President of Medical College v. Zeigler
President of Medical College v. Zeigler
Opinion of the Court
The mortgages drawn in question in this case, purport to convey the entire title, interest, and estate of the corporation executing them, without any express restriction, reservation, or limitation whatever.
And it is claimed by counsel for the mortgagees, that independently of the act of March 21, 1851, the corporation had power to borrow money and execute such general mortgages, by the terms of its original charter and other subsequent acts, passed prior to 1851. Be this as it may, however, those prior enactments were, by their own terms, made subject to alteration and amendment.
The act of 1851 was a substantial reorganization of the medical college. By it eleven persons therein named, and their successors, were constituted a board of trustees of the Medical College of Ohio • and by that name were invested with corporate powers.
The first and main section of the act, provides that this board, by its corporate name, “ shall have power to contract and be contracted with, sue and be sued, to answer and be answered unto, in all courts of law and equity, for the period of ten years from the 1st day of January, 1851, or until their successors are appointed, and to mortgage the property now known as the Medical College of Ohio : provided, that in the event of the mortgage of said property, the proceeds thereof shall bo appropriated to the erection of a building, on the lot on which the present building is erected, in which shall be taught regular scientific medicine, as contemplated in the various acts creating the medical college; and, provided further, that no sale of said property, by reason of said mortgage, or otherwise, shall imjDair the right of the state to the medical attendance now by law provided and required for the Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum at Cincinnati; provided, the State of Ohio shall, in no event, be held liable for or required to pay any money in consequence of the provisions of this act; and provided,
Section 2 provides for filling vacancies in the board of trustees; section 3, that all rents and graduation fees thall be applied to the payment of the debt created in erecting the buildings; and section 4 repeals all acts and parts of acts conflicting with this act. 49 Ohio L. 295.
It is clear that the board of trustees, by whose authority these bonds and mortgages were executed, derived their power to act in the premises, solely from this act of 1851. The mortgagees themselves refer expressly to this act, and represent the issuing of the bonds and the making of the mortgages to be in execution of the powers therein conferred. The mortgages must therefore be construed with reference to the limitations, if there be any, which qualify the power of mortgaging, granted by the act of 1851.
The first section of that act, just quoted, contains six provisos, so called; and it is claimed in behalf of the plaintiff in error, that, by virtue of the fourth of these provisos, the board of trustees had no power to mortgage the premises so as, in any event, to justify a sale, without reserving to the corporation the right forever to occupy and use the building erected thereon, or so much thereof as may be necessary, for the purposes of a medical college. To this claim, interposed by way of defense in the court below, the bondholders, who were there plaintiffs, demurred. The question was thus raised as *to the proper construction and effect of this proviso or clause; and this is the question upon which the judgment to be rendered here must depend.
Now, a bona fide sale has always been supposed to confer some rights upon a purchaser. Ordinarily, upon the payment of the
If, then, the fourth proviso is to be construed (according to the claim of the plaintiff in error) as a limitation or exception to the power of mortgaging, this limitation, in terms, includes the whole grant; and if effect is to be given to it according to its terms, it utterly nullifies the whole grant. For it provides that the identical premises which are authorized to be mortgaged, “shall ever be occupied and used for the purposes of a medical college.” If effect be given to this clause, as a limitation in favor of the mortgagor, what interest in the property would pass to the purchaser by a sale under the mortgages? Absolutely none. The property mortgaged must “ ever be occupied and used ” by the mortgagor, notwithstanding the sale. We are not to attribute to the legislature a covert intention, which, if clearly expressed, must have rendered the grant of power wholly nugatory.
But, on behalf of the plaintiff in error, it is claimed that this clause may reasonably be so construed as to except from the operation of the mortgages only so much of the buildings and premises as may be necessary for the purposes of a medical college. Such an exception must, from the nature of the case, consist of an uncertain and variable quantity, depending on the number of the students attending the institution, and the extent of the facilities and advantages to be furnished in the prosecution of their appropriate studies.
The building to be erected from “ the proceeds ” of the mortgage, might be so constructed that every part of it would be necessary for college purposes, and illy adapted for other uses; and it is incredible that the legislature, or the ^trustees of the college, should have expected that funds would be invested on the faith of a security so uncertain, which might amount to something or nothing, at the pleasure of the mortgagor.
Besides, if this fourth proviso is to be construed as securing to the plaintiff (notwithstanding a sale under the mortgage) the perpetual occupancy and use of so much of the premises as are necessary for college purposes, how shall we escape from the conclusion that the next proviso equally secures and subjects the residue of
The question is, therefore, one of construction, and we should adopt that one which is most reasonable and consistent with the-purview of the act. It is highly improbable that the fourth proviso was intended to prohibit the alienation of the property known as “the medical college,” or to confine the corporation to that particular locality for all time to come. The second proviso clearly contemplates that this property might be sold, as a result of the mortgage, “ or otherwise."
' In our opinion, none of the numerous clauses which are inartificially ushered in, and tacked on to this section by means of the oft-repeated word “provided," was designed to limit the power of mortgaging, which had been conferred in general and absolute terms. The legislature could not foresee whether the power granted would ever be exercised; and should the corporation avail itself of the grant, it was no doubt hoped and expected that the debt incurred would be discharged without a sale of the mortgaged property. These ^provisos were accordingly framed to meet either contingency, and with a view to guard against any implied liability of the state for the results. And as the corporation had been previously regarded with favor, and had received donations from the state, on account of its supposed capacity for usefulness in disseminating a correct knowledge of “ regular scientific medicine,” and thus preserving the lives and the health of the people from the dangers of quackery, empiricism, and heretical innovation of every kind in the healing art, the occasion was embraced to restrict the corporation to the salutary objects of its creation, and prevent the perversion of its corporate powers to other and less worthy purposes.
We are satisfied that the fourth proviso was not intended to-
This construction seems to us fairly deducible from a full consideration of the whole act, and is the only one which can be made to harmonize with the main purpose of the act and the other provisos.
The fifth proviso, which gives power to lease such parts of the premises as may not be needed for college purposes, was confessedly not intended to be operative in the event of a sale under the mortgage. And the terms of the fourth admit of the same construction, with perhaps equal facility.
It may be further observed, that the second proviso consists properly of a saving clause, by which, in the event of a sale, the right of the state to medical attendance at the Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum is preserved unimpaired. The fourth proviso contains a similar saving clause, by which, according to our construction, the same right is preserved in case no sale of the property shall become necessary. Effect is *thus given to both saving clauses. But the construction claimed by the plaintiff would em: brace both cases in the saving clause of the fourth proviso, and render the second wholly useless and inoperative.
The rules of construction favor an interpretation which will give effect to every part of the enactment.
Upon the whole, we are satisfied that the construction claimed on behalf of the plaintiff in error is inadmissible; that the court below properly sustained the demurrer to the defense based on that construction, and did not err in ordei'ing a sale of the property without reservation.
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.