Hall v. Selectmen of Somersworth
Supreme Court of New Hampshire
Petition for a Mandamus, filed by the school commissioner for the county of Strafford for the year commencing June 23, 1859, to compel the selectmen of Somersworth, in that county, to pay over to the commissioner the sum of sixty-five dollars and eight cents, being a sum equal to two per cent of the amount required by law to be raised for the support of common schools in said town of Somersworth.
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Petition for a Mandamus, filed by the school commissioner for the county of Strafford for the year commencing June 23, 1859, to compel the selectmen of Somersworth, in that county, to pay over to the commissioner the sum of sixty-five dollars and eight cents, being a sum equal to two per cent of the amount required by law to be raised for the support of common schools in said town of Somersworth. The petition alleges that the town was required by law to appropriate the above amount for the support of teachers’ institutes in said county, and that the selectmen were also required seasonably to…
1Opinion of the CourtBellows, J.
All the facts alleged in the petition in this case, independent of legal conclusions, were admitted by the respondents, and the objections to granting a mandamus urged at the hearing were, mainly, that there was no duty of an imperative character upon either the town or the selectmen to make the appropriation, but that the whole matter was discretionary, inasmuch as the teachers’ institutes were voluntary associations; that the selectmen had no authority to assess such a tax without a vote of the town, and that there was no law requiring the selectmen to pay the money to the school…
2Cases cited5 opinions
- Kendall v. United States Ex Rel. StokesSupreme Court of the United States · 1838
- Tudor v. LewisCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1860
- People ex rel. Stuart v. EdmondsNew York Supreme Court · 1854
- Baker v. JohnsonSupreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1856
- School District No. 2 v. School District No. 1Wisconsin Supreme Court · 1854
3Cited by1 opinion
- Hill v. GoodwinSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1876