Whitley v. American Surety Co.
Whitley v. American Surety Co.
Opinion of the Court
J. B. Whitley brought suit in the superior court of Baldwin County, against American Surety Company of New York, to recover for an alleged breach of a bond executed by the defendant for the faithful performance by J. T. Altman, as county superintendent of schools for the County of Bacon, of the duties required of him by virtue of the office. The alleged breach was that the said Altman, in making to the State Board of Education the county and State school budget required by law, failed to faithfully discharge the duties of his office by omitting to place in the budget the name of the plaintiff as a school-teacher in the school system of Bacon County during the month of March, 1932, and the amount of salary due the plaintiff for that month. It is alleged that because of such failure of Altman, the county superintendent of schools, to place the plaintiff’s name in the budget and the amount of salary due the plaintiff for March, 1932, a draft for the payment of the plaintiff’s salary as school-teacher for that month which Altman had issued to him on July 12, 1932, after-wards was not paid, and that the plaintiff was therefore damaged in the amount of his unpaid salary for the month of March, 1932, namely $55.20. The petition does not allege that the plaintiff was employed to teach in the county school system. It alleges
Whatever duty, if there be any, which rests upon a county superintendent of schools to make a budget, is contained in Code, §§ 32-945 and 32-946, which are codified from the act of 1925. (Ga. L. 1925, p. 135.) It is in these Code sections provided: “Each county and independent public-school system receiving funds from the State shall annually, through its executive officer, make out and submit to the State Board of Education an estimated budget of its receipts from all sources and its proposed expenditures for the next year, according to blank forms to be prescribed and furnished by the State Board of Education, . . and the filing of such estimated budgets shall be made before the State Superintendent of Schools may transmit to such public-school systems any of the State school funds for the year for which such budget is made,” and “The budgets provided for in this law shall be so made out as to properly systematize and classify the estimated receipts and proposed expenditures for the year, showing whether estimated receipts will be from the State, from the county, the district, the city, donations, bonds, or from other sources; and the estimated expenditures shall definitely set up amounts to be expended for ‘administrative expenses,’ ‘instruction,’ ‘operating expenses,’ ‘maintenance,’ ‘buildings,’ ‘equipment,’ ‘debts,’ or such other classifications as the State Board of Education may prescribe.” The executive officer is required to make out and submit to the State Board of Education an “estimated” budget of receipts and “proposed expenditures for the next year,” and that “the estimated expenditures shall definitely set up amounts to be expended for ‘administrative expenses,’ ‘instruction,’ ‘operating expenses,’ ‘maintenance,’ ‘buildings,’ ‘equipment,’ ‘debts,’ or such
The act provides that the required budget shall show the pro
The petition does not allege that the plaintiff was employed by the local county school authorities. It simply alleges that he “taught in” the public school system of Bacon County during the month of March, 1932. The petition fails to allege a contract by the school authorities with the plaintiff. It certainly fails to allege a written contract between the school authorities and the plaintiff. Such contract, to be valid, must be in writing. Green v. Snellville Consolidated School District, 169 Ga. 667 (151 S. E. 479); Dodd v. Board of Education, 46 Ga. App. 235 (167 S. E. 319).
The petition fails to show that a duty rested on the county superintendent of schools to include in the estimated budget any amount to be paid to the plaintiff as salary for his services as a school-teacher. The petition fails to set out a cause of action, and the court did not err in sustaining the general demurrer.
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.