State v. Vaughan

• Decision Date: 02 December 1889
• Citation: 12 S.W. 507,99 Mo. 332
• Parties: STATE ex rel. ALLEN, Collector, v. VAUGHAN.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

12 S.W. 507

99 Mo. 332

STATE ex rel. ALLEN, Collector, v. VAUGHAN.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

December 2, 1889.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS — CORPORATIONS — TAXATION — REPEAL OF STATUTES.

1. Acts Mo. 1863-64, p. 650, created the corporation, "The Trustees of the Bridgeton Academy." The trustees were authorized to receive all the school moneys that might be due and coming to the inhabitants of the town of Bridgeton, or to the residents of the commons thereto attached; the town and commons being then attached for school purposes. In addition to the branches taught in the common schools of the state, Latin and higher branches of mathematics should be taught in the academy. It was provided that the children of the town and commons should be charged a small fee when it was absolutely necessary in order to continue the institution; but the children of those who were wholly unable to pay should be educated free of all charge. Acts 1870, p. 167, gave the trustees of the town power to levy a tax, not exceeding 1 per cent. a year, on all taxable property of the town and commons, for the support of the academy. Held, that it was a public corporation, and the tax was legal.

2. The special act incorporating the academy is not repealed by the various acts relative to boards of education and-school districts, as they relate only to such as are organized under general laws.

Appeal from circuit court, St. Louis county; W. W. EDWARDS, Judge.

James A. Henderson, for appellant. John W. McElhinney, for respondent.

BLACK, J.

This is a suit by the collector of St. Louis county, to recover school taxes levied for the years 1882 and 1883 upon the lands of the defendant, lying in the commons adjacent to the town of Bridgeton, in that county. The agreed facts upon which the case was tried are these: The Bridgeton school mentioned in the petition, and for the benefit of which the taxes were levied, is the "Bridgeton Academy," incorporated by the act of February 12, 1864. The taxes were duly and properly levied by the trustees of the town of Bridgeton, provided the said trustees had authority to levy the same, for such purposes, upon the lands described in the petition. Opposition was made in 1876, by the tax-payers of Bridgeton and the Bridgeton commons, to the levy of a tax for the support of the Bridgeton academy, on the ground that there was no authority for the levy of such a tax; and no such tax was thereafter levied until the year 1882. The academy was, however, kept in operation during that time. Defendant's lands do not lie in the corporate limits of the town, but in the commons adjacent thereto. It is conceded that, if the board of trustees of the town of Bridgeton have authority to levy the taxes in question, then the judgment should be affirmed; and this is the only question presented by the record.

By the act of congress of March 13, 1812, certain outlots and commons were reserved for the support of schools. The legislature passed acts for the sale of these lands and the investment of the proceeds, and the appropriation of the income to the support of schools. By the act of March 21, 1863, (Acts 1862-63, p. 246,) all the commons, with the inhabitants thereof, belonging to the corporation known as "The Inhabitants of the Town of Bridgeton" were attached to the town, for school purposes. By the second section the inhabitants of the common lands have conferred upon them all the rights of the inhabitants of the town in educating their children at the public schools. The school funds belonging to the town and to the inhabitants of the commons are consolidated, and put under the management of the trustees of the town. The act says: "And said inhabitants of said commons, and their property within the limits of said commons, shall no longer be under the jurisdiction and control of the trustees or directors of any other school-district, for school purposes." The legislature, by the act of February 12, 1864, (Acts 1863-64, p. 650,) created a corporation by the name of "The Trustees of the Bridgeton Academy," to be under the management of nine trustees, six of whom are to be residents of the town of Bridgeton, and three residents of the commons. The act says the trustees of the academy "are...