Board of Sup'rs of Stone County v. O'Neal

• Decision Date: 16 October 1922
• Docket Number: 22700
• Citation: 93 So. 483,130 Miss. 57
• Parties: BOARD OF SUP'RS OF STONE COUNTY v. O'NEAL
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

93 So. 483

130 Miss. 57

BOARD OF SUP'RS OF STONE COUNTY v. O'NEAL

No. 22700

Supreme Court of Mississippi

October 16, 1922

SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. Election held in private residence on school grounds in no way connected with schoolhouse void "at the schoolhouse."

Section 4004, Hemingway's Code (Laws 1916, chapter 194) providing that elections affecting any question to be submitted to the qualified electors in a consolidated school district shall be held at the school-house of such district is mandatory, and an election which is held at a private residence located on the school grounds, but in no way connected with the schoolhouse, is void.

HON. V A. GRIFFITH, Chancellor.

APPEAL from chancery court of Stone county, HON. V. A. GRIFFITH Chancellor.

Bill by P. A. O'Neal against board of supervisors of Stone county. From a decree for complainant, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

Mize & Mize, for appellant.

The court will see that none of the allegations of the bill were proven, that the acts of the board of supervisors in giving notice of their intention to issue said bonds by its order passed at the special call meeting on May 26th and in calling the election to be held on June 25, 1921, at the schoolhouse, were strictly legal. The only question that merits any consideration, and being the question that the court below decided on, is this: What is the meaning of the phrase, "At the schoolhouse."

The lower court held that the election held at the teacher's home in the schoolyard was not held at the schoolhouse. The court will see that the place where the election was held was sufficiently at the schoolhouse. The law provides that it must be held at the schoolhouse; it doesn't say "in" the schoolhouse. Section 4004, Hemingway's Code. Now, could it be contended that an election held under an oak in the schoolhouse yard, thirty-five or forty yards from the school building, was not at the schoolhouse, We think not. Here, the election was held on the front porch of the teacher's home, in the schoolhouse yard, thirty-five or forty yards from the school building, in plain view of all the approaches to said schoolhouse.

Such expressions as "in," "at," "about," must be construed with common sense, and it would not be common sense to say that this election was not held "at" the schoolhouse because it was held on the porch of the teacher's home, where elections were customarily held, in the schoolhouse yard, and within full view of any one approaching the schoolhouse from any road or entrance leading to the schoolhouse. The statute does not say "within" the schoolhouse, but "at" the schoolhouse. The word "at" expresses the idea of nearness to place and is less definite than "in" or "on." Lovin v. Hicks, 116 Minn. 179. The word "at," when used to designate a place, may and often must mean "near to." It is less definite than "in" or "on;" "at" the house may be "in" or "near" the house. Waynesville v. Satherwait, 136 N.C. 226.

We contend that the above definition of "at" should be applied in this case. This case is differentiated from the case of Barrett v. Cedar Hill Consolidated School District, 123 Miss. 270, 85 So. 125. In that case, the evidence disclosed that the election was held from a quarter to a half mile from the schoolhouse; while in the instant case it was thirty-five or forty yards from the schoolhouse, on the front porch of the teacher's home, which was in the schoolyard enclosure, with nothing between, and in full view of all the roads and entrances approaching the schoolhouse, and said place being the accustomed place for the holding of elections by these people.

The case of Harris v. State, ex rel., 72 Miss. 960, is not in hostility with our contention because the term "courthouse" has such a well defined meaning as being the building itself, and the building where the board of supervisors met in the Harris case, supra, was outside the yard of the courthouse, and the door of the chancery clerk's office where the board met was outside the courthouse yard, twenty feet from the gate leading to it. The sheriff's office had a door opening into the courthouse yard but there was no door between the sheriff's office and the clerk's offices and the board of supervisors was doing a routine matter acting on a petition for local option.

Courthouse, has such a well defined meaning as being the courthouse building itself, that people going to a courthouse would not think of going in an out-building; but here where the schoolhouse is in the same enclosure with the teacher's home, thirty-five or forty yards apart and with nothing between them, and the election is held on the porch of the teacher's house, where these people had long been holding their elections, and where said place is in full view of all the roads and entrances from which said schoolhouse is approached, and where any one going to the schoolhouse to vote would see where the election was being held; we certainly think that our contention should be upheld by this court that this was sufficiently "at" the schoolhouse, to comply with the law.

No contention whatever is made that any voter was misled by the election being held at the teacher's home. This was where the elections were customarily held.

W. B. Parker, for appellee.

There was a schoolhouse in the Home Consolidated School District. The election over which the litigation arose was not held at nor within this schoolhouse. The chancellor found and held that as matter of fact there was a schoolhouse in said district, and that the election was not held in accordance with the law, and we believe and insist that his finding was and is correct.

Section 4004, Hemingway's Code, requires that such election should...