White v. Portia Law School

174 N.E. 187, 274 Mass. 162, 1931 Mass. LEXIS 1208
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedJanuary 7, 1931
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 174 N.E. 187 (White v. Portia Law School) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
White v. Portia Law School, 174 N.E. 187, 274 Mass. 162, 1931 Mass. LEXIS 1208 (Mass. 1931).

Opinion

Pierce, J.

This is a bill in equity wherein the plaintiff charges that on September 1, 1926, being then registered as a regular student in the defendant Portia Law School, a private corporation, she was expelled from said school without any reason and without a hearing. The plaintiff prays (1) that the defendants be ordered to reinstate her; (2) that she be awarded damages in the sum of $20,000; and (3) “for such further orders and decrees as to this honored court may seem meet and equity and justice may require.”

The answer admits the allegations in the bill that the defendants are residents of this Commonwealth; that the Portia Law School is a corporation organized under the laws of Massachusetts and has its office and principal place of business at Boston; that by its charter it is granted the power to confer the degree of bachelor of laws; that in September, 1923, the plaintiff inquired of the dean regarding the requirements for entrance in said law school; that she was duly informed respecting the same, and thereafter was accepted by the school as a regular student in [164]*164the day division for the school year commencing in September, 1923, and ending in the spring of 1924; that the plaintiff paid the required sums of money for instruction during that period of time; and that on or about September 1, 1926, the Portia Law School declined to accept the plaintiff as a student for the school year commencing September, 1926, and ending in the spring of 1927.

The defendants deny, as charged in the bill, that the Portia Law School, through its officers, agreed that, after completing the four-year course at the school and necessary subjects in the Everett Evening High School, it would grant a degree of bachelor of laws; that during the period of time the plaintiff was a student of said school she was subjected to unfair discrimination and criticism by the law school or by its servants and agents; that the defendants maliciously concocted, schemed and devised certain false charges against the plaintiff without a reason and without a hearing; and that the plaintiff was expelled from said school. But they admit that the law school refused to enroll the plaintiff for the school year commencing in September, 1926. The defendants deny all allegations in the bill not specifically admitted, and further answer that the plaintiff was informed of and knew the reason or reasons for the refusal to enroll her as a student for such further period, and that no request for a hearing was made by the plaintiff.

The further answer of the defendants, that the plaintiff has not stated in her bill such a cause as entitles her to relief in equity, that the bill as amended is multifarious, that the plaintiff is barred by loches and by the statute of frauds, and that the plaintiff has a full, complete and adequate remedy at law, is in legal effect a demurrer, which is not pressed before this court.

The cause was referred to a master to hear the parties and their evidence, to find the facts and to report the same to the court. The report which was duly filed, and confirmed by an interlocutory decree, covers twenty-nine printed pages; the plaintiff’s exceptions thereto six printed pages; motion and supplementary motion to discharge [165]*165reference, and offer of proof of further reasons in support of motion to discharge reference, eleven pages. A final decree was entered dismissing the bill with costs. The cause is before this court on the appeals of the plaintiff from the interlocutory and final decrees.

The evidence which was taken before the master is not reported, and there is nothing in the report to show that the plaintiff took exception to the admission or exclusion of such testimony. The master finds as follows: The institution now known as Portia Law School was founded as a private enterprise in December, 1908, by the defendant MacLean. In 1918 it was incorporated as an educational institution under the then existing provisions of the Revised Laws. Under Spec. St. 1919, c. 219, § 1, it was incorporated under the name of the Portia Law School and was empowered to take over the property of the corporation known as the Portia Law School. Section 2 provides: “The purpose of the said corporation shall be to furnish instruction in law to women only, and for this purpose it may appoint such teachers and lecturers and adopt such form of organization, by-laws, regulations and methods of administration as it may deem advisable . . . .” By § 3, “ The course of instruction furnished by the corporation shall occupy not less than four years, and to students of the school, properly accredited and recommended by a majority of the faculty of the school, the corporation may grant the degree of Bachelor of Laws.” Under St. 1926, c. 161, the school was given authority to confer the degree of master of laws upon both men and women completing the described course for degree of master of laws who already possessed the degree of bachelor of laws from institutions authorized to confer that degree and the degree of master of laws. The catalogues of the school for the year 1923, and for the succeeding years concerned in these proceedings, provided for the payment of an enrollment fee annually by each student at the time of registration at the beginning of each scholastic year and that the amount of the fee be credited by the school on account of the annual tuition [166]*166charges. The catalogues for each of the scholastic years the plaintiff attended the school contained the statement that “ over three hundred women students mark the School as comprising the largest number of women law students ever enrolled at one time in any institution for the pursuance of a complete law school curriculum,” and the plaintiff relied upon that statement and upon the fact that her name appears as a regular student with her class at the end of the catalogues for each of the scholastic years to establish between her and the Portia Law School a contract for four years of legal instruction. The plaintiff was enrolled and registered as a regular student in the Portia Law School for the years 1923-1924, 192A-1925 and 1925-1926, her enrollment and registration taking place at the beginning of each scholastic year. In addition to her work at the law school she attended the Everett Evening High School for three successive years while she was a student at Portia Law School and her scholarship record at the Portia Law School during this time was of a high order.

The master further finds that sometime before April, 1926, the law school authorities received information to the effect that the plaintiff was making improper use of knowledge acquired in the school. There was a strong undercurrent of talk about the matter within the student body and more or less indignation expressed by certain students. The defendant Paige communicated this information to the dean without disclosing the name of the student concerned and the dean requested Miss Paige to make an investigation of the matter and report the facts to him. Miss Paige made an investigation and reported the result of her inquiries to the dean, at the time disclosing the name of the student in question, namely the plaintiff. The dean, after having investigated the conduct of the plaintiff upon the report of Miss Paige, sent for the plaintiff and in an interview with her lasting about fifteen minutes sought to elicit the truth about various rumors concerning her which had been “ more or less cur[167]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
174 N.E. 187, 274 Mass. 162, 1931 Mass. LEXIS 1208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-v-portia-law-school-mass-1931.