McHench v. Board of Education — 127 A.D. 294

Majority

p. 294

Mary J. McHench, Respondent, v. The Board of Education of the City of New York, Appellant.

Second Department,

June 18, 1908.

Headnote

Municipal corporations — salaries of teachers in city of Mew York — method of obtaining, uniformity.

Section 1091 of the charter of the city of Mew York, empowering the board of education to'fix a uniform schedule of salaries for all teachers in the common schools throughout the city without reducing existing salaries, was intended to bring about uniformity of salaries immediately, or so soon as it can be accomplished without reducing salaries.

Hence, when said board adopts a schedule fixing the minimum and maximum salaries of women' principals of a certain grade with provision for an annual increase of §250 until the maximum be reached/ a teacher in that grade whose prior salary exceeded the minimum is not entitled to the prescribed annual increase from the start until such time as her salary reaches the maximum, but-on the contrary should receive the salary already fixed until those of other teachers of her grade equal hers by the yearly increase adopted. .

p. 295

Appeal by the defendánt, The Board of Education of the City of New York, from a judgment of the .Municipal Court of the city of New York in favor of the plaintiff.

This is an action for $500 of alleged unpaid balance of salary to the plaintiff as a school principal.

Theodore Connoly [Stephen O'Brien and Thomas F. Noonan with him on the brief], for the appellant.

Conrad Saxe Keyes, for the respondent.

Chapter 751 of the Laws of 1900 (sec. 4, being sec. 1091 of the city charter) empowered the board of education of the city of New York to adopt by-laws fixing a schedule of salaries of all of the teachers in the common schools of the city. It required that said salaries should be uniform in the respective grades and throughout the whole city. It thus prescribed a complete system. The board adopted such a schedule. We have to do here only with the salaries of women principals of schools of not less than twelve classes. The schedule fixes the minimum and maximum salaries therefor at $1,750 and $2,500, with an annual increase of $250 until the maximum should be reached.

At the time this statute and schedule took effect the plaintiff was the principal of such a school at a salary of $2,050. The statute provided that no salary should be decreased thereby ; and also, as we have seen, that salaries should be made uniform throughout the city.» The plaintiff’s salary was out of uniformity, i. e., it was larger than the salaries generally of her grade, and the only way to bring it into uniformity, as required by the statute, was not to add ■ the prescribed annual increase of $250 to it until the other salaries by such increase caught up with it. That course was followed. By the addition of $250 the first year to the salaries of $1,750 of her sister principals they were raised to $2,000, while hers remained stationary at $2,050. The next year by the said addition of $250 they became $2,250, and $200 was added to hers to. make it the same. Uniformity having thus been attained, $250 was thereafter given to all alike in each of the two following years, when the maximum of $2,500 was reached. This was all in accordance with the statute, for it was necessary in order to carry out all of its requirements.

p. 296

The plaintiff’s claim is that she should have had the prescribed annual increase from the start and until her salary reached the maximum of $2,500,-*. <?., that $250 should have been added the first year, which would make her salary $2,300, and $200 the next year, to make it the maximum. In that way for the next two years she would have received $250 more each year than she did receive, thus getting an advantage of $500 over her sisters during the running of the period of years when the maximum was being reached, instead of being treated uniformly with them. She. therefore sues for $500. But this is an erroneous and unfair understanding of the statute. It intended -a uniformity of salaries immediately, or so soon- as it coti-ld be brought about hampered by the provision that no reduction of a salary could be made for that purpose. The provision that salaries should be uniform' did not refer to the maximum only, but to the salaries paid year by year as well until the maximum should be reached. The only restriction in bringing this uniformity about was that no existing salary should be decreased.

The judgment should be reversed and judgment given for the defendant:

Woodward, Jenks, Hooker and Rich, JJ., concurred.

Judgment of the Municipal Court reversed, with costs, and judgment given for the defendant, with costs.