29 A.D. 501 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1898
The facts are not disputed. The board of school trustees of the fourth ward of the city of New York, acting for and on behalf and for the benefit of the board of education, entered into an agreement with the plaintiff, whereby the plaintiff agreed to perform certain work, labor and services, and to furnish certain materials at the agreed price of $600 in the erection of a protecting or retaining wall on the easterly side of .Primary School No. 14 at Nos. 73 and 75 Oliver street in said city, and the plaintiff, performed such work. This action is brought against the board of education to recover the contract price of such work. The defense is that the contract made on behalf of the school trustees was made in violation of the provisions of the Consolidation Act and was not binding on the defendant. It appears that prior to April 24, 1890, the trustees of the fourth ward applied to the board of education for an appropriation to protect Public School No. 14 in Oliver street, and this application was referred to the committee on buildings. No other proceeding by the board of education was had until December 3,1890, long- after the work was finished, when the committee on buildings presented a report to the board, which stated that improvements had been commenced upon the property adjoining the school and that, upon consultation with the trustees of the fourth ward, the proposed work was approved by the superintendent of school buildings,
By section 1027 (Subd. 2) of the Consolidation Act (Chap. 410, Laws of 1882) the board of education is given the power to ajDpoint a superintendent of school buildings, whose duties and powers shall be regulated and determined by the board of education, and to employ, under the superintendent of school buildings, necessary workmen and provide necessary materials for repairing, altering and enlarging school or other buildings.
By section 1028 it is made the duty of the board of education to apportion all the school moneys which shall have been raised for the purpose of meeting the current annual expenses of public instruction to the schools entitled to participate therein by the provisions of the chapter, and by section 1029 it is provided that the title to all school property, real and personal, shall be vested in the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of New York, but shall be under the care and control of the board of education for the purpose of public education, “ and no' contract or contracts shall be made by
Reading these sections together, the powers vested in the trustees are defined and limited. They are charged with the duties of making all needful repairs, alterations and additions in and to the school premises, but they have no power to make a contract or contracts for repairing any building when such repairs exceed the sum of §200, until a statement in writing of the amount required for that purpose shall have been presented to the board of education by the school trustees, together with a copy of the working drawings, plans and specifications of the work to be done, and such plans and specifications shall have been duly filed and approved of by the board of education, and an appropriation shall have been made by the board of education therefor.
By subdivision 14 of section 1027, the board of education is given all powers and privileges of a corporation. It is, however, a public corporation vested with certain defined powers, and can act only in the manner prescribed by the statute, and the school trustees in the several wards have certain powers conferred upon them, and within certain limits they have the power to incur obligations for the repairs of the school buildings, which obligations the law requires the board of education to discharge, but they are subject to the express limitations
No authority by a committee of the board of education or by the superintendent of buildings can obviate the necessity of an express apportionment by the board of education to meet the obligation to be incurred by the making of a contract by school trustees, and until such an apportionment is made the school trustees have no power to make a contract for the repair of a school building which shall exceed in amount the sum of $200 which shall be binding upon the board of education.
In this case it is not proved that the board of education approved this contract and appropriated money to pay the amount due thereunder, and it seems to me clear that the contract was one unauthorized by law and that it imposed no liability either upon the board of education or the city of New York. The fact that the board of education had, at the time the contract was made, money provided for the repair of school buildings from which it could have made such an appropriation does not at all obviate the difficulty
The judgment was right and is affirmed with costs.
Van Brunt, P. J., Patterson, O’Brien and McLaughlin, JJ., concurred.
Judgment affirmed, with costs.