Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/300/319
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 18:02:20+00:00

Document:
PHELPS v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOWN OF WEST NEW YORK et al. ASKAM et al. v. SAME.
Argued: Feb. 4, 5, 1937.
Appeals from the Court of Errors and Appeals of the State of New jersey.
An Act of February 4, 1933, 5 premising that existing economic conditions require that boards of education be enabled to fix and determine the amount of salary to be paid to persons holding positions in the respective school districts, authorizes each board to fix and determine salaries to be paid officers and employes for the period July 1, 1933, to July 1, 1934, 'notwithstanding any such person be under tenure'; prohibits increase of salaries within the period named; forbids discrimination between individuals in the same class of service in the fixing of salaries or compensation; and sets a minimum beyond which boards may not go in the reduction of salaries. June 23, 1933, the board adopted a resolution reducing salaries for the school year July 1, 1933, to July 1, 1934, by a percentage of the existing salaries graded upward in steps as the salaries increased in amount, except with respect to clerks, the compensation of each of whom was reduced to a named amount.
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. 9 Here those courts have concurred in holding that the act of 1909 did not amount to a legislative contract with the teachers of the state and did not become a term of the contracts entered into with employes by boards of education. Unless these views are palpably erroneous we should accept them.
The resolution of June 23, 1933, grouped the existing salaries paid by the board into six classes the lowest of which comprised salaries between $1200 and $1999; and the highest included salaries ranging between $4000 and $5600. The reduction in the lowest class for the coming year was 10 per cent; that in the highest class 15 per cent. Salaries in the intermediate classes were reduced 11, 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.
Article 4, § 7, par. 6, 1 N.J.Comp.St.1910, p. lxxv.
Act of Oct. 19, 1903, Laws of N.J.1904, 1905, 4 N.J.Comp.St.1910, p. 4724 et seq., § 1 et seq.
4 N.J.Comp.St.1910, p. 4762, § 106.
Chapter 243, N.J.Laws 1909, Pamph. L. p. 398, 4 N.J.Comp.St.1910, pp. 4763, 4764, §§ 106a to 106c.
Chapter 12, N.J.Laws 1933, Pamph. L. p. 24 (N.J.St.Annual 1933, § 185225b).
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.
Phelps v. State Board of Education, 115 N.J.Law, 310, 180 A. 220, 222.
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.
Freeport Water Co. v. Freeport, 180 U.S. 587, 595, 21 S.Ct. 493, 45 L.Ed. 679; Tampa Waterworks Co. v. Tampa, 199 U.S. 241, 243, 26 S.Ct. 23, 50 L.Ed. 170; Milwaukee Elec. Ry. Co. v. Railroad Comm., 238 U.S. 174, 184, 35 S.Ct. 820, 59 L.Ed. 1254; Seton Hall College v. South Orange, 242 U.S. 100, 103, 37 S.Ct. 54, 61 L.Ed. 170; Coombes v. Getz, 285 U.S. 434, 441, 52 S.Ct. 435, 76 L.Ed. 866.
DODGE et al. v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF CITY OF CHICAGO et al.
HALE et al. v. IOWA STATE BOARD OF ASSESSMENT AND REVIEW.
GELFERT v. NATIONAL CITY BANK OF NEW YORK.

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