Watson Seminary v. Pike County Court

• Decision Date: 28 March 1899
• Citation: 149 Mo. 57,50 S.W. 880
• Parties: WATSON SEMINARY v. PIKE COUNTY COURT.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

50 S.W. 880

149 Mo. 57

WATSON SEMINARY v. PIKE COUNTY COURT.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

March 28, 1899.

SEMINARY CHARTER — REPEAL — CONSTITUTIONAL LAW — IMPAIRMENT OF CONTRACTS — CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION — WHEN DECIDED.

1. The act of 1859 (Laws 1859, p. 46) repealing so much of Act Jan. 25, 1847, as appropriates the fines, forfeitures, and penalties accruing to Pike county to the support of Watson Seminary, incorporated thereby, is not unconstitutional as impairing the obligation of a contract; said appropriation being public funds, and the seminary not being incorporated by private incorporators.

2. The general law of 1845 (Rev. St. 1845, p. 232, c. 34, art. 1, § 7), reserving the right to amend, alter, or repeal charters of private corporations, applies to charters granted by subsequent legislatures not expressly excepted from its effect; and a charter thus subjected thereto would not be affected by a subsequent repeal of the law of 1845.

3. Under Rev. St. 1845, p. 232, c. 34, art. 1, § 7, reserving the right to amend or repeal charters of private corporations, Act Jan. 25, 1847, appropriating fines and penalties in a certain county to the support of a seminary incorporated after the law of 1845, was subject to repeal by Laws 1859, p. 46, though the general law of 1845 had been repealed prior to the act of 1859.

4. A constitutional question affecting the rights of persons will not be decided where they are not directly or necessarily involved.

5. Where there were no incorporators outside of the state itself, which was the sole benefactor of the corporate body, it has no standing to complain of the action of the state in amending charter of the corporation, or in repealing an act providing for its support.

6. Act Jan. 25, 1847, appropriating fines and penalties accruing to Pike county to the support of a seminary therein, did not create an absolute contract, which future legislatures could not modify or repeal; there being no parties to the act creating the seminary but the state itself, and no consideration moving to the state for the grant of the funds.

Appeal from circuit court, Pike county; Reuben F. Roy, Judge.

Application for mandamus by Watson Seminary against the county court of Pike county. A peremptory writ was denied, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Elijah Robinson, Tapley & Fitzgerrell, and A. R. Coburn, for appellant. W. H. Morrow and Ras. Pearson, for respondent.

GANTT, C. J.

Plaintiff sought by mandamus to require the county court of Pike county to place all "fines, forfeitures, and penalties" accruing to said county to the credit of what is known in said county as the "Watson fund," for the benefit of Watson Seminary. The circuit court denied the peremptory writ, and plaintiff appeals.

The history of the Watson fund "runneth thus": Samuel Watson died in Pike county prior to the year 1836, leaving a last will, which was duly probated February 2, 1836. Samuel Watson made the following bequest in said will: "And it is further my will and desire that, after the death of said Esther, two hundred dollars of the said sum be set apart, and the same is hereby bequeathed to the said county of Pike for the purpose of supporting a free school for the poor of said county. I give and bequeath to said county of Pike the said sum of one hundred dollars for the purpose of supporting a free school for the poor of said county, and direct my executor to pay the same into the treasury of said county, under the direction of the county court; this, with the above-mentioned sum of two hundred dollars, making an entire sum of three hundred dollars for the support of the free schools for the poor. It is my will and desire that the said sum shall be loaned under the direction of the county court of said county, and the interest be added to the principal from year to year until there shall be some legal provision for free schools in this state; and, whenever free schools shall be established in said county by law, then it is my will and desire that the interest which may hereafter accrue on the sum total of principal and interest up to the time of establishing such school shall be annually appropriated towards defraying the expenses of such public school, reserving the said three hundred dollars, and the interest which may have accrued thereon before the establishment of such public school, as a permanent fund."

The present contention is grounded on an act of the general assembly of Missouri approved January 25, 1847. The following sections of said act sufficiently indicate its purpose and provisions:

"Section 1. A school is hereby established in the county of Pike by the name of `Watson Seminary,' named in honor of Samuel Watson, deceased, of said county, the directors of which, when selected as hereinafter required are hereby constituted a body politic or corporate with all the powers of corporation; and as such may sue and be sued, have a common seal, and hold such property, real and personal, as may be necessary and proper to effect the purpose of its creation, under the name and style of the `Watson Seminary.'

"Sec. 2. The principal and interest of the fund, donated by the said Samuel Watson, now under the control of said county of Pike, shall be and the same is hereby declared to be a permanent fund for the support of said seminary, and, in addition thereto, the amount of fines now in the treasury of the said county, and all the monies which may hereafter accrue to said county by way of fine, penalty or forfeiture, which shall be paid into the treasury of said county as the same is paid in, shall be added to and the same shall become a part of said fund, and the whole shall be loaned out as the `Watson fund,' of said county, is now loaned," etc.

"Sec. 5. No part of the Watson fund above constituted, by the provisions of the second section of this act, shall be appropriated for any purpose whatever until, from the accumulation of interest thereon, and the payment of fines, penalties and forfeitures, the whole shall amount to the sum of two thousand dollars.

"Sec. 6. When the said fund shall reach the sum of two thousand dollars, it shall be the duty of the county court of Pike county, to give public notice by advertisement, that said seminary shall be established, at such place in said county as will contribute or procure the largest donation in money or real estate, for the erection of buildings, for said seminary, and for establishing and purchasing a library, and suitable apparatus for the same, and which may in other respects be most advantageous for the location of said seminary, said subscription shall designate the place where said seminary is to be located, and the amounts subscribed shall be secured to the satisfaction of the county court and made payable to the county of Pike, and filed in the office of the clerk of the county court.

"Sec. 7. At the term of the county court of said county of Pike, held next after the publication of the advertisement above mentioned, the said court shall appoint not less than three nor more than five commissioners, residents of one or more of the adjoining counties, who shall meet on a day fixed by said court at the court house in Pike county, and examine said subscriptions, and shall fix upon a location for said Watson Seminary, at the place having the largest subscription in value, in the opinion of said commissioners, and possessing the greatest advantages for the permanent location of said school. The said commissioners shall file a report in writing of their proceedings with the clerk of the said county court, and the place designated by a majority of the commissioners in their report shall be the permanent location of said Watson Seminary.

"Sec. 8. So soon as the said seminary shall be permanently located it shall be the duty of the county court to appoint nine directors," etc.

"Sec. 9. At the first term of the county court, after the necessary buildings are completed and the school is in operation, the county court shall draw their warrant on the county treasurer for the amount of interest due for the year preceding, in favor of such officers as may be appointed for that purpose by said board of directors, and the same shall be done annually thereafter."

"Sec. 11. The directors shall appoint such officers as may be necessary, and shall fill all vacancies which may occur in their body by removal, resignation or otherwise.

"Sec. 12. The directors shall biennially make a report to the superintendent of the common schools of the condition of said seminary, stating the number and ages of the pupils, the branches studied, the price of tuition, the amount received from interest on the fund, as well as from pupils, and any other information calculated to show the condition of said school; also the property held by said seminary, and the amount of its indebtedness.

"Sec. 13. All the interest accruing upon the fund regulated by said Samuel Watson, at the time of the appointment of said directors, shall be appropriated towards the education of any indigent youths in said county of Pike, who may apply for the benefit of the same, and it shall be the duty of said board to have them educated at said seminary without charge of tuition, use of rooms or of any apparatus that may belong to said seminary."

"Sec. 17. The fines, penalties and forfeitures, accruing to said county of Pike, after the organization of said seminary, shall still be paid into the county treasury, and be applied to the increase of said permanent fund.

"Sec. 18. An act entitled `An act to establish the Watson free school,' approved February 23rd, 1843, is hereby repealed, as are all other acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act.

"This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved January 25, 1847."

On August 11, 1853, the county court of said county made an order reciting that the Watson fund then amounted...