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150 Ky. 439

Noble v. Williams

Court of Appeals of Kentucky

Decided November 7, 1912

Court of Appeals of Kentucky · decided 1912-11-07

<p>Appeal from Breathitt Circuit Court.</p>

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“According to the allegations of the petition the appellants, the plaintiffs, were hired to teach the public school in Jackson, Kentucky, for the fall term of 1908. The school board failed to pay rent for the schoolhouse, to buy the coal, to furnish the seats, crayons, blackboards, and the like, incident and necessary to the conduct of the school. Plaintiffs allege that they in order to conduct the school, were obliged to and did pay the rent and buy the supplies. They allege no request by the school board that they should do so, nor any promise by the board to reimburse them. They sought to recover, nevertheless, against the appellee board for these expenditures. The circuit court sustained a demurrer to their petition and they appealed. "The circuit court was right. The teachers, in contracting and paying these obligations, were volunteers. No man entirely of his own volition can make another his debtor. The school board could have been required by mandamus at the suit of any proper party to furnish a place for the conduct of the school. The teachers had no right to supply it themselves and then recover their rent.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Bruggeman v. Ind. Sch. Dist.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1912-11-07

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently January 1946

7 state decisions

301912192019301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1Opinion op the Court by

Judge Winn —

¶2Affirming.

¶3According to tlie allegations of the petition the appellants, the plaintiffs, were hired to teach the public school in Jackson, Kentucky, for the fall term of 1908. The school board failed to pay rent for the schoolhouse, to buy the coal, to furnish the seats, crayons, blackboards, and the like, incident and necessary to the conduct of the school. Plaintiffs allege that they, in order to conduct the school, were obliged to and did pay the rent and buy the supplies. They allege no request by the school board that they should do so, nor any promise by the board to reimburse them. They sought to recover nevertheless, against the appellee board for these expenditures. The circuit court sustained a demurrer to their petition, and they appeal.

¶4The circuit court was right. The teachers, in contracting and paying these obligations, were volunteers. No man entirely of his own volition, can make another his debtor. The school board could have been required by mandamus, at the suit of any proper party, to furnish a place for the conduct of the school. The teachers had no right to supply it themselves, and then recover the rent. They had their teaching contract; and if the board made it impossible for them to teach by failing to furnish a place for conducting the school, they had their right of action on their contract, subject to the custom*440ary principles involved in such cases.1 ■ They adopted neither of these courses, but instead voluntarily paid an obligation which was not theirs.

¶5Judgment affirmed.

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