Barrett v. Cedar Hill Consol. School Dist.

• Decision Date: 28 June 1920
• Docket Number: 21280
• Citation: 85 So. 125,123 Miss. 370
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: BARRETT ET AL. v. CEDAR HILL CONSOL. SCHOOL DIST. ET AL

85 So. 125

123 Miss. 370

BARRETT ET AL. v. CEDAR HILL CONSOL. SCHOOL DIST. ET AL

No. 21280

Supreme Court of Mississippi

June 28, 1920

March 1920

1. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. Bond statute held to apply to consolidated district including less than 25 square miles.

Chapter 172, Laws 1918, providing that any county, supervisor's district, or school district containing not less than 16 square miles and having an assessed valuation of one hundred thousand dollars may issue bonds under prescribed conditions applies to consolidated school districts having less than 25 square miles of territory.

2. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. Election by qualified electors prerequisite to issuance of bonds.

Chapter 172, Laws 1918, and chapter 209, Laws 1918, must be construed together, and, when so construed, require an election by the qualified electors as a prerequisite to the issuance of school district bonds.

3 STATUTES. Statutes in pari materia construed together.

It is a settled rule of statutory construction that all statutes in pari materia must be considered together, and the legislative intent determined by a consideration of all such statutory pro-visions. This is true whether the statutes were enacted on the same day or not.

4. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. Election in consolidated district not, at convenient public place is void.

Section 4004, Hemingway's Code (Laws 1916, chapter 194), provides that elections affecting consolidated schools shall be held at the schoolhouse of the district. This statute contemplates that the election shall be at a public place where all electors may freely exercise their right, and that such election shall be reasonably convenient, and is mandatory and an election held at another and private place is void.

5. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. School laws Held not to deny equal protection to white and colored races; laws relating to bond issue held not to take property without due process.

The laws of the state providing for consolidated schools do not discriminate between the white and colored races, and do not deny the equal protection of the law, nor take property without due process of law, and the facts in the record do not show discrimination in its administration so as to make it operate in an unconstitutional manner.

HON. C. L. LONG, Judge.

APPEAL from circuit court of Lee county, HON. C. L. LONG, Judge.

N. F. Barrett and others, as taxpayers of Cedar Hill Consolidated School District, appealed from an order of the board of supervisors, directing an issuance of bonds to equip a school building in such district. From a judgment affirming the order, Barrett and others, taxpayers, appeal. Reversed and remanded.

Judgment reversed and remanded.

W. D. & J. R. Anderson, for appellants.

Roberts & Hallam, amici curiae.

Mitchell & Clayton, for appellees.

OPINION

ETHRIDGE, J.

This is an appeal by certain taxpayers of the consolidated school district from a judgment of the circuit court sustaining an order of the board of supervisors, ordering the issuance of ten thousand dollars school bonds for the purpose of equipping a school building for said district under the provisions of section 1, chapter 172, Laws of 1918. The Cedar Hill Consolidated School District was created by the county school board by consolidating two school districts and adding thereto certain other territory. This district was created by the school board on the 27th day of March, 1917.

In the summer of 1918 a petition signed by a majority of the taxpayers of said consolidated school district filed a petition with the board of supervisors, praying for the issuance of bonds in the sum of ten thousand dollars, the said district having the requisite territory and assessed valuation under chapter 172, Laws 1918. The board and superintendent of education canvassed the petition and the assessment rolls, and found that a majority of the taxpayers of said district had so petitioned, and thereupon the board entered an order finding said facts, and gave notice of its intention to issue such bonds in said amount, which notice was published, but no protest was filed by the next meeting. The board being of the opinion that an election was necessary under the provisions of chapter 209, Laws of 1918, notwithstanding that there was no petition against the issuance of the bonds, ordered an election to be held in the said district, and the election commissioners ordered an election to be held on the 29th day of July, 1918, at S. A. McCarley's store, within such district. The election so ordered was held at the said place on the said date, but some confusion arose as to the proper pollbooks to be used at said election, and it appears that there had been a new registration, but the old registration book and pollbooks were used instead of the new ones. It appeared, however, that a majority of all of the electors of said school district who were qualified electors voted affirmatively in favor of the bond issue. Some few voters who were not on the pollbooks were refused the right to vote, but those voting against the bond issue and those not voting who were entitled to vote taken together amounted to less than one-half of the qualified electors of the school district. The election commissioners certified to the board of supervisors that a majority of the voters voting in said election voted in favor of the issuance of the bonds. At the next meeting of the board the opponents of the bond issue appeared and contested the right to have the said bonds issued, and introduced much testimony upon the several questions involved, but the board entered an order, directing the issuance of said bonds, from which order the contestants appealed to the circuit court, where the cause was tried on a bill of exceptions and a judgment entered, affirming the order of the board of supervisors, from which judgment appellants prosecute this appeal.

It is contended by the appellants that there was no authority to issue the bonds under chapter 172, Laws of 1918, because the school district here involved is a consolidated school district, and it is contended that a consolidated school district does not come within the purview of chapter 172, Laws of 1918, but that for a consolidated school district to issue bonds it must have an area of at least twenty-five square miles of territory, under the provisions of chapter 180, Laws of 1916 (section 4002, Hemingway's Code), and that a consolidated school district is a distinct and separate system of schools from the general public schools, and has privileges which other common schools do not have, having all of the privileges of separate school districts under section 4535, Code of 1906.

The first question to be determined, then, is whether or not a consolidated school district comes within the terms and purview of chapter 172, Laws of 1918. Sections 1 and 2 of that act read as follows:

"Section 1. Be it enacted," etc., "that house bill No. 92, chapter 197, of the acts of the legislature of 1914, be amended so as to read as follows:

"That the board of supervisors of any county is authorized to issue bonds of the county, a supervisor's district or a school district containing not less than sixteen (16) square miles, or of any school district with an assessed valuation of not less than one hundred thousand dollars ($ 100,000) excluding in each case, the territory embraced within separate school district, for the purpose of erecting, repairing and equipping school buildings for the county, a supervisor's district, or a school district as the case may be.

"Sec. 2. Whenever a majority of the resident taxpayers of a county, of a supervisor's district, or of a school district containing not less than sixteen (16) square miles, or of any school district with an assessed valuation of not less than one hundred thousand dollars ($ 100,000), shall petition the board of supervisors to issue bonds for the purpose hereinbefore stated, the board of supervisor's district or of a school district, according to the direction of the petitioners, not to exceed five per centum (5%) of the assessed value of the county, if it be for the county; or of the district, if it be for a school district, said bonds to be issued in the manner provided in the chapter on municipalities."

It will be noted that the language of this act is broad and comprehensive, and in its terms excludes only separate school districts. It is comprehensive enough, and its language unless restricted by interpretation or by other statutes, would include consolidated schools as well as common schools. The law with reference to consolidated schools does not limit the territory of a consolidated school district to more than twenty-five square miles, but a consolidated district is simply the consolidated school district to more than twenty-five as held by us in Trustees of Walton School v. Covington County, 115 Miss. 117, 75 So. 833. The county school board has full jurisdiction to consolidate two or more school districts. There is no petition or procedure mapped out by law to govern their action in so doing. They may or may not create one according to their own judgment of the propriety and necessity of the case. It has been the practice to consolidate schools without reference to the area being more or less than twenty-five square miles. Chapter 4002, Hemingway's Code, simply provides that a consolidated school district containing not less than twenty-five square miles may, on the petition of a majority of the electors of a consolidated school district, and on the approval of the county school board have the tax levy made and bonds issued for the purpose therein named, and where these things are done it has the privileges accorded to a separate school district. ...