State ex rel. Johnston v. Barton
State ex rel. Johnston v. Barton
Opinion of the Court
The early history of the Home for the Friendless may be found in Society of the Home for the Friendless v. State, 58 Neb. 447. The legislature during its thirty-first session repealed sections 4, 5 and 6 of chapter 35 of the Compiled Statutes of Nebraska, and provided for a state public school for dependent children to be located at the Home for the Friendless. Laws 1909, ch: 69. There is no emergency clause to this act, and it will not become effective until July 1, 1909. The appropriations made by the legislature in 1907 for maintenance of the Home for the Friendless and the payment of its officers terminated April 1, 1909. The legislature in 1909 did not make an appropriation referring in so many words to the Home for the Friendless, but did provide in the appropriation made for the current expenses of the state government for the years ending March 31, 1910, and March 31, 1911,
The auditor has allowed a claim for wages due employees of the Home for the Friendless for the month of April, 1909, but refuses to draw a warrant therefor on the ground that the legislature did not make any appropriation for the support of said institution, and justifies, his conduct by reference to section 22, art. Ill of the constitution, which states: “No money shall be drawn from the treasury except in pursuance of a specific appropriation made by law, * * * and no money shall be diverted from any appropriation made for any purpose or taken from., any fund whatever, either by joint or separate resolution.” The appropriations considered are specific, each item therein referring to a definite subject. The legislature evidently intended to change the name but continue the institution of the Home for the Friendless. The statute creating the state public school does not refer to adult dependents, but the general appropriation bill does appropriate money for the support of indigent women now resident at that institution. It is incredible that the legislature intended to leave the dependent children and aged women in the Home for the Friendless without means of support for three months, and expected the employees and officers necessary for the transaction of the business of that institution to labor for the state three months without compensation, or, in default of such gratuitous services, that the institution should become a derelict during the second quarter of 1909. The
The auditor under the circumstances was justified in not acting unless advised by the court that it was his duty to do so. If within ten days of the filing of this opinion respondent signs the warrant' referred to in the application, the writ will not issue and the costs' will be taxed to relator; but, if he fails to do so, a peremptory writ will at the end of said ten days issue as prayed for and relator will recover her costs.
Judgment accordingly.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
I concur in the spirit of kindness in which the writ is allowed, but dissent from the propositions of law on which the judgment is based. Relator is superintendent of the Home for the Friendless, and as such applied for a peremptory writ of mandamus to compel the auditor of public accounts to issue a warrant on the state treasurer for $428 to pay the wages of the employees of that insti
One of the declared purposes of the new act is to change the institution from a home to a school. This is shown by the title, which is as follows: “An act providing for the creation and location of a state public school for dependent children and providing for the government of the same, and providing for the care and custody of all the dependent children within the state, and repealing sections four (4), five (5) and six (6) of chapter 35 of the Compiled Statutes of Nebraska.” Laws 1909, cli. 69. This title limits to dependent children the benefits of the state public school to the exclusion of the aged women now in the Home for the Friendless. For them no provision is made in the new act. The first section is as follows: “There is hereby created and established a state public school for dependent children to be located at the Home for the Friendless in the city of Lincoln, which said school shall have charge of all the dependent children within the state as herein defined and j>rovided.”
The State Public School is thus located at the Home for the Friendless, but neither the section quoted nor any other provisions of the act abolishes its present statutory name or repeals that part of the original act establishing the original home. The board of public lands and building's, in so far as it now has control of dependent children, will be superseded by the governor. In an least three material respects, therefore, the State Public School will differ from the Home for the Friendless: (1) The names of the institutions will be different. (2) Aged and dependent women will be excluded from the State Public School under the provisions of the act creating it, though they found at the old home “a temporary refuge, clothing and food, and shelter and rest.” (3) In so far as the institution protected and controlled .dependent children, the board of public lands and buildings will be superseded by the governor. The recent legislation will change the name, purpose and management of the Home for the
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.