Burkhardt v. Georgia School Township
Burkhardt v. Georgia School Township
Opinion of the Court
September 17, 1891, defendant was a school corporation. Its board consisted of three members. A written contract, evidently intended to bind defendant, signed by plaintiff and each member of the board, was executed, wherein plaintiff agreed to remove a schoolhouse belonging to defendant, for which service he was to receive $85. Plaintiff began and continued its removal until informed of an order issued by the circuit court .restraining defendant from making the contemplated change. The house was then a few rods from its former location, where plaintiff left it. He sues to recover the value of his services. There was a verdict and judgment for plaintiff. Defendant appealed.
At the trial plaintiff produced the contract, proved its delivery, and that it was signed by plaintiff and each member of the board. After an extended effort to overcome the objection that the authority of the board to make the contract had not been shown, it was received in evidence. It will be unnecessary to consider the rulings of the trial court made in the progress of such effort. Under the law then in force, the board could change the location of defendant’s schoolhous'es only when authorized to do so by the voters of the district. Laws 1891, Chap. 56, Sube. 5, §§ 1, 5. But, the subscribing and delivering of the contract having been proven, the court should have presumed the board was authorized by the voters to select a new site, and should have received the contract without further preliminary proof. In absence of any evidence to the contrary, it should have been regarded as valid, and the jury-should have been so instructed.
Reference
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Where a school board, having power to change the location of schoolhouses only when authorized to do so by the voters of the district (Laws 1891, Chap. 56, Sube. 5, Secs. 1, 5), contracts for the removal of a school house, it will be presumed in the absence of a contrary showing, that the board was so authorized. 2. An injunction restraining' a person from performing a contract with a school board for the removal of a school house will excuse such person from performing his contract, in the absence of a showing that the injunction was dissolved within such time as made it necessary for him to resume work.