McLeod v. Central Normal School

Citations

• 152 Pa. 575
• 25 A. 1109
• 1893 Pa. LEXIS 1021

Syllabus

<p>[Marked to be reported.]</p> <p>Corporations — Quasi public and private corporations.</p> <p>Private corporations in Pennsylvania are divided into two classes, (1) corporations which affect the public directly, and are quasi public, and '(2) corporations which affect the public indirectly, and are, therefore, strictly private.</p> <p>In order that a private corporation may be regarded as quasi public, it must exist directly for the public use; the corporate franchise must be such as is held in the nature of a public trust, and such that the public has standing to assert and enforce its right. If the public may assert a use by right, then the property of the corporation may be said to be in the direct use of the public at large, though under the control of pi-ivate persons or of a corporation.</p> <p>Quasi public corporations — Mechanics’ lien.</p> <p>The property of a quasi public corporation is not liable to a mechanics’ lien.</p> <p>State normal schools — Mechanics’ liens — Act of May 20, 1857.</p> <p>A normal school incorporated for the purpose of training teachers for public schools, and receiving recognition and aid from the the state under the act of May 20, 1857, P. L. 581, entitled “ an act to provide for the due training of teachers for the common schools of the state,” is not a quasi public corporation, and its property is subject to mechanics’ liens.</p> <p>Whilst normal schools are no doubt engaged in a most necessary and useful public work, and have been valuable auxiliaries in the education of the masses of the people, the mere fact that they have been incorporated for this particular purpose, and are actually engaged in this work, will not of itself give them the essential qualities of a public corporation. Their charter is, in form and effect, that of a private corporation merely; their work is but indirectly for the public use, and they must be answerable for their debts and engagements under the same forms of procedure and to the same extent as