Summary
In Simpson County v. Buckley, 81 Miss. 474, 33 So. 650, the chancery court enjoined the board of supervisors from violating the constitution of Mississippi by attempting illegally to move the courthouse from its location at that time to Edna, and that before such removal had taken place.
Summary of this case from Ring v. WatsonOpinion
No. 29230.
March 2, 1931.
1. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS.
Defects, if any, constituting mere irregularities in orders of county school boards creating consolidated school district, embracing territory in both counties, were cured by statute (Laws 1928 [Extra Session] chapter 43; Laws 1929 [Extra Session] chapter 16).
2. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. Boundaries of consolidated school district embracing territory within two counties, after school board of one county levied tax and school was operated for one session, could not be changed except on petition of majority of qualified electors residing in district ( Hemingway's Code 1927, section 8743).
Consolidated school district was county line school, a small part of its territory lying in two different counties. One county levied and collected tax for support of school, and school was operated for one session. The other county, however, levied no tax for support of school, but its pupils, nevertheless, attended school. Subsequently, county school board of latter district, at request of some of patrons of school expressed in election held for that purpose in part of territory within that county, passed order excluding territory within that county from school district.
APPEAL from chancery court of Simpson County; HON. T.P. DALE Chancellor.
W.S. Henley, of Hazlehurst, and L.E. Grice, of Crystal Springs, for appellants.
The Hopewell Line Consolidated School district was legally and regularly organized and was also validated by chapter 43, Extraordinary Session of 1928, and also chapter 16, Law of Extraordinary Session of 1929.
After a consolidated school levying a tax has been in operation one session, it cannot have its boundaries changed by the county school board or boards except on a petition of the majority of the qualified electors residing therein.
Section 8743, Hemingway's Code of 1927.
The Simpson County School Board attempted to proceed under section 110, chapter 283, Laws of 1924, and the order of the school board does not affirmatively show that a petition for the annexation of adjoining territory was signed by a majority of the school patrons, residing within such territory. Such a petition is a condition precedent, and renders the order null and void, as the requirement is jurisdictional. Brannan v. De Soto County, 141 Miss. 444.
Said order is also void, because the jurisdictional requirement for a petition both from the territory to be annexed and the territory to which the same is added, and an election in both of said territories was not held in accordance with the law, and no petition or election was held in the Harrisville Pearl District, to which the territory was attempted to be annexed.
Myers et al. v. Board of Supervisors of De Soto County, 125 So. 718. W.M. Lofton, of Mendenhall, for appellees.
The order of the Simpson county school board was void, as it does not state the jurisdictional facts.
The action of the Copiah county school board was likewise null and void for the reason that its said minutes did not state the jurisdictional facts.
These curative acts of the Legislature were never intended to cover a case like this.
If Hopewell was a consolidated school, it only covered the territory in Copiah county, as that was the only county that treated it as such and the only county that levied a tax and supported it. Both of the curative acts of the Legislature say that they do not apply to any case where the formation of the school district is in litigation. As a matter of fact, while at the time of the passage of the Act of 1929, Laws of 1929, this suit was not pending, but the same facts existed for its filing as did on the day it was filed.
The only limitation on the county school board to change the boundaries is that it cannot be done after the school district has levied a tax and been in operation one session.
Amite County School Board v. Reese et al., 143 Miss. 880, 108 So. 439.
There has been no tax on the property in Simpson county for to be a legal tax on a school district, it must cover the entire district, and not just a part of it.
Thames et al. v. Board of Supervisors, 87 So. 126.
The actions of the county school boards of both Simpson and Copiah counties creating the Hopewell school are void in that they failed to locate the site for the school house.
The trustees of the Hopewell Line consolidated school district and a number of the patrons of the school exhibited an original bill against the members of the county school board of Simpson county, praying that an order made by the county school board eliminating certain territory from the Hopwell Line consolidated school district and annexing it to another such district be annulled. The case was tried on bill, answer, and proof, resulting in a decree dismissing the bill of complaint.
The Hopewell Line consolidated school district is a county line school, a small part of its territory lying in Simpson county, and the remainder in Copiah county. A tax was levied and collected in Copiah county for the support of the school. The school was operated for one session; no tax for support thereof was levied or collected in Simpson county, but pupils residing in the Simpson county portion of the district attended the school. Afterwards the Simpson county school board, at the request of some of the Simpson county patrons of the school, expressed in an election held for that purpose in the Simpson county territory of the school only, passed an order excluding the Simpson county territory from the school district and annexed it to another such district.
Chapter 283, Laws of 1924, section 8743, Hemingway's Code 1927, which governs here, is as follows:
"After a consolidated school levying a tax has been in operation one session, it cannot have its boundaries changed by the county school board or boards except on a petition of the majority of the qualified electors residing therein."
Counsel for the appellees say that the Simpson county school board had the right to make the order here complained of for two reasons: First, the orders passed by the school boards of Copiah and Simpson counties, creating the school district, are void because of certain defects alleged to exist therein; and, second, no tax within the meaning of the statute was levied for the support of the school.
The defects, if such they are, that are alleged to exist in the orders of the school boards creating the district are not fundamental, but are mere irregularities, and therefore were cured by chapter 43, Laws of 1928 (Extraordinary Session), and chapter 16, Laws of 1929 (Extraordinary Session).
The school was supported for one session by taxation, which fact is not negatived by the failure of the Simpson county authorities to levy a tax therefor on the territory of the district within that county. The decree of the court below will be reversed, and a decree will be rendered here in accordance with the prayer of the bill of complaint.
Reversed, and decree here for the appellants.