75 So. 766 | Miss. | 1917
delivered the opinion of the court.
H. L. Hopper filed a suit in the circuit court of Wayne county against the county for salary as director of the agricultural high school of Wayne county, alleging that he was employed as director of the agricultural high school at a salary of one hundred and twenty-five dollars a month for a period of twelve months, to be paid'monthly, the first payment to be made in December, 1915, and one hundred and twenty-five dollars each month thereafter, and alleged that the plaintiff performed all services incident to and connected with his employment, but that the board of supervisors refused to pay him for the months of January, February, and three-fourths of March, and that the bill had been presented to the board and disallowed, said bill being for three hundred and thirty-three dollars and seventy-five cents. The county filed a plea to said declara
Chapter 185.of the Laws of 1914 provides: “That all teachers in agricultural high schools shall pass an examination in the free school studies and in addition thereto an examination on the subjects they are required to teach in said schools.”
We think the contract between the trustees and Hop-’ per was an indivisible contract. A part of his duties under the contract was to teach in the school conducted in' the agricultural high school, another part of his duties was to superintend the school and the management of the farm connected with the agricultural high school. The contract does not appear in the record, and it does not appear that in making the contract the board undertook to nay him part of the salary as teacher and another part as manager of the farm, etc. To comply with the contract and make it a legal obligation it was necessary for Mr. Hopper to be examined on the public school curriculum and such other subjects as he was required to teach in the agricultural high school, to be determined by the state board of education. Unless he could stand this examination and secure this, license a contract would be unlawful, and, being unlawful in part, and not being separable, his action must fail. He is not entitled to recover on the theory of quantum meruit.
It is not necessary to decide in this 'suit whether the trustees could make a contract so as to pay a party a certain amount for teaching and another amount for -different duties as an employee. We reserve any expression of opinion as .to this until this question is properly presented, but we do hold, under the contract shown in the pleadings in this record, that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover, because the contract does
Reversed and judgment here.