Putnam v. City of St. Paul

78 N.W. 90, 75 Minn. 514, 1899 Minn. LEXIS 511
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedFebruary 2, 1899
DocketNos. 11,449—(243)
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 78 N.W. 90 (Putnam v. City of St. Paul) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Putnam v. City of St. Paul, 78 N.W. 90, 75 Minn. 514, 1899 Minn. LEXIS 511 (Mich. 1899).

Opinions

COLLINS, J.

Action by plaintiff, a teacher in the public schools of the city of St. Paul during the year preceding June 30,1895, to recover for herself and for four other teachers whose claims have been assigned to her, alleged unpaid portions of their salaries. We are clearly of the opinion that plaintiff cannot recover, and that the conclusion of the trial court to that effect must be sustained.

The law which governs the board of inspectors of the school district in question, upon which board the detail of management is devolved, is somewhat novel. Sp. Laws 1891, c. 36. The city is created an independent district, and the duty and power of providing funds for the expenses incident to the maintenance of all city schools is placed in the hands of the city council. This is practically the limit of the authority conferred upon the council, but as to this it seems to have been made supreme. By section 6, it is expressly provided that the expense of such schools shall not in any year exceed the amount of money appropriated and set apart therefor by such council, and its right to appropriate and set apart money for school purposes is made to depend upon the amount which will be derived by an annual tax levy, not exceeding 2J mills on the dollar. And in the same section it is enacted that the board of inspectors shall have no power or authority to create any indebtedness against the city, or to pledge its faith or credit, until after the council shall have acted, and shall have fixed and set apart the amount to be expended in the school year, and then only to the extent of the amount so fixed and set apart. To impress this provision upon the members of the board, a violation of it is made a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in the county jail. If plaintiff’s claim could be enforced she would, unwittingly perhaps, subject all members of the board who participated in the excessive expenditure to the unpleasant penalty above mentioned. „

By section 3 it is provided that the school year shall extend from September 1 to July 1 and that it shall be the duty of the board of [517]*517inspectors to report to the mayor, on or before June 1 in each year, among other things, the monthly compensation that the board of inspectors recommend to be paid to each of the teachers, or class of teachers, of the public schools, and all other employees, for the following school year. It is the duty of the mayor to transmit this report, with his approval or disapproval, to the common council, .and the council fixes, by ordinance, the amount of money which the board of inspectors are allowed for the purpose of maintaining the •schools for the ensuing year. Section 3 also provides that monthly payments shall be made to teachers, and they are to serve during the pleasure of the inspectors. All salaries are to be fixed annually. It is further provided in section 3 that,

“As far as practicable, it shall be the duty of said inspectors in each year to appoint, not later than June fifteenth (15th), all the teachers for the next ensuing school year, and notify each teacher thereof.”

It is obvious that, under these provisions, it is the duty of the board to make its report to the mayor as early as June 1 in each year, and in this report to state facts which will indicate what ■amount of money is needed, in the opinion of the board, properly to equip and conduct the schools for the school year commencing September 1 following. The facts detailed inform the mayor and the members of the council why this amount is needed and how it is to be expended. The duty is then on the mayor to transmit this report, approved or disapproved, or with recommendations, to the council, which is to be convened for the purpose of acting upon the same within 10 days; that is, on or before June 10. The plan is to have the council act, determine and set apart the amount to be expended for school purposes as early as June 10. This is evident from the provision last above quoted, which makes it the duty of the inspectors, “as far as practicable,” to appoint teachers not later than June 15, when read in connection with that part of section 6 which prohibits the board of inspectors from binding the city on any contract until after the amount to be expended has been set ■apart by ordinance, and of which all parties dealing with the board must take notice.

On June 15, 1894, the board appointed a large number of teach[518]*518ers, including all but one of those whose claims are in issue here, and that one seems to have been appointed August 28. The yearly salary of one of these persons was fixed by the board at $750. As to the others, the salaries were declared to be according to previously prepared schedules. The appointees were notified in writing of their selection, and each accepted in the same manner, agreeing to report to the superintendent at a teachers’ meeting to be held on September 4. A rule of the board, known to the appointees, also required all teachers to report at, and be present at, this meeting. The plaintiff and two of her assignors were at this meeting; the others were not. At the time of the appointments made June 15, the board had not made its report to the mayor, nor was this report in his hands until June 30. It was not acted on by the council until August 18, and then the amount estimated as needed for teachers’ salaries was reduced $17,800. It is conceded that the amount appropriated was sufficient to cover full salaries for the appointees of June 15, but was insufficient to meet the salaries in full of all teachers actually appointed and employed during the school year.

At the meeting held August 28, 1894, at which one of plaintiff’s assignors was appointed, as before stated, the action of the city council, reducing the appropriation recommended in the amount of $17,800, was discussed, and it was resolved that individual salaries should not be reduced at that time, but that if there should be a deficiency, as was expected, it should be met by a general pro rata cut in all salaries for the last month of the school year. The president of the board was instructed to notify all teachers of the situation, and of the action of the board in respect to an anticipated deficiency at the end of the year; and at the teachers’ meeting on September 4, before mentioned, the president gave public notice of the exact condition in which the board was placed, and what it had resolved to do should it appear, as the end of the year approached, that full salaries could not be paid for the last month. And all teachers not satisfied with the proposition were notified that the right to resign was theirs. This was a few days before the schools opened.

Plaintiff and her assignors commenced work and taught during [519]*519the year, being paid in full for each month up to the month of June. April 3, 1895, the board, at a regular meeting; resolved that there should be deducted pro rata from the salaries to be paid for the month of June an amount equal to the deficiency,: whatever it might be. July 15 the board apportioned the entire balance of the money, all that remained of the appropriation after paying full salaries up to the month of June, among all of the teachers who served during that month, pro rata, in strict accordance with its resolution adopted prior to the day in September on which these teachers began work, of which resolution they had been informed at the meeting, and then paid this pro rata sum or share to each of the teachers who so served.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
78 N.W. 90, 75 Minn. 514, 1899 Minn. LEXIS 511, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/putnam-v-city-of-st-paul-minn-1899.