Ayres v. Board of Trustees

98 So. 847, 134 Miss. 363, 1924 Miss. LEXIS 269
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 11, 1924
DocketNo. 23490
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 98 So. 847 (Ayres v. Board of Trustees) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ayres v. Board of Trustees, 98 So. 847, 134 Miss. 363, 1924 Miss. LEXIS 269 (Mich. 1924).

Opinion

Cook, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellants, W. B. Ayres and L. C. Chamblee, filed their declaration in the circuit court of Leake county against the board of trustees of the Leake county agricultural high school and the board of supervisors of [370]*370Leake county, seeking thereby to recover from the defendants a balance claimed to be due for lumber and material furnished under a certain contract entered into between themselves and the board of trustees of tne agricultural high school, by the terms of which they were to furnish certain lumber and material to be used in erecting the buildings of said school.' Separate demurrers to this declaration were filed by the board of supervisors and the board of trustees, and from a judgment sustaining these demurrers and dismissing the suit, this appeal was prosecuted.

The separate demurrer of the board of supervisors challenges the right of the appellant to maintain this suit against it, and presents for decision the question of whether or not there is any liability upon the board of supervisors under a contract entered into by the board of trustees of an agricultural high school for material or supplies furnished such school.

The agricultural high schools of the state have been created and established under and by virtue of the provisions of chapter 122, Laws of 1910, and amendments thereto (sections 3419 to 3433, inclusive, Hemingway’s Code), and from an examination of these sections it will be seen that these schools can only be created and established by the county school board, and that after the school is established the government and control thereof is vested exclusively in a board of trustees created for that purpose. Section 3419 of Hemingway’s Code provides that the county school board of each county is “authorized and empowered to establish not more than two agricultural high schools in the county.” Section 3421, Hemingway’s Code, provides:

“The government and control of county agricultural high schoools in any county shall be vested in a board of five trustees, one from each supervisor’s district, two of whom shall be elected by the board of supervisors, two by the county school board and the county superintend[371]*371ent of education shall constitute the fifth member; two of the number first elected shall serve for a term of two years, and their successors shall serve for a term of three years, and two shall serve for a term of four years; all regular terms shall be for a term of four years. The trustees shall have control of the property, _ elect and fix salaries of all teachers in the agricultural department of the school and shall have full power to do all things necessary to the successful operation of said school.”

Section 3426, Hemingway’s Code, provides: “The board of trustees of the schools provided for in this act shall make detailed statements of receipts and disbursements to the board of supervisors and county superintendent of education annually on the first Monday of July, and the county superintendent of education shall transmit to the state superintendent of education a copy of said detailed statement which shall be embodied in his biennial report to the legislature.”

Section 3420, Hemingway’s Code, contains the following provisions: “The board of supervisors of any county where an agricultural high school shall have been established by the school board, shall levy on the taxable property in the county at the time the annual tax levy is made for the support and maintenance of said school. . . . The tax collected shall be deposited with the county treasurer, -to be paid out by him on the order of the board of trustees for the high school or high schools.”

Under the provisions of section 3432, Hemingway’s Code, the board of supervisors of a county in which an agricultural high school has been established may issue bonds to provide funds to aid in the building, and equipment of the school, but under the provisions of section 3433, Hemingway’s Code, the proceeds of the sale of such bonds “shall be disbursed by the board of trustees of the agricultural high school.”

From an examination of these various statutory provisions it will be noted that, in the organization of these [372]*372schools, the only right conferred upon the board of supervisors is that of selecting two of the five trustees who shall have full power to control and govern the school and to do all things necessary for its successful operation. The board of .supervisors is vested with full power and authority to levy county taxes, and it is made the duty of the board of supervisors to levy a tax on the taxable property of the county for the support and maintenance of these schools after they have been established but it has nothing to do with the disbursement of the funds derived from such levy. In the case at bar the board of supervisors could not and did not establish the school, and it had no power to contract for materials used in the construction of buildings, and it has not undertaken so to do. The board of trustees of the school was in no sense the agent of the board of supervisors, as contended by appellant, and consequently the demurrer was properly sustained.

The demurrer interposed by the board of trustees challenges the rig’ht of appellants to maintain the suit against it upon several grounds, one of which is that the “defendants are not liable to suit; that plaintiffs, under the law, have no right of action against the defendants as trustees of the Leake county agricultural high school.” This presents for decision a question which has not been heretofore decided in this state, and, that is whether a suit may be maintained against an agricultural high school.

These institutions are created by and are agencies of the state, and it has been repeatedly held by this court that the state and its subdivisions and agencies are not subject to suit unless made so, expressly or by necessary implication, by some statute. Bradham v. Hinds County, 54 Miss. 363, 28 Am. Rep. 352; Freeman v. Lee County, 66 Miss. 1, 5 So. 516; Mississippi Centennial Exposition Co. v. Luderbach, 123 Miss. 828, 86 So. 517; Mississippi [373]*373Live Stock Sanitary Board v. Williams et al. (Miss.), 97 So. 523.

This being true it becomes necessary to review the various statutory enactments which it may be contended confer the right to maintain this suit. Is this a suit which may be treated as a suit against the county because it.involves a question of county interest, and which may be maintained under section 309, Code of 1906 (.section 3682, Hemingway’s Code) ? We think not. This section provides that — “Any county may sue and be sued by its name, and suits against the county shall be instituted in any court having jurisdiction of the amount sitting at the county site; but suit shall not be brought by the county without the authority of the board of supervisors, except as otherwise provided by law.”

Section 311, Code of 1906 (section 3684, Hemingway’s Code), provides as follows:

“A person having a just claim against any county shall first present the same to the board of supervisors thereof for allowance; and, if the board shall refuse to allow it, may appeal from the judgment of the board to the circuit court, or may bring suit against the county; and, in either ease, if such person recover judgment, the board of supervisors shall allow the same, and a warrant shall be issued therefor.”

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Bluebook (online)
98 So. 847, 134 Miss. 363, 1924 Miss. LEXIS 269, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ayres-v-board-of-trustees-miss-1924.