Trustees of Allegany County School v. Maffit

Bowie, C. J., delivered the opinion of this Court. The relators were incorporated by the Act of 1198, ch. 58, by the name of the Visitors of Allegany County School. Their corporate name was changed by an Act of December session 1824, ch. 4, to the Trustees of Allegany County School. The sum for which they pray a mandamus, commanding the appellee, to issue his warrant to the Treasurer, is claimed under three distinct Acts of Assembly.

Two hundred dollars, part thereof, is alleged to have been granted by the 8th sec. of their Act of Incorporation, which enacts, that — “the Treasurer of the Western Shore shall pay to the aforesaid trustees, or their order, annually, as a public donation, the sum of two hundred dollars ¹³² for tbe purposes of education, the first payment whereof shall be made on tbe first day of October nest, for the use and encouragement of the school aforesaid.” Three hundred dollars are claimed under Resolution No. 50, November session 1811, whereby it was ordered, that “the Treasurer of the.Western Shore be authorized, and directed to pay to the Trustees of Allegany County School the sum of three hundred dollars on the first Monday of October, annually, in addition to the present donation.” The residue of three hundred dollars is claimed under Resolution No. 24, December session 1831 which ordered — “The Treasurer of the Western Shore to equalize the donations granted to academies and schools in the several counties of this State, so as to give eight hundred dollars to each county, to be paid by him to said academies and schools rateably for each of those counties which do not now receive that sum.” The petitioners charge: .that “the old academy building” was found too small to accommodate the pupils, and in 1849 they applied to the county commissioners, who appropriated to their use, a lot of ground in perpetuity, of the public ground of the city, for the purpose of erecting a large and commodious academy; “that having no funds belonging to the institution wherewith to erect said building, by holding out to the citizens of the county, the rights, powers, and privileges granted them by the State, and the annual donations to tbe petitioners in their corporate character, the citizens of the county were induced to subscribe .large sums, by which the petitioners were enabled to build, and did build a large and spacious academy on said lot, at a cost of nearly $5,000,” etc.; and that the Comptroller has refused his warrant for the donations, and prays a mandamus. The answer admits most of the matters of fact charged in the petition, but denies the right of the petitioners to the mandamus, for the reasons assigned, — among others, ¹³³ that there was bo appropriation of the said sum of $800 for the benefit of the trustees to be paid to them by the Comptroller after the 1st of October 1862; that the Comptroller had no right or authority, and was under no obligation to issue his warrant for said sum of money; that the Act of I860, ch. 335, sec. 13, mates a different disposition of all funds of the State appropriated for educational purposes in Allegany County. The traverse to the answer