State ex rel. Baptist Hospital v. Williams

1 La. App. 341, 1924 La. App. LEXIS 141
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 12, 1924
DocketNo. 2261
StatusPublished

This text of 1 La. App. 341 (State ex rel. Baptist Hospital v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Baptist Hospital v. Williams, 1 La. App. 341, 1924 La. App. LEXIS 141 (La. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

PORTER, J.

The relator, the Baptist Hospital, and J. E. Oliver, its manager filed a petition in this Court praying for a. writ of certiorari and prohibition, command-: ing the respondent Judge and: Mrs. Alice [342]*342Treadway, to send up to the Court the record of the proceedings in the case entitled Alice Treadway vs. Baptist Hospital, et al., then pending on the docket of the Thirteenth Judicial District Court for the Parish of Rapides, to the end that certain orders issued and writs granted in said cause be examined and their validity determined.

The writ was issued and the entire record, together with the return of the respondent Judge and the answer of the defendant, is now before us. The plaintiff, Mrs. Treadway, has adopted the return of the Judge as her answer.

The said proceedings were begun by a petition which was filed in the said District Court by Mrs. Alice Treadway, against the relators in which the following facts are substantially alleged:

That she entered training, or an apprenticeship, for three years at the Baptist Hospital, a legal corporation domiciled at Alexandria, and conducted under the direction of the Baptist denomination, with J. E. Oliver, as manager; that she entered upon said training on the 26th of April, 1922, and that she received from the institution $15 per month and her board and room. That as a part of the compensation for her work' she was to receive lectures and training, and to be graduated from said institution as a trained licensed or professional nurse. That during the first year of her training the work was hard and laborious, the hours long, and the work at times drudgery, but that being desirous of obtaining the training and education of professional nurse she continued to perform the said duties regardless of how laborious they were. That she attended the lectures from time to time as prescribed,, and completed her course of lectures and studies and was graduated from the institution on the 12th ' of May, 1924, but that she did not receive her pin and diploma, ■ or certificate, because the three years which her contract bound her to stay at the hospital would not be up until the 1st of May, 1925, and that having completed all of her studies she is staying and working at the institution solely for the purpose of completing the time required in order that she may receive her diploma and pin. That she attaches to the petition a copy of her application and contract with the hospital and makes them a part thereof.

She alleges that she was secretly married on March 29, 1924, and has been performing her duties in said institution up until about the first of September, when she was compelled to undergo an operation for appendicitis, and has been unable to return to the hospital since the operation, but expects to do so within the next few days, and “that the said J. E. Oliver, manager of the Baptist Hospital, has threatened and says that he will dismiss your petitioner from said institution as soon as she reports for duty; assigning, as his reason the fact that she is married.”

That if she is so dismissed she will be unable to gain admittance • to any other hospital, and that the two and a half years of slavery and hard work performed by her will be a total loss; that said action on the part of said manager is equivalent to denying her the privilege of becoming a trained nurse, despite the hard work which she has done for said institution.

That marriage is honorably recognized by the laws of God and man and sanctioned .and encouraged by public policy, and that it being the only offense with which she is charged, she shows that her said marriage has not in any way impaired or hindered her from performing all of the duties incumbent upon her.

That the view taken by the manager is arbitrary, harsh and unwarranted, and that he will dismiss petitioner unless restrained by injunction. That if the said manager is permitted to carry out his threat and discharge her, without permitting her to re[343]*343main the required: length of time, the two years and a half- of hard work, drudgery, hard study and self-denial, and the nominal sum of ¡j¡15 per month will amount to nothing; that the said sum is no compensation for the services rendered; th'at the training, and education constitutes the real consideration for the said services.

That the said institution had kept nurses that had married during their training, and has, on numerous occasions, admitted married ladies for the purpose of taking training, and that married nurses are working in said institution at this time.

That she is not asking for money judgment of any kind, but is simply asking the Court to protect her rights. That an injunction is necessary to protect her rights, and she asks that an injunction restraining the said manager, the board of directors, or any other person in said hospital, from discharging or dismissing her from said institution on account of her marriage, until the further orders of the Court, and that an injunction is the only way in which she can protect her interests, and that if she is dismissed from said institution it will work an irreparable injury upon her. She prays as follows:

“Wherefore, the petition and accompanying' affidavit being considered, petitioner prays that upon security being furnished in an amount with the sureties, and with the conditions required by law, that a writ of injunction issue restraining the said J. E. Oliver, or the Baptist Hospital, or the Board of Directors of the Baptist Hospital, from dismissing your petitioner from said institution on account of her marriage until the further order of this Honorable Court, she prays that the said J. E. Oliver, and the Baptist Hospital be duly cited to appear and answer hereto, and after the legal delays have elapsed, and due proceedings had, that there be judgment in favor of your petitioner, perpetuating the said injunction, and for costs and general relief.”

The petition, duly verified, was presented to the District Judge and he issued the following order:

, “Let a. writ of injunction- issue: herein as prayed for and according to law, upon petitioner furnishing a bond in the suih of. One Hundred Dollars.”

■Given under my hand at Alexandria, La., om this the 18th day of September, A. D. 1924.

(Signed) Leven L. Hooe, Judge.”

Eour days later, to-wit, on. the 22nd of September, 1924, the defendant moved to set aside' and vacate the foregoing order on the ground that it was illegal, null and void, for the following reasons:

“That said order for the writ of injunction, given and signed without notice, was improvidently granted, in violation of a prohibitory law, and should be decreed a nullity, vacated and set aside.

That Act 29 of. 1924 provides.:

‘Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana, that hereafter no writ of injunction shall be issued without' notice, given as hereinafter- provided, to the opposite party or parties to be affected thereby, and without opportunity given for hearing of the opposite party.’ ”

The motion proceeds to állege, substantially, that plaintiff did not, as required by law, ask that defendant be notified of the intention to apply for a preliminary writ of injunction, and the Court was without authority, and exceeded its powers and jurisdiction, in granting a preliminary writ of injunction, and the same should be set aside as having been improvidently granted.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hand v. West
28 La. Ann. 145 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1876)
Healy v. Allen
38 La. Ann. 867 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1886)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1 La. App. 341, 1924 La. App. LEXIS 141, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-baptist-hospital-v-williams-lactapp-1924.