Standard Elementary School District v. Healy

JENNINGS, J. The appeal herein has been taken by the plaintiff from a judgment dismissing the action after a demurrer interposed by defendants to the first amended complaint had been sustained without leave to amend. The question here presented, therefore, involves a consideration of the allegations contained in the first amended complaint for the purpose of determining whether or not it may properly be declared that the pleading fails to state facts which are sufficient to constitute a cause of action.

The pertinent and material facts which are stated in the first amended complaint are as follows: The plaintiff is an elementary school district of Kern County organized under the laws of the state of California. Defendant Healy is the duly elected, qualified, and acting superintendent of schools of Kern County. The defendant Katherine Aslin was employed as a teacher by the board of trustees of the plaintiff district for the school year 1934WL935 at a salary of $180 per month. On May 24, 1935, said teacher voluntarily, intentionally, and for her own convenience presented to the board of trustees of plaintiff district a request in writing that she be granted a leave of absence for the school year 1935-1936. Such request was in the following language:

‘1 Having received notice of employment for the year 1935-1936, I wish to ask for a leave of absence from my work for one year.

‘ ‘ If this leave is granted to me, it is with the understanding that in September, 1936, I may return to my work, without my tenure having been in any way affected, and with my [175]salary equaling that of the teachers who are now on the same salary schedule as I.”

Thereafter the board of trustees granted the request for leave of absence and the said defendant served no part of the school year covered by the leave of absence. Because of the fact that said defendant performed no service during the school year the board of trustees employed another teacher at a salary of $155 per month. In May, 1936, the defendant, Katherine Aslin, made a claim upon the plaintiff school district for the sum of $75, which claim was rejected by the board of trustees on May 22, 1936. On June 17, 1936, Katherine Aslin filed a purported appeal of her claim and its rejection with the superintendent of public instruction of the state of California. On August 13, 1936, the last-mentioned official purported to decide that defendant, Katherine Aslin, was entitled to payment of her claim for $75 and notified defendant Healy of his decision. The board of trustees of plaintiff district has refused and continues to refuse to pay said claim and defendant Healy, as superintendent of schools of Kern County has informed plaintiff that he will issue his requisition in favor of defendant Katherine Aslin for the sum of $75 in payment of said claim and plaintiff believes that unless restrained he will do so. Plaintiff is not withholding any salary whatsoever from the defendant school teacher and the purported appeal to the state superintendent of public instruction was improper and his purported decision thereon was void and the payment of said claim would amount to an unlawful expenditure of public moneys. For this reason defendant Healy has no right, authority, or jurisdiction to issue a requisition in payment of the claim. The pleading concludes with a prayer that it be decreed that the defendant Aslin has no claim for compensation against plaintiff, that defendant Healy be ordered not to pay the sum of $75 or any other sum to defendant Aslin and that defendant Healy be restrained and enjoined from paying the said claim.