Emerson v. Board of Trustees

BARNARD, P. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment ordering a writ of mandate to issue, commanding the trustees of an elementary school to pay a certain salary to a teacher.

The petitioner had taught in this school for some seventeen years and for some years had been classified as a permanent teacher under the tenure law. For two years, beginning in 1928, she was paid an annual salary of $1650; the next year she received $1550; the next three years she was paid $1400 a year; and for the next two years she was paid $1200 a year. In May, 1936, she was offered a contract for the year beginning July 1, 1936, her salary being fixed at $1,000. In August, 1936, the board wrote her a letter stating that she had not signed and returned her contract, that the reduction in her salary was made necessary because of lack of funds and requesting her to let them know whether she intended to accept the contract and teach during the coming year. She replied that she intended to teach, that she was informed that there was no lack of funds, that she believed the reduction in salary to be arbitrary and unjust, that the salary fixed was not a reasonable one and that she intended to take such steps as were available to have the same adjusted.

She then filed a petition asking that a writ of mandate issue directing the board to fix her salary at $1400 for the ensuing year ‘1 or at such lesser sum as to the court shall seem just and reasonable”. At the hearing evidence was introduced that there was available the sum of $1418 in the teacher’s salary fund for the school year 1936-1937. On behalf of the board there was testimony that during the school years 1933-34 and 1934-35 the board became indebted to the Santa Ana High School District in the sum of $846.91 for the tuition for pupils sent to that school; that it was unable to pay this bill during those years; that the same was paid

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through a special assessment levied during the year 1935-36; that the board was unable to pay the petitioner’s salary during the last month of the 1935-36 school year, since to do so would have caused the district to exceed its 5 per cent debt limitation; that this month’s salary had to be paid out of the funds available for the year 1936-37; that the district would be required to send at least two pupils to the Santa Ana High School during the year 1936-37; that the estimated expense thereof would be about $400; and that this expense could only be paid out of the $1418 found available for teachers’ salaries. The court found that sufficient funds were available to pay the petitioner a salary of $1200 for the year 1936-37, that the attempted reduction in salary from $1200 to $1,000 per year was arbitrary and unjust, that the sum of $1200 is a reasonable sum to be fixed as salary for that year, and entered judgment directing the board to issue the necessary warrants and to pay the petitioner a salary of $1200 for that year. The petitioner having gone on with her teaching duties, the judgment made provision for making up any deficiencies in the monthly payments already made to her.