Repository: UIHistories Project: Booklet - UI Charter of Freedom (1942) [PAGE 14]

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13 Johnson stricken after the return date and without proffering an answer of his own in behalf of the University, notwithstanding relator Johnson had been directed by the University to appear and answer in behalf of the defendants therein (Pet., pp. 27-36) ; 21. That the withholding of the compensation of petitioners Hodges and Johnson, under their contracts with the Board, by respondents was done without notice to them or an opportunity to be heard as to their rights under such contracts, and without opportunity to the Board to be heard upon its rights under such contracts as an employer (Pet., pp. 43-44 i. Petitioners' Theory of the Case. That the University is a public corporation of the same class or kind as a municipal corporation, with certain extensive powers, among which are the power to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded. The duties and functions of the Attorney General at common law and under the statutes as counsel for the Crown or the People were adverse to all charter bodies, both public and private, against whom it was his duty to move, in pursuance of the power of visitation which was lodged in the King or the People. Th< University is a legal entity separate and distinct from the State. It is not a Board, Commission or Department of the State Government but a creature of the legislature having a legal personality all its own. It has the power to employ its own counsel, as a necessary incident to its corporate life, implicit in the power to sue and be sued, plead and be Impleaded.