192 P. 1069 | Ariz. | 1920
The appellee, as plaintiff, brought this action against the appellants, “Oscar Webster, J. A. Martin, and O. B. Tenney, trustees of school district No. 12 Graham county, Arizona,” as defendants, for one month’s salary of $80 claimed to be due her on a contract for services as teacher; also for a like amount and services claimed to be due and owing her on an assigned account of one Minnie Williams; also
To the complaint defendants interposed a general demurrer for insufficient facts to constitute a cause of action, and specially demurred on two grounds: First, that the court was without jurisdiction for the reason that the suit is predicated upon three distinct causes of action, neither of which involves an amount equal to $200; and, second, that said complaint attempts to improperly join a cause of action accruing to the plaintiff individually with two causes of action accruing to her in a representative capacity.
The demurrers were overruled, and, after a trial by the court, judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff against the appellants “as trustees of said school district No. 12, of Graham county, Arizona,” for the full amount claimed.
Appellants assign four errors, three based upon the overruling of the demurrers, and one upon the refusal to grant defendants’ motion for judgment at the close of plaintiff’s testimony.
It is first contended that the suit is not entitled and prosecuted against the proper parties; it is said it should have been brought against school district No. 12 of Graham county, and not against the trustees of such school district. To sustain this proposition, we are cited to paragraph 2719, Civil Code of 1913, wherein it is provided that each regularly organized school district “shall be designated as school district No.-of-county, and in that name the trustees may sue and be sued, and hold and convey property for the use and benefit of such district.”
“But the action is not brought against any district or .corporation. The defendants below are sued by their individual names, with the description appended of ‘trustees of school district No. 98, Delaware township, Hunterdon county. ’ This is not the corporate name of the district against which the plaintiff’s claim is. Rev., p. 1076, § 38. The judgment is against the individual trustees, as must necessarily have been the case in the form of action adopted. The action should have been against the district by its true corporate name. ’ ’
That this suit was prosecuted against the trustees as the real debtors is evidenced not only by the complaint, but the judgment entered was against the trustees individually. This is not assigned as error by appellants, but, as it is a fundamental error, we feel we should correct it.
By paragraph 2753, Civil Code, it is made the duty of the trustees to pay “any judgment against the district for salary due any teacher on contract and for all debts contracted . . . out of school moneys to the credit of such district,” and to the faithful performance of those duties their liability seems to be
The complaint on its face showed no cause of action against the appellants and, therefore, the general demurrer should have been sustained. Donnelly v. Duras, 11 Neb. 283, 9 N. W. 45. Without discussing the,special demurrers, we will say we have examined them and found them without merit.
We regret to have to reverse the-judgment herein, as it plainly appears from the case made plaintiff was entitled to a judgment against school district No. 12 of Graham county, for the full amount claimed in her complaint. For the reason, however, that the suit and the judgment are against the wrong parties, it must be reversed; and it is so ordered.
CUNNINGHAM, C. J., and BAKER, J., concur.