Board of Education v. School District No. 5

Citations

• 21 N.M. 624
• 157 P. 668

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Act Cong. Peb. 18, 1901, c. 380, 31 Stat. 796, granting certain lands to the city of Albuquerque, in trust, for certain designated purposes, concluded with the following proviso:</p> <p>“Provided further, that if within the limits of the land hereby relinquished, there be any tract or tracts not held in private ownership, the title shall be vested in the city of Albuquerque in trust for the use and benefit of the public schools of each of the districts where such lands are severally situated.”</p> <p>In the year 1901, when the grant was made, a certain described tract of land, embracing something over 70 acres, was not held in private ownership and was situated within school district No. 5, as then constituted. In 1911 the territory immediately surrounding the said 70 acres was, upon petition, incorporated into the school district of the city of Albuquerque, which latter corporation brought suit against school district No. 5 to quiet its equitable title to the land in question.</p> <p>Held, that the gx-ant created a charitable trust; that at the time of the grant school district No. 5 presumably had known and definite boundaries, and that it was for the use and benefit of the public schools, within this known, defined area, that the trust was created; that the school district was mentioned, not as the beneficiary of the .charity, but as a means of ascertaining such beneficiaries when the time should arrive for its administration; that, while the Albuquerque school corporation might equitably be entitled to a portion of the proceeds derived from such land, that such school corporation was not entitled to the whole thereof, and that the demurrer to its complaint should have been sustained.</p> <p>P. 626</p> <p>2. Charitable trusts include all gifts in trust for educational and religious purposes in their every-varying diversity.</p> <p>P. 628</p>