coordination between the Board of the privately chartered institution and its operation as an instrumentality of the State.'

This recommendation was enacted into law by Laws of 1929, chapter 76; R.S. 18:22--1, N.J.S.A. Subsequently the Board's powers were in effect transferred to the State Department of Education. L.1945, c. 51; L.1945, c. 211; N.J.S.A. 18:2--1 et seq., 18:2--1, 1.1.

Chapter 77 of the Laws of 1929, R.S. 18:20--1, as amended, by Laws of 1946, chapter 289, N.J.S.A. 18:20--1 forbids the adoption by any educational institution of any title containing the words 'New Jersey' or 'State' except schools maintained by the State Board of Education or other state departments and the State University of New Jersey.

Finally, in 1945 Rutgers was recognized by the State and the Board of Trustees as a university, the State University, an instrumentality of the State; and all its parts became subject to a public trust for higher education under the general superintendence of the State Board of Education. See generally L.1945, c. 49, c. 51 and c. 212; Board resolution of 1945.

During Rutgers' corporate evolution, its scholastic origin was distinctly classical and professional and we find that the first 50 graduates whose occupations are recorded in the University's General Catalogue of 1916 included 23 clergymen, 9 lawyers, 6 educators, and 3 physicians. Gradually the curriculum broadened to encompass modern languages, the several branches of science (in 1830 a professor of chemistry was appointed), history and the social sciences.

The 'First Morrill Act,' 12 U.S.Stat. 503 (1862), 7 U.S.C., sec. 301 (1946), 7 U.S.C.A. § 301, required that in the division of Rutgers which was designated as the State's land-grant college 'The leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.' 7 U.S.C.A. § 304.

New Jersey by Joint Resolution No. 8, Laws of 1858, requested the State's congressional delegation 'to use their best exertions to obtain from the general government a donation of public lands, to this state * * * for...