Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1918 [PAGE 659]

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I 9 i8]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

653

time the University indicated its willingness to again accept the services of the relator but refused to make provision for paying the relator for the time between December 27, 1916 and June 27, 1917, and informed the relator that it was not liable therefor. The relator concedes that the University had the right under the Civil Service statute to suspend him for a period of thirty days without pay, but insists that thereafter for the remaining five months it was liable to him for such salary at the price stated. The petition further avers that about the month of February 1917, the University of Illinois made requisition upon said Civil Service Commission for men for the position of carpenters at said University and that said commission certified to said University, two persons for said position who thereupon assumed and entered upon the performance of their duties as such. To this petition a demurrer was filed by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, William L. Abbott, its President, and H. E. Cunningham, its secretary. A separate demurrer was filed by the State Civil Service Commission, Auditor of Public Accounts and the State Treasurer. It is insisted by counsel representing the University of Illinois, its president and secretary, first, that the provisions of the Civil Service act of the State of Illinois do not apply to the University of Illinois; second, that if it be conceded that the University is within said civil service act, that before a writ of Mandamus could issue, the claim of relator must be reduced to judgment. It is insisted by counsel from the Attorney General's office on behalf of the State Civil Service Commission, the State Auditor and State Treasurer, first, that the fund from which payment is sought to be enforced had lapsed; second, that the relator does not occupy a position in the classified service but is a laborer in contemplation of said statute. While we are of the opinion that there is considerable force in the argument made that the relator does not occupy a position in the classified service as contemplated by the statute, and while there is also some force in the contention that the funds fromi which payment is sought to be enforced has lapsed, I am of the opinion that the demurrer in this case can be disposed of on the first ground urged by the University of Illinois, namely, that the provisions of the Civil Service rules do not apply to the University of Illinois. The act of the genera^ assembly passed in 1867 incorporating the University of Illinois provides that it shall be incorporated as the Board of Trustees of the Illinois Industrial University and that by that name and style it shall have perpetual succesr-ion, have power to ''ontract and be contracted with, to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, to acquire, hold and convey real and personal property; to have and use a common seal, and to alter the same at pleasure, to make and establish by-laws, and to alter or repeal the same as they shall deem necessary for the management or government of all its various departments and relations. The courts in construing the charter of the University of Illinois have uniformly held that it empowered the Board of Trustees to contract and be