City of Hickory v. Catawba County
| Decision Date | 28 February 1934 |
| Docket Number | 253. |
| Citation | 173 S.E. 56,206 N.C. 165 |
| Parties | CITY OF HICKORY v. CATAWBA COUNTY et al. NEWTON GRADED SCHOOL DIST. v. CATAWBA COUNTY et al. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Catawba County; Hill, Special Judge.
Separate actions by City of Hickory and by the Newton Graded School District against Catawba County and Board of Education of Catawba County, which were consolidated. From a judgment for plaintiffs, defendants appeal.
Judgment affirmed.
The two actions were consolidated and tried together. The plaintiff in each case applied for a writ of mandamus to compel the defendants to assume payment of the school building and equipment indebtedness of the respective plaintiffs and to compel the defendant Catawba county to levy an ad valorem tax on the taxable property of the county to pay such indebtedness, with the interest thereon, as it becomes due and payable.
Pleadings were filed, a jury trial was waived, and, upon the evidence introduced, the court found the following facts:
1. The defendant Catawba county, acting under article 9, § 3, of the Constitution of North Carolina, providing that "each county *** shall be divided into a convenient number of districts, in which one or more public schools shall be maintained at least six months in every year," and section 5467 of the Consolidated Statutes Supp. 1924 of North Carolina, providing that "school buildings, properly lighted and equipped *** are necessary in the maintenance of a six-months school term," from time to time and in school districts established throughout the county other than special charter districts, erected and equipped numerous public school buildings at a cost in excess of $500,000 which was and is represented by bonded and other indebtedness of the county and which is being paid through county-wide taxation.
2. At the time these consolidated actions were instituted and for some years prior thereto, the public schools of the city of Hickory were operated by a board of trustees of Hickory special charter school district, the boundaries of such district including all territory within and some territory without the corporate limits of the city of Hickory; and the plaintiff Newton graded school district was and had been operating as a special charter school district, its boundaries including territory without as well as all territory within the corporate limits of the city of Newton.
3. Subsequent to the creation of said special charter districts and for the purpose of erecting and equipping public school buildings therein for the constitutional six-month term, the defendant county of Catawba, having failed to provide such buildings, the plaintiff city of Hickory from time to time issued and sold its municipal school bonds, and, from the proceeds thereof, erected and equipped two public school buildings for colored children and four public school buildings for white children in said district, and its co-plaintiff from time to time and for a similar purpose in Newton graded school district issued and sold its school bonds and from the proceeds of such sales erected and equipped one public school building for colored children and two public school buildings for white children in said latter named district. A considerable portion of the indebtedness created by said bond issues has been liquidated by the collection of a tax levied in said districts for the purpose and of said issues there are now outstanding and yet to mature bonds against the city of Hickory in the principal sum of $267,000, and against the Newton graded school district in the principal sum of $64,000.
4. In addition to the aforesaid two special charter districts there were also established in said county of Catawba five other special charter districts, to wit: Catawba, Longview Maiden, West Hickory, and Conover, and said five districts for the purpose of obtaining school buildings necessary for the six-month school term issued and sold school bonds of said districts and on which there was due, at the time next hereinafter referred to, the principal sum of $179,000.
5. The defendant Catawba county, in addition to constructing and equipping public schools in local and nonlocal tax districts throughout the county and levying a county-wide tax to pay therefor as aforesaid, on or about the ------- day of -------, 19----, and pursuant to statute authorizing the board of education and county commissioners to include in debt service the indebtedness "of all districts," took over and assumed school bonds of said five special charter districts in the amount of $179,000, and said districts surrendered their special charters and conveyed their school property to the board of education of Catawba county.
6. On the 3d day of April, 1933, the plaintiffs requested that the defendants take over and assume payment of the outstanding bonds issued by them for constructing school buildings in said districts as aforesaid; the defendant Catawba county, acting by and through its commissioners, inquired of plaintiffs if they would be willing to surrender their special charters and convey their school properties to the defendant board of education, if the county should agree to assume said bonds, and the plaintiffs replied that they would not. The defendant Catawba county would have assumed said bonds, and, on trial of this cause, through its counsel, states that it will now assume said bonds, if the plaintiffs would agree to surrender their special charter rights and convey their school properties to the defendant county board of education.
7. By virtue of the School Machinery Act of 1933 (c. 562), the said Hickory and Newton special charter districts, in so far as the operation of the public schools therein is concerned, were declared nonexistent, and the public schools of the territory formerly embraced in such districts, with those of other territory thereto added by the state school commission, are now operated and managed by trustees of city administrative units and as a part of the state general and uniform system of public schools.
8. The Hickory and Newton special charter districts contain approximately 50 per cent. of the population, as well as about one-half in valuation of all taxable property in said county, and the taxpayers of said two districts, in addition to having paid the greater portion of the indebtedness incurred by said districts in erecting and equipping public schools therein for the six-month school term, and paying an annual levy of 19 cents on each $100 of taxable property toward liquidation of the balance of said indebtedness, have been and now are required to pay approximately one-half of the indebtedness incurred by the county in erecting schools in districts other than Hickory and Newton, as well as about one-half of the bonded indebtedness of said five special charter districts which was assumed by the county.
9. The bonds issued by plaintiffs, respectively, do not exceed or equal 5 per cent. of the taxable property within said districts, respectively, nor do they with the school building and equipment indebtedness of the county of Catawba exceed 5 per cent. of the taxable valuation of properties within said county.
10. The county of Catawba has not provided any school buildings in the Hickory and Newton districts for the six-month school term, and those erected and equipped therein by said districts were, and are, necessary and proper for the constitutional six-month school term, and those erected and equipped therein by said districts were, and are, necessary and proper for the constitutional six-month school term; the buildings in said two districts, on an average, are no more expensive than those erected by the defendants throughout Catawba county.
11. These actions were instituted in April, 1933, and the plaintiffs had no knowledge of the defendants' assumption of the indebtedness of said five special charter districts until after the first Monday in September, 1931. These actions are not barred by any statute of limitations.
Upon the foregoing facts the court rendered the following judgment:
The court being of opinion that the Constitution and laws of the state impose upon the counties the mandatory duty of constructing and maintaining public school buildings for the six-month school term, and that, therefore, it is proper for, and the duty of, the county of Catawba to assume the obligations heretofore incurred by the Hickory and New-ton school districts in constructing and equipping schools for the six-month term; and being of further opinion that if the statute with reference to the assumption by the county of the indebtedness of all school districts is discretionary, then, under the facts in these cases, that it would constitute an abuse of discretion for the commissioners of Catawba county to assume the indebtedness of five special charter districts and exclude the Hickory and Newton districts; therefore,
It is ordered and adjudged by the court that the defendants be, and they are hereby commanded to assume payment of the $267,000 of school building and equipment indebtedness of plaintiff city of Hickory; that said defendants be, and they are hereby commanded and required to assume payment of the $64,000 of school building and equipment indebtedness of the plaintiff Newton graded school district; and the defendant Catawba county is hereby commanded to levy such county-wide tax upon the taxable property within the county as may be necessary to pay said indebtedness with interest as same falls due.
For the purpose of identification, the bonds and indebtedness of the city of Hickory referred to above and hereby adjudged to be obligations of Catawba county are as follows:
Amount
Issued by
Rate of Int.
Date...
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