CLAIM AGAINST TEACHER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 54, 5 March 1927, Page 11

CLAIM AGAINST TEACHER

PAYMENT OF EXTRA SALARY (By Telegraph.) (Speoial to "The Evening Post.") ■> ' AUCKLAND, This Day. A matter of great importance to school teachers was involved in the reserved judgment given for the defendant by Mr. J. W. Poynton .yesterday m :l case in. which the Auckland Education Board claimed an . unpaid portion of a refund from Mrs. C. G Forsyth, a school teacher, who counterclaimed for refunds she had made. The regulations made under the Education Act gave the board authority to pay an extra £20 a year to certain teachers. The defendant applied for this extra salary on the ground that she had a child under-14, and the request was granted. The matter was overlooked, and sho continued to receive the extra salary until the child was several years older than 14. When this was discovered the refund of the over-payment was arranged to bo deducted from her salary. As the plaintiff board was not, fully in accord as to the monthly amount to be deducted, it issued a summons for the unpaid refund, and the defendant counter-claim-ed for the amount of tho refund already made, claiming that tho regulation had been mis-read. ■ ■, "It is now admitted," said the Magistrate, "that the regulation docs not apply exclusively to tho children, but when sanctioned by the Minister is part of'the teacher's salary, arid must be paid as such. Tho plaintiff board on this discovery discontinued its action, and contends that the refunds already made cannot be recovered bocause they were made when both par-' tics believed they were due." The defendant succeeded on the counter-claim on two grounds: (1) That the Education Act and special regulation applied only to a limited number of teachers, and- tho mistake was, for certain reasons of fact, more than law, a mistake as to a private right; (2) that there was a total absence of consideration for reductions from salary, Security for appeal was fixed at £15 los, plus the amount of the judgment and costs.