63 Vt. 647 | Vt. | 1891
The opinion of the court was delivered by
In the'spring of 1889 the plaintiff' was hired by the prudential committee of the defendant to teach a school in the defendant district. She and the prudential committee acted in good faith in making the contract. She, on her part, fully performed the contract. This suit is to recover for her services. At the session of the Legislature, 1888, the school year was extended three months. Before then the school year had ended with March. It was then extended so as to end with June, and by that act, the officers chosen for the current school year of 1888, were continued in office to the close of the extended school year. The defendant at its annual meeting holden in March, 1888, had voted to have thirty-two weeks of school. This number of weeks of school had been maintained before the plaintiff was hired, and the district had passed no vote authorizing the prudential committee to hire the plaintiff for the term of school taught by her. The principal contention is, whether the prudential committee could bind the defendant to pay for the ervices of the plaintiff, without' the defendant having by vote authorized the maintenance of the school. The power and duties of the prudential committee in this respect, were not substantially changed by the revision of the school laws, by the Legislature, in 1888. That being so, the decision of Chittenden v. School Dist., 56 Vt. 551, determines this contention in favor of the plaintiff. In that case the plaintiff was held entitled to recover for a term of school which he had been employed by the prudential committee to teach after his official year terminated. This term of school had not been voted or authorized by the district at the time of the employment of the plaintiff. Iiis employment was for three terms, only two of which would be closed within the official
This is a recent decision, is supported by Mason v. School District, 20 Vt. 487; Chaplin v. Hill, 24 Vt. 528 ; and School District v. Harvey, 56 Vt. 556, and is conclusive in favor of the plaintiff. There are some limitations expressed in Chittenden v. School District, upon the right of the prudential committee to contract for the services of a teacher extending beyond the termination of the official life of the prudential committee. The right and power of the prudential committee to hire whom he wishes, in disregard of the vote and wishes of the voters of the school district, and to maintain a school not voted by the district is autocratic, but rarely if ever abused. The prudential committee is chosen from and by the legal voters of the .district, and generally will have no desire to employ a teacher to teach a school unauthorized by the district. The danger which the Legislature has attempted to guard against, heretofore, has not arisen from an abuse of the unlimited authority conferred by it upon the prudential committee, but rather from a failure to use it, unless in accordance with the wishes of the school district, expressed by its vote at a legally warned and holden school meeting. Hence the Legislature has empowered the selectmen to establish and main
The judgment is affirmed.