Board of Directors v. Nye

Mandamus to State Controller—Appropriation for Woman’s Belief Corps Home—Eleemosynary Corporation Made State Institution.—The Woman’s Belief Corps Home Association, an eleemosynary corporation, having been intended to be made, and having been practically made, a state institution, and placed under state control by the act of 1897, appropriating the sum of $10,000 “for the support and maintenance of the ex-army nurses and the widows, wives, mothers, and dependent destitute maiden daughters or sisters of Union veterans who served honorably in the Civil War, residing in the home at Evergreen, Santa Clara county, under the auspices of the Woman’s Belief Corps Home Association,” to be paid in annual installments as directed, mandamus will lie at the instance of its directors, appointed by the governor, and sworn as state officers under the act to compel the state controller to draw his warrant for the unexpended balance of such appropriation, which had been audited and approved by the state board of examiners, in conformity with said act.

Id.—Express Declaration not Essential to Establish State Institution—Clear Intention.—It is not essential that the act of 1897 should expressly declare in terms that such eleemosynary corporation is made a state institution. It is sufficient that the clear intention of the legislature to make it such, and to place it under the exclusive management and control of the state, is apparent from its terms.

Id.—Constitutional Law—Power to Change Corporation into Stat> Institution—Public Purposes.—The constitution does not expressly prohibit the legislature from converting a private corporation into a state institution, and placing it under state control, provided the purposes sought to be achieved thereby are within the general legislative power, or involve some duty or function of government.

Id.—Support op Destitute Persons a Public Purpose.—The support of poor and destitute persons unable to care for themselves is a public purpose, clearly within the general legislative power.

Id.—Moral Duty to Aid Families op Veterans of Civil War.—The strong moral duty of the state to aid in the support of the needy families of veterans of the Civil War is sufficient to sustain a legislative appropriation for that purpose.

Id.—Appropriation not a Prohibitive Gift.—The legislative appropriation made under the act of 1897 is not a gift, within the meaning of the prohibition contained in section 31 of article IV of the constitution.

Id.—Special Legislation—Sufficient Classification—“Veterans, of Civil War.”—The “veterans of the Civil War” constitute a class founded upon a natural distinction, consisting of the peculiar and extraordinary services performed by them in the defense and preservation of the federal government as well as the governments of the states, and a general law applicable to them is not special legislation.

Id.—General Law Inapplicable—Special Law Constitutional.— Though the act of 1897 does not apply, and cannot, in the nature of the case, be made applicable generally to all needy relatives of “Veterans of the Civil War,” and applies to such only of them as reside in the “Home” therein described, it is nevertheless within the constitutional power of the legislature to enact special legislation to meet the peculiar circumstances of the ease, under the provision contained in subdivision 33 of section 25 of article IV of the constitution.