Commonwealth v. Gibbons

Citations

• 196 Pa. 97
• 46 A. 313
• 1900 Pa. LEXIS 480

Syllabus

<p>School law — Meeting of directors — Vacancy—Act of May 8, 1854, P. L. 618, Sec. 8, and Act of April 11, 1862, P. L, 471.</p> <p>A meeting of school directors called by the president following a previous meeting adjourned “to meet at the call of the president,” is not a regular meeting under the act of April 11, 1862, because it is not held in accordance with any standing regulations of the board, nor by adjournment “ to a time and place certain.”</p> <p>Where a school board adopts a time and place for a regular monthly meeting, and subsequently at a regular meeting adjourns to meet on a different day from that specified in the regulation, such meeting is not a regular meeting within the meaning of the Act of May 8, 1854, sec. 8, relating to the absence of directors from meetings.</p> <p>Under the Act of May 8, 1854, sec. 8, which provides that if a school director shall neglect to attend any two regular meetings of the board in succession unless detained by sickness or prevented by absence from the district, the directors shall have power to declare his seat vacant, the directors have no power to declare the.seat vacant at the second of such meetings, although the resolution to vacate the seat was the last thing done before adjournment. The absence cannot be determined or declared until the meeting is actually adjourned.</p> <p>A school director cannot be deprived of his office because of absence from two successive meetings without being given an opportunity to show, if he can, that his absence was caused by sickness or absence from the district.</p> <p>The act being highly penal, in that it permits a few individuals liable to be governed by personal feeling, to oust by summary proceedings the officer duly chosen by the electors to represent them in their school matters, it must be strictly construed and every step in the proceedings must clearly appear to have been regular and within the authority conferred by the statute.</p> <p>School laiu — Ouster of directo