10 Ga. App. 852 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1911
(After stating the foregoing facts.)
1. Under the pleadings and the evidence, the first question which arises is as to the power of the trustees of a school district, and especially as to their power and authority to bring a suit. We deal with this phase of the case first, because the defendants in their plea question the right of the present trustees to pursue.the instant action, and also because it seems to us tha.t if the trustees of the school districts, provided for by law, can employ counsel and maintain an action brought upon a breach of their treasurer’s bond, perhaps the trustees of the same district would be authorized, in their discretion, to employ counsel to invoke the protection of their rights in another proceeding and in a different forum, and even to appear before a legislative committee in opposition to proposed legislation directly affecting the trust with the preservation and administration of which the trustees are charged*' By the terms of the Political Code (1910), §§ 1531, 1532, 1533, provision is made for the creation of school districts, into which the law requires each county to be subdivided; for the election of three trustees for each school district, and for the
2. It is apparent, from consideration of the various sections of the code which deal with the organization and administration of our public-school system that it was the intention of the legislature to deal with the subject in a broad, general way, leaving matters of detail largely to the discretion of those specially charged with the conduct of oiir public-school system. (See Political Code (1910), title 11, chapter 4, article 9, which article deals with the formation of school districts, the election of trustees, and the levy of local tax for public schools, both by counties and by school districts.) It is declared, in § 1545, that “it is the purpose and spirit of this Article to encourage individual action and local self-help upon the part of the school districts,” but “it is expressly understood that the general school laws of this State as administered by the county board of education shall be observed.” We apprehend this section to mean that as .the county board of education is subordinate to the State board of education and to the State commissioner of education, who is its chief executive officer, so the authorities of a school district laid out according to law are to be subordinate to the regulations of the county board of education, and, nevertheless, individual action and local self-help on the part of the school dis
3. It would seem to be implied, from the language used in § 1547, that it is the policy of the State to encourage individual action and local self-help in the school' districts; and this can best be done by allowing the greatest possible freedom of action on the part of the local trustees, especially in the expenditure of funds raised by local taxation. It would seem to be in consonance with the spirit of our institutions to allow the chosen representatives of those who paid the local tax to control the disposition of the funds, with the single reservation that the money thus raised by taxation must be expended in the maintenance of a local school for whose support it was designed by the voters. It is true that
4. Regardless of the authorization of the county board of education, and the settlement with the county school commissioner, the treasurer was authorized, upon the order of the trustees of the
5. The point is raised by the plaintiffs in error that upon the repeal of the local-tax law in Wesley Chapel school district, it was the duty of Matthews, as treasurer of the local board of trustees, to pay over any funds in his hands to his successor as treasurer of the local board of trustees, and not to the county school commissioner. We think this position is well taken; but it does not affect the decision of the case, for the suit in the present instance does not declare a breach of the bond, except in the three payments to which we have referred; and, consequently, any payment made by Matthews to the county commissioner in settlement of his accounts is not involved. The only questions raised are as to the validity of the payment of the attorney’s fees, the expenses of the witnesses, and the payment of the tuition of pupils, entitled to the benefit of the school fund in Wesley Chapel district, to a school in an adjoining
6. The judgment of the court below, under our view of the law, was required .by the evidence. The payment of each of the sums expended by the treasurer was authorized by the trustees of the school district, and, as the spending of the money was necessary in the proper administration and preservation of the school fund with which the trustees were charged, it is needless to determine how far the mere order of the majority of the board of trustees would have' protected the treasurer in making the payments, if they had been less closely connected with the proper maintenance and improvement of the educational facilities of the school district.
Judgment affirmed,. Pottle, J., not presiding.