50 Wis. 651 | Wis. | 1881
The learned counsel for the appellant raised several questions upon the ai’gument, relating to the sufficiency of the tender, made or. claimed to have been made by the defendant, of the amount admitted to be due the plaintiff, and as to the meaning of the word “ us ” in the reservation above quoted. These questions we shall not consider, as we have concluded that the findings of fact by the learned county judge upon the main question as to the right of the district board to discharge the plaintiff, are not sufficient to entitle the defendant to a verdict in its favor, admitting that the tender was sufficient and that the word “ us ” means the district board. The following are the findings of fact and conclusions of law upon this question, as filed by the court below:
Findings of fact: “Fifth. During the continuance of such school, complaints were made to the members of the school board that plaintiff was not keeping good order in said school, and was not properly controlling the scholars therein, and was
Conclusions of law: First. “The school board had the power, under the contract sued on, to terminate it, when, on investigation, they concluded that the school was not kept in a satisfactory manner — that it was unsatisfactory in respect to discipline and order maintained in the same.” Second. “ To justify the closing of said school, it was necessary that said board should be dissatisfied with the same in respect to some matter affecting its usefulness to the scholars, and that such dissatisfaction should be real and not pretended.” Third. “ To justify the closing of said school, it was not necessary that the defendant should show such a condition of things- as would induce the judge of this court to close the school and terminate the contract, or as would induce a jury to do the same. It
It may be admitted, for the purposes of this case, that, as between persons not acting in an official capacity, a reservation in a contract of hiring of the power to terminate the contract when either party should be dissatisfied with the other would be a valid reservation, and that under such contract either party, or the party in whose favor the reservation was made, would be at liberty to terminate it at any time he saw fit, and thereby relieve himself from any further obligation to the other thereunder. Such admission is-not conclusive of the rights of the parties in the case at bar.
The school-district board, in making a contract with a teacher, act officially and on behalf of the district; their powers as a district board are limited by statute, and they can only exercise such as are expressly conferred by statute, or as are fairly implied from the nature of the duties and service required by law from them. The following sections of the statutes are the only ones which appear to have any direct bearing upon the question. Section 438, E. S. 1878, gives the district board the power to hire teachers, and .is as follows: “The district board shall contract with and hire duly qualified teachers in the name of the district, and the contract made shall specify the wages per week, month or year to be paid, and, when completed, shall be filed in the office of the district clerk, with a copy of the certificate of the teacher so employed attached thereto, and a copy of such contract shall be furnished by the clerk to the teacher. No contract with any person not holding a diploma or certificate then authorizing him to teach shall be valid; and all such contracts shall terminate if the authority given to teach shall expire by limitation and shall not be renewed, or if it shall be revoked.” Section 441 requires the district board to visit the school, etc.,
It will be seen that the section of the statute which gives them the power to hire a teacher, does not confer upon them, in express terms, the power to discharge such teacher before the expiration of the term for which he may be hired. It may, perhaps, be fairly inferred that, under the visitorial powers conferred upon the board by section 441 above quoted, they would have the power to close the school and discharge the teacher if he was not in fact competent to teach or govern the school, or if for any other cause such teacher was not duly performing the contract on his part, without calling any meeting of the district to take action upon the subject. Such power, however, is very different from that claimed for the board in the case at bar. It will be seen, by the findings of the learned circuit judge, that he did not find that the appellant was not a competent teacher, or that she was -not in all respects in the due performance of her contract as such teacher at the time she was discharged by the board; but he proceeded to render judgment in favor of the district because he says that under the contract the board had'the right to discharge her if the school was not satisfactory to them, so long as.it did not appear that they acted maliciously, or from personal feelings of hostility towards the teacher, and there was an existing state of facts which might justify them in being dissatisfied with the management of the school. The judgment clearly proceeds upon the ground that under the contract
On the other hand, we think the good order and usefulness of the schools would be greatly prejudiced by holding that the boards had such power. If the power claimed for the board in this case exists, and may be enforced, then the public schools must be taught to suit the whims, caprices and peculiar notions of the hiring board, and not as the teacher, in the conscientious discharge of his duty, should teach the same. The judgment in this ease shows that, under the exercise of such power, a teacher who is not proved to have in any way violated his duty as a competent and faithful teacher, may be lawfully discharged from his employment. Under the rules of the common law the teacher would be subject to discharge if he failed to perform his duty in any material point; and under section 453, above quoted, if the county superintendent, upon complaint, annulled his certificate, that fact would subject the incompetent teacher to immediate discharge. The
The only case cited by the learned counsel for the respondent, which is at all similar in its facts to the case at bar, is Richardson v. School District, 38 Vt., 602. In thát case the contract with the teacher contained the following provision: “That she should leave if the school was not satisfactory.” She was discharged, and, in an action to recover her wages notwithstanding such discharge, the court deciding the case undoubtedly entertained the opinion that the provision was valid; but it was clearly held in that case that the dissatisfaction with the school must be the dissatisfaction of the district, and not of the prudential committee who^ signed the contract of hiring. There would be many reasons for holding that the contract of hiring might be terminated when the majority of the patrons of the school were dissatisfied with it, which would have no force when applied to a power to determine the same where but one or two of the persons interested in the school were dissatisfied. The school might be a very jrseful school
We are of the opinion that the reservation in the contract was unauthorized, and that it should be construed as though it had not been inserted therein.
By the Court.— The judgment of the county court is reversed, and the cause remanded for a new trial.