Lopes v. Greensburg Borough School District

Citations

• 268 Pa. 356
• 112 A. 155
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 692

Syllabus

<p>School law — Property of academy — Trusts and trustees — Conveyance of land to school district — Consideration—Constitutional law —Arbitrary transfer of property — Violation of contract — Act of April 11,1862, P. L. 471, 475.</p> <p>1. The Act of April 11, 1862, P. L. 4Í1, which authorized trustees of academies, which had received money from the Commonwealth, to convey land to school districts, and provided that the children of-any citizens of the county should be admitted to any high school established by means of such property, does not violate the original charter contract of the Greensburg Academy organized under the special Act of March 7, 1810, P. L. 62.</p> <p>2. Under the Act of 1862, the trustees of the academy had the right to convey vacant land on which a school building had stood years before, to the school district, in consideration of the district erecting a suitable school building on the land, and that, in case the building should be used as a high school, the children of citizfens of Westmoreland County should be admitted thereto, if duly qualified, on paying a proper rate of tuition.</p> <p>8. In such case, the school district cannot, in 1918, abrogate the contract, by resolving that thereafter no nonresident pupils should be admitted into the high school.</p> <p>4. The Act of 1862 does not undertake to transfer property from trustees of academies to school districts, but only authorizes such transfers, if the trustees consent to do so. It is not therefore unconstitutional and void as an attempt arbitrarily to transfer corporate property, in breach of the contract represented by the corporate charter.</p>