Case ID: ohio-st_63/html/0341-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court :", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The State of Ohio ex rel. The Attorney General v. The Mt. Hope College Company.
    
      trustees of educational institution — Sign displomas in blanlc — • Officer sells them and confers degrees — Dissolution of corporation required.
    
    When the trustees of an educational institution, incorporated under the laws of this state, sign diplomas in blank and leave them within the control of one of its officers who sells them, and thus confers degrees without regard to merit, there is such a misuse of the power conferred as requires the dissolution of the corporation.
    (Decided November 13, 1900.)
    In Quo Warranto :
    The attorney general filed a petition to oust the defendant of its franchise upon the ground now insisted upon that such franchise has been abused and misused. The grounds specified in the petition are sufficiently indicated in the following abstract of the report of Robert H. Day, Esq., to whom the cause was referred, after issue joined, for the purpose of taking and reporting the testiinony with his findings of fact and conclusion of law: That report condensed shows that the defendant was incorporated as a corporation for profit on the 23rd day of January, 1893, for the general purposes, as alleged in its certificate of incorporation, of promoting education, religion, morality, et cetera. Shortly after its incorporation it proceeded to conduct a college called Mt. Hope College, at Rogers, in Columbiana county, employing for that purpose teachers, and receiving and graduating students; that on or about the 11th day of December, 1897, it entered into a contract with one A. A. Galbreath by which it leased the college to him for a term of five years for an annual rental of one hundred and eighty dollars, the property to be used for school purposes, to be conducted under the management of said Galbreath as president, he to receive all incomes from tuitions and diplomas and to pay all expenses of the operation of the college. Under said contract Galbreath conducted the institution up to the filing of this suit, maintaining a number of de-. partments at least in name, that it included a “Home Study Department” which was conducted as follows: Pupils who could not arrange to pursue their studies as residents of Rogers were invited to matriculate in the institution and send by letter to the principal a statement of what studies they had pursued and what degree they desired; in reply to which the student was given a grade and informed as to the amount of work necessary to secure his degree, together with the necessary fees which should be paid before the diploma was granted and the degree conferred. The post graduate course was conducted largely in the same way; a list of studies was submitted to the applicant and he notified the principal of those which lie had pursued, what grades if any he had from another school or college, upon consideration of which the defendant would confer upon him such degree as the applicant desired, upon the payment of fees and the performance of certain conditions. If the applicant had attended a school whose standard warranted it, a degree would be conferred without further requirement by the defendant except the occasional writing of a thesis or digesting of a book. No records were kept of the operation of the college since April, 1898, by the trustees or the faculty, of the students attending the college, nor of their classification, standing or work in said college, nor of the degrees conferred, except as the same were kept in a private ledger in the control of said Galbreath. Prior to that date occasional records had been kept. The board of trustees did not authorize nor organize the so-called “Home Study Department” established by Galbreath, but did sign diplomas with full knowledge that they were to be used in such department. They knew of its existence from the catalogue and from a publication called “The Mount Hope Anchor.” The records of the board of trustees do not show that any curriculum was ever adopted. Students were admitted to all departments of the college as applicants for degrees upon their own statement as to the studies which they had pursued, and sometimes upon the grades received from other schools, but nowhere does it appear that any entrance examination was ever required. The diplomas were granted and degrees conferred in the “Home Study Department” upon examination of the applicant by examiners appointed at or near the home of the applicant. In the post graduate course degrees were conferred without examination, but upon the preparation of a digest of some book or the writing of a thesis and in some instances in both departments the applicant received his degree upon the payment of fees and a promise to do work in the future. Such diplomas were signed and degrees conferred by the board of trustees upon the verbal request of Galbreath and sometimes such diplomas were signed in blank to be afterwards filled out. No grade or statement of the standing of the applicant or his accomplishments was submitted to the trustees, nor was there any vote or record of any faculty proceedings communicated to the board. That, one Chester Ralston, who had secured from Oberlin College the decree of M. A., asked the requirements of Mount Hope College for the degree of Ph. D. In response to which Galbreath replied, under date of September 9, 1898, that he would confer the degree of Ph. D., upon the following conditions: First, that the applicant write a thesis on some subject to be selected by himself, and to contain at least ten thousand words. Second, that he mail his photograph from which a cut was to be made for use in the college paper. Third, that he send his biography for publication. Fourth, that he send a list of names and addresses to whom should be sent sample copies of the journal containing his biography and announcement of his graduation from said college. Fifth, that he pay a matriculation fee of $5.00, a fee of $5.00 when his thesis was ready for examination; a fee of $5.00 when he sent his biography and picture; a fee of $5.00 when the list of names to whom should be sent a catalogue of the publications in question, and lastly a fee of $5.00 when his diploma was ordered, making a total of $25.00. Should he desire, the further offer was made, that his diploma and degree could be secured at once by payment of the fees in advance, and upon the condition that he could comply with the terms stated within six months from date. Said Ralston did not accept the said proposition. On November 12, 1899, said A. A. Galbreath, as president of Mount Hope College, received from Thomas Erskin Wilson, |25.00in full payment of fees for post-graduate course leading to a degree of A. M.; said degree was conferred forthwith upon condition that the applicant perform the work for such degree, within six months. That other colleges of the state of Ohio, composing-the Ohio College Association, require an entrance examination or the certificate of an approved high school, or its equivalent, in special preparatory training, before allowing a student to enter as an applicant for a baccalaureate degree, and then require four years’ study, the last year of which must be spent at the school conferring the degree and the rest at some-school of recognized standing, or show a fitness by examination to be admitted to the senior year’s work that the master’s degree is conferred by not less than one and in some cases two-years’ work after receiving-the baccalaureate degree, and some colleges require at least one year’s work, and in certain colleges all must be resident work. That every college should have enough apparatus to do two years’ scientific laboratory work in order to properly teach the sciences. That degrees are conferred by a formal vote of the board of trustees upon the formal recommendation of the faculty, certifying to the accomplishment of the student and to his merit and as deserving such degree, all of such proceedings are duly made matter of record -by both faculty and board of trustees, which are separate and distinct organizations. That a list, of students in attendance at college should be kept,, also their classification and grading in order to properly determine their qualification as applicants for degrees, and that all work leading to a degree should be completed before the same is conferred. It further appears that the defendant admitted with great freedom as candidates for the degrees all those who ■claimed to have special fitness and standing, without subjecting them to any examination, granting diplomas and conferring degrees without any test of the scholarship and sometimes upon the promise that the degree should be earned by future work.
    As his conclusion of law the master reports that the defendant should be ousted of its right to be a corporation.
    
      J ohn M. Sheets, attorney general, and J. E. Todd, assistant attorney general, for the plaintiff.
    
      N. B. Billingsly and L. T. Farr, for defendant.
   By the Court :

It is not.supposed by any member of the court that the state charters institutions of learning with a view to authorizing the reprehensible practices of which the defendant has been guilty. Indeed its counsel do not attempt to show that its conduct has been consistent with the purposes of its organization. The only question of doubt is whether it should be ousted of the power to confer degrees fraudulently, or of its right to be a corporation. The former judgment is insisted upon because of the large responsibility of Galbreath for the fraudulent exercise of the powers of the defendant, and because the trustees demanded his resignation when the petition in this case informed them as to his bad character and misconduct.

But a consideration of all the facts shown by the evidence and found by the master leads to the conelusion that the trustees themselves have been culpably negligent, and that the corporate powers of the defendant are, in their hands, liable to grave abuses. Moreover, if an institution of learning is to be maintained at Rogers, it should be relieved of the odium which is attached to the defendant. A judgment ousting the defendant of its right to be a corporation will be entered and so executed as not to interfere with any legitimate educational work which it may now be doing.

Judgment of ouster.