U.S. Supreme Court PHELPS V. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOWN OF WEST NEW YORK , 300 U.S. 319 (1937)

300 U.S. 319

PHELPSv. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOWN OF WEST NEW YORK et al.

ASKAM et al.v. SAME.

Nos. 454, 455.

Argued Feb. 4, 5, 1937.Decided March 1, 1937.

Appeals from the Court of Errors and Appeals of the State of New jersey. [ Phelps v. Board of Education of Town of West New York 300 U.S. 319 (1937) ]

[Page 300 U.S. 319 , 320]

Mr. Robert H. McCarter, of Newark, N.J., for appellants.

Mr. Saul Nemser, of Jersey City, N.J., for appellees.

Mr. Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court.

The people of New Jersey have ordained by their Constitution that the Legislature 'shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of the public schools.'1 In fulfillment of this command a comprehensive school law was adopted in 1903 by which boards of education were set up for cities, towns, and school districts throughout the state. [Footnote 2] Section 106 empowered these boards to make rules and regulations governing engagement and employment of teachers and principals, terms and tenure of such employment, promotion, and dismissal, salaries and their time and mode of payment, and to change and repeal such rules and regulations from time to time. 3 This general school law was amended by the Act of April 21, 1909,4 section 1 of which provides (4 N.J.Comp.St. 1910, p. 4763, 106a): 'The service of all teachers, principals, supervising principals of the public schools in any school district of this state shall be during good behavior and efficiency, after the expiration of a period of employment of three consecutive years in that district, unless a shorter period is fixed by the employing board. * * * No principal or

[Page 300 U.S. 319 , 322]

reasons that the decision violated article 1, section 10, and section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, of the Federal Constitution. The writs6 issued and, after hearing, the court affirmed the action of the administrative tribunal. 7 The Court of Errors and Appeals affirmed the judgment upon the opinion of the Supreme Court. [Footnote 8]

The position of the appellants is that by virtue of the Act of 1909 three years of service under contract confer upon an employe of a school district a contractual status indefinite in duration which the legislature is powerless to alter or to authorize the board of education to alter. The Supreme Court holds that the Act of 1909 'established a legislative status for teachers, but we fail to see that it established a contractual one that the Legislature may not modify. * * * The status of tenure teachers, while in one sense perhaps contractual, is in essence dependent on a statute, like that of the incumbent of a statutory office, which the Legislature at will may abolish, or whose emoluments it may change.'

This court is not bound by the decision of a state court as to the existence and terms of a contract, the obligation of which is asserted to be impaired, but where a statute is claimed to create a contractual right we give weight to the construction of the statute by the courts of the state. [Footnote 9] Here those courts have concurred in holding that the act of 1909 did not amount to a legislative contract

[Page 300 U.S. 319 , 324]

12, 13, and 14 per cent. It resulted that in some instances a teacher receiving the lowest salary in a given bracket would have his compensation reduced to a figure lower than the reduced compensation of one receiving the highest salary in the next lower bracket. From this circumstance it is argued that the board's action arbitrarily discriminated between the employes and so denied them the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

We think it was reasonable and proper that the teachers employed by the board should be divided into classes for the application of the percentage reduction. All in a given class were treated alike. Incidental individual inequality resulting in some instances from the operation of the plan does not condemn it as an unreasonable or arbitrary method of dealing with the problem of general salary reductions or deny the equality guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Judgments affirmed. Footnotes

Footnote 1 Article 4, 7, par. 6, 1 N.J.Comp.St.1910, p. lxxv.

Footnote 2 Act of Oct. 19, 1903, Laws of N.J.1904, 1905, 4 N.J.Comp.St.1910, p. 4724 et seq., 1 et seq.

Footnote 3 4 N.J.Comp.St.1910, p. 4762, 106.

Footnote 4 Chapter 243, N.J.Laws 1909, Pamph. L. p. 398, 4 N.J.Comp.St.1910, pp. 4763, 4764, 106a to 106c.

Footnote 5 Chapter 12, N.J.Laws 1933, Pamph. L. p. 24 (N.J.St.Annual 1933, 185Ä225b).

Footnote 6 Two writs were issued. The only difference between the two cases, which were heard as one, is that in the Phelps case the employee refused to accept the reduced salary. In the case of Askam, et al., the employees took the reduced salary under protest.

Footnote 7 Phelps v. State Board of Education, 115 N.J.Law, 310, 180 A. 220, 222.

Footnote 8 Phelps v. Board of Education of Town of West New York, N.J., 116 N. J.Law, 412, 185 A. 8; Askam v. Board of Education of Town of West New York, 116 N.J.Law, 416, 184 A. 737.

Footnote 9 Freeport Water Co. v. Freeport, 180 U.S. 587, 595; Tampa Waterworks Co. v. Tampa, 199 U.S. 241, 243; Milwaukee Elec. Ry. Co. v. Railroad Comm., 238 U.S. 174, 184; Seton Hall College v. South Orange, 242 U.S. 100, 103; Coombes v. Getz, 285 U.S. 434, 441.