State ex rel. Sarapara v. Board of Directors, Soldiers' Home

6 Teiss. 117
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 8, 1909
DocketNo. 4604
StatusPublished

This text of 6 Teiss. 117 (State ex rel. Sarapara v. Board of Directors, Soldiers' Home) 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. Sarapara v. Board of Directors, Soldiers' Home, 6 Teiss. 117 (La. Ct. App. 1909).

Opinion

MOORE, J.

This was an application addressed to the 'Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, for a. writ of mandamus by which the relator, who wás -a former inmate of the Soldiers’ Home of the State of Louisiana and who had been •expelled therefrom after trial by the Board of Directors, sought reinstatement.

From a judgment sustaining a plea of no cause of action, the relator appeals.

[118]*118Appellant’s contention, as. set forth in his original petition;, is substantially, that for as much as he was on the — day of February, 1905, and after full investigation, regularly admitted into said Home as a Confederate soldier, he could not thereafter be tried for any cause, and as a result of said trial, if found, guilty, be expelled from the Home under any by-law, rule or regulation which the Board of Directors may have adopted; that his right to enter the said, Home as' an inmate and thereafter to remain as an inmate at his pleasure, and as a Confederate Soldier is guaranteed to him under the Constitution and by the laws of this State, and that the Board of Directors could hot therefore have denied him the right to enter nor can it deprive him of the right to remain; that any by-law, rule or regulation adopted by the Board of Directors authorizing the said' Board or any other body or person to try an inmate, and as a. result of conviction, to punish by expulsion is ultra vires, un■constitutional, illegal and of no force and effect whatever.

In his supplemental petition the relator avers that if the’ said Board has the right to adopt suc-h by-laws, rules and regulations and to try offenders and punish them by expulsion, then he has not been fairly tried. He avers, in this particular, thafr he was served with a copy of the charges against him on the 19th of June, 1908, and that he was cited to appear for trial, on the 22d day of dune, .1908. He avers that the copy of the-charges served upon him are annexed to his petition; but no such document is in fact annexed, nor is it to be found in the record, and, consequently, neither the court below nor this Court is advised as to the nature of said charges: Continuing the averments are, that on the said 22d of June, 1908, ‘'said Board failed to put him on trial, but instead, J. W. Noyse (one of the members of the Board of Directors), without requiring relator to plead to said charges or giving him the opportunity to have witnesses present in his behalf, and without evidence, trial or proceedings of any kind or sort, made the motion that the said Board forthwith expel the relator, that he was seconded by M. S. Costley, and Alex N. Power, demanded that relator he-first required to enter a plea of guilty, but on the- refusal of relator to enter such plea and without semblance of a trial on proceedings other than the motion as stated herein, relator was ordered to retire, and thereafter was informed he had. been expelled."

[119]*119TRe “ Soldiers ’ Home” was established by Act No. 62 of ¿1882. The first section of this act as amended by Act 102 of J.896, provides:

“That until suitable grounds be purchased and proper buildings erected for the full development of the purposes of the present act, some tenement within the City of New Orleans, or its environs, shall be rented with a view of establishing temporarily a ‘Soldiers’ Home’ for the care and reception of all Louisiana soldiers, or all soldiers who have resided in the State of Louisiana five years prior to the date of their application for admission to said home, and who are not already pensioned or provided for by the State.”

There is no other statute declaratory of the purposes for ■which the “Home” is to be established; and whilst the Consti'tution of the State declares that

“The Soldiers’ Home of the State of Louisiana, known as Camp Nieholls, shall be maintained by the State * * *” Art. 302 Con. 1898, and enjoins upon the General Assembly the duty of making annual appropriations for its maintenance, for the clothing of the inmates and for an allowance for each of said inmates for his personal use, that instrument nowhere undertakes to define, or declare, the specific purposes of the institution.

There is, therefore, no constitutional right guaranteed to cany Louisiana soldier, however conditioned he may be, to demand admission as an inmate to Camp Nieholls (which camp, under thejprovisions of the Act supra, has since been established .as the “Soldiers’ Home”), or when admitted therein to be thus protected from dismissal or expulsion therefrom.

Nor is there any right in this regard accorded by statute.

It will be readily perceived that See. 1 of the act supra, as amended, does not confer such right on any one who may •present himself for admission as an inmate on the simple and sole proof that he was a “Louisiana Soldier,” or a “Soldier ■who had resided in the State of Louisiana for five years prior to "the date of his application for admission to said Home, ’ ’ etc.

It is true that by Sec. 4 of the Act of 1882 supra, as amended by Act No. 102 of 1896: “All applicants for admission into the Home must establish to the satisfaction of the Hoard of Directors that they wore soldiers or sailors in the [120]*120military or naval service of the Confederate States and enlisted from the State of Louisiana, or some other State composing the Confederacy,” etc., but it does not follow that the Board of .Directors of the Home who are charged by thes statute with the “proper direction of the affairs of said institution” and are authorized “to make all necessary by-laws and regulations to govern said institution,” may not, in the exercise of their discretion, provide other qualifications not inconsistent with the purposes of the legislative charter, for applicants for admission as inmates.

These additional qualifications may be such as require the absence in the applicant of a notoriously evil and corrupt character and reputation, or his freedom from a contagious disease, so as thus to guard against the breach of discipline in the camp or the corruption of the morals or the impairment of the health of the other inmates, or which otherwise might impede, or seriously interfere with the successful execution of the beneficent -and patriotic work taf tthe institution.

As an illustration, and in order to emphasize the fallacy of the argument, that notwithstanding the grant of authority to the Board of Directors “to make all necessary by-laws and regulations to govern said institution * * * ” it may not add such additional qualification for admission as inmates, as may not be inconsistent with the provision of the law of its creation or repugnant to “the full development of the purposes of the present act,” Sec. 1, Act 62 of 1882, as amended by Act 102 of 1896, we cite the fact that Sec. 4 of the Act of 1882, No. 62, prior to its amendment by the Act of 1896, No. 102, provided -that applicants for ádmission to the Home must establish to the satisfaction of the Board that they were “soldiers in the military service of Louisiana,” and must “show by proper vouchers that they were maimed or disabled in said service or that they have-become infirm by reason of age or sickness.”

If the Board of Directors were then Avithout authority to-add additional qualifications it would result, as was never contemplated hy the act,

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Bluebook (online)
6 Teiss. 117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-sarapara-v-board-of-directors-soldiers-home-lactapp-1909.