Edwards v. Matthews
Edwards v. Matthews
Opinion of the Court
Two questions are here presented for the determination of this court:
First: Is the record as kept by the secretary of the county board of education of Gallia county under the date of February 8, 1919, a substantial compliance with the requirements of Section 4732, General Code ?
Second: If not, can the record be supplemented by oral testimony so as to supply the deficiency ?
Section 4732, General Code, provides, among other things, “The secretary shall keep a full record of the proceedings of the board, properly indexed, in a book provided .for that purpose. Each motion, with the name of the person making it and the vote thereon, shall be entered on the record.”
The court of appeals found that the evidence established that the board of education on the 8th day of February, 1919, “did what, if properly entered on the record, would have constituted a valid election. The evidence proves that the acts of the board were legal and binding.” But the court further found that by reason of the failure of the secretary of the board to enter upon the record the proceedings of the board as they actually occurred, and by recording them in the form they were re
What legal difference- did it make whether two or no votes were cast in the negative, since the record discloses the motion received not only a majority of a quorum, but a majority of the whole board? And since the board is authorized to and does act by a majority of a quorum, and a quorum under Section 4733, General Code, is a majority of the board, it would have been possible under a minimum quorum for a motion to have been legally adopted by the affirmative vote of but two of its members. In all other respects the record is an exact compliance with the statute.
Without considering the parol evidence, which does not.in fact contradict -the record, but simply supplements it, we are able from the records of the county board of education, as entered by. the secretary of the board and approved at a subsequent meeting of the board composed of the same members, and recognized as correct by the board as now constituted by its attempt to rescind, to con
Having reached the conclusion that the recording of the adoption of the motion of February 8, 1919, fixing the term and salary of the office of county superintendent, substantially complied with the Code, the validity of the election of the plaintiff in error necessarily follows, which was not thereafter subject to rescission by an ex parte proceeding such as attempted by the present board on August 1. Having reached this conclusion we do not find it necessary to pass upon the admissibility of the parol evidence, although we would be loath to lay down a rule which would enable a ministerial officer of such board to defeat the will of the board by a failure to perform a duty enjoined upon such ministerial officer by law. For be it remembered that it was the same ministerial officer who so punctiliously entered the proceedings of the board of the date of August 1st in exact compliance with the statute, upon which record the defendant in error based his right to retain the office, that made the entries in the record of the date of February 8, 1919, now made the excuse for excluding plaintiff in error from the office, although the actual proceedings of the board of that date were as exactly-in compliance with Section 4732 as were the proceedings of the date of August 1, 1919.
Since the Code was exactly complied with in the election and record thereof of the individual who was to fill the term, and at the salary provided'
Judgment reversed.
Reference
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- Schools — íCounty hoard of education — Record of proceedings— Section 4732, General Code — Election of county superintendent. A record of a county board of education which discloses the motion, the name of the member of the board making the motion and the result of the vote upon the motion, is a substantial compliance with Section 4732, General Code.