Mitchell v. Board of Trustees

BARNARD, P. J.

The Visalia High School District operates a school known as the Visalia Union High School and Junior College and also operates an evening high school. The petitioner was employed by the respondent district as a teacher and taught commercial subjects in the first named school for seven consecutive years, ending with the school year 1932-1933. During most of this time he received $2,700 a year for such services but during the year 1932-1933 he was paid $2,500 in accordance with a uniform "cut imposed that year upon all teachers in the school. During the same seven years he also taught a class in accounting in the evening high school for four hours per week, receiving therefor $1.75 per hour. In May, 1933, the petitioner was informed that his services were no longer required and when he presented himself at the beginning of the next school year he was informed that he would not be permitted to teach. No contention is here made that any particular kind of service in the district had been discontinued or that there had been any decrease in attendance.

The petitioner applied for a writ of mandate, setting forth two causes of action in his petition. The first of these related to his employment in the high school and junior college and the second to his employment in the evening high school. The prayer was for an order restoring and reinstating bim to his position and employment as a permanent teacher of commercial subjects in the high school and junior college and for a further order restoring and reinstating

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him as a permanent teacher of accounting in the evening high school. The court found in his favor and entered a judgment ordering a peremptory writ of mandate to issue requiring the respondents to restore and reinstate the petitioner to chis position as a permanent teacher of commercial subjects in the high school and junior college and to his position as a permanent teacher of accounting in the evening high school, and further requiring them to pay his accrued salary and accrued compensation in the two positions. From this judgment the respondents have appealed.

The first point raised is that a finding to the effect that a purported resignation signed by the petitioner on May 16, 1932, was the result of menace, was involuntary and was coercively exacted from the petitioner, is not supported by the evidence and is contrary to law. An understanding of this point requires a statement of certain additional facts. It appears from the evidence and the findings that for some years the respondent board had pursued the practice each year of taking and accepting resignations from such teachers as would otherwise be entitled to a permanent status, the said resignations being so worded as to become effective at the close of the next succeeding school year and the same being required as a condition of such teachers being retained for the following year. In pursuance of this plan, on May 16, 1932, the petitioner was asked to sign and did sign such a resignation as of that date but to become effective on June 10, 1933. Similar resignations were secured at that time from twenty teachers in said high school, and on May 23, 1932, the respondent board adopted a resolution purporting to accept all of said resignations to take effect on June 10, 1933. On May 10, 1933, the petitioner was notified that his said resignation had been accepted and that his services would not be required after the close of that school year.