Colbert v. Speer

24 App. D.C. 187, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 5316
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedOctober 12, 1904
DocketNos. 1368, 1369, and 1370
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 24 App. D.C. 187 (Colbert v. Speer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colbert v. Speer, 24 App. D.C. 187, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 5316 (D.C. Cir. 1904).

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Alvey

delivered the opinion of the Court:

1. On these appeals, the first question is, whether there is any such incorporated institution in the District of Columbia as “Georgetown University” or “University of Georgetown,” capable of taking the devises and bequests under the will, for the uses and purposes designated by the testator. Or, if not, whether the institution of learning in said District incorporated by the name of The President and Directors of Georgetown College is the institution intended by the testator to take under the misnomer of Georgetown University. While it is conceded that there are several institutions of learning in this District which have been incorporated as universities, it is not averred or pretended that there is any such institution as “Georgetown University” in existence or operation in this District. Indeed, it is expressly alleged in the bill as a fact that there is no such incorporated institution as Georgetown University, though Georgetown College is frequently referred to and spoken of as Georgetown University, notwithstanding it has never been incorporated as such. It is simply a popular designation applied to the college. It is alleged in the bill that the defendants, Whitney and others, under the name of The President and Directors of Georgetown College, in this District, claim to be the beneficiaries entitled to the legacies mentioned in the will of the testator as for Georgetown University. It is not attempted to be shown that there was or is in existence in this District any such incorporated institution of learning as “Georgetowm University” separate from and independent of Georgetowm College.

We are referred to the Maryland acts of 1792, chap. 55, and of 1797, chap. 40; the first of which was passed to incorporate the Eoman Catholic clergymen of that State, and to enable them, in their corporate capacity, to acquire and hold and enjoy certain property intended for their use and benefit; and the second of which acts, being supplemental, was passed to confer upon the persons composing the corporation of the Eoman Catholic clergymen certain powers with respect to property, and to authorize the pre-existing corporation created under the act of 1792, chap. [197]*19755, in behalf of the College of Georgetown (for the first time referred to) to receive donations from persons charitably disposed. The College of Georgetown seems to have been a school established at Georgetown by the incorporated body of clergymen, but those acts of Maryland did not create or confer any corporate powers upon the school as such. It was simply a school established by the Jesuits, without corporate powers or franchises.

We are also referred to the act of Congress of March 1, 1815, chap. 70 [6 Stat. at L. 152], entitled “An Act Concerning the College of Georgetown, in the District of Columbia.” That act does not profess to be an act of incorporation of the college; but it conferred authority upon the president and directors of the College of Georgetown to exercise certain special franchises and faculties for the admission' of students to academical honors, “to any degree in the faculties, arts, sciences, and liberal professions, to which persons are usually admitted in other colleges or institutions of the United States; and to issue, in an appropriate form, the diplomas or certificates which may be requisite to testify the admission to such degree.” This is all that was provided for by that act. It deals with the college as an existing institution, but not with an incorporated college.

Nor did the decretal of the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith, issued by the authority of the Pope, in 1833, appearing in the record, have any effect or operation whatever in clothing the college with corporate powers and franchises; nor did it invest the college with the attributes of a university. It appears to have been intended as a spiritual encouragement to the study of theology; it could have had no other effect or operation whatever, even if intended to confer academic faculties upon the college. Such faculties could only be conferred upon the college by act of Congress, at the time of the issue of the decretal.

In the view we have of this case, the acts of Maryland of 1792, chap. 55, and the act of 1797, chap. 40; and the aet of Congress of 1815, chap. 70, to which we have been referred, have no other bearing or materiality upon the case than to show the origin and [198]*198growth of Georgetown College, and to identify the early foundation of the school with the President and Directors of Georgetown College, as that institution was fully and completely incorporated by the act of Congress of June 10, 1844 (6 Stat. at L. p. 912, chap. 41), entitled “An Act to Incorporate Georgetown College, in the District of Columbia.” That act is as follows :

Section 1. That there be erected in Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, a college for the instruction of youth in the liberal arts and sciences, the name, style, and title of which shall be “The President and Directors of Georgetown College.”

Sec. 2. That James Ryder, Thomas Lilly, Samuel Barber, James Curley, and Anthony Rey, be, and they are hereby, declared, to be a body politic and corporate, with perpetual succession in deed or in law, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, by the name, style, and title of “The President and Directors of Georgetown College,” by which name and title they, and their successors, shall be competent, at law and in equity, to take to themselves and their successors, for the use of said college, any estate whatever, in any messuages, etc., goods, chattels, and other effects, etc., by gift, bequest, devise, etc., and the same to grant, etc., for the use of said college in such manner, etc., and to receive the same, their rents etc., and apply the same for the proper use and benefit of the said college; and by the same name to sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, in any court of law or equity, in all manner of suits, actions, and proceedings whatever, and generally by and in the same name, to do and transact all and every the business touching or concerning the premises, etc.

Sec. 3. That the said corporation shall adopt a common seal, under and by which all deeds, diplomas, and acts of the said college or corporation shall pass and be authenticated, and the same seal at their pleasure to break and alter, or devise a new one.

Sec. 4. That no misnomer of the said corporation shall defeat: or annul any donation, gift, grant, devise, or bequest to or from the said corporation.

[199]*199Sec. 5. That said corporation shall not employ its funds or income, or any paid thereof, in hanking, or for any purpose or object other than those expressed in the 1st section of this act; and nothing in said act shall be construed to prevent Congress from altering, amending, or .repealing the same.

By this act the college was fully incorporated and given all the powers and franchises usually conferred upon colleges instituted for instruction in the higher branches of education. Some years before the date of the will of the testator there were added to the college departments of medicine and of law, and those departments have been in active operation ever since.

If there had been in Georgetown, or even in the District of Columbia, an educational institution other than Georgetown College, of a name or title to which the descriptive terms “Georgetown University” could reasonably apply, a serious question of identity might arise.

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Bluebook (online)
24 App. D.C. 187, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 5316, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colbert-v-speer-cadc-1904.