Cook v. Consolidated School Dist. of Truro in Madison and Warren Counties
| Decision Date | 14 June 1949 |
| Docket Number | 47401. |
| Citation | 38 N.W.2d 265,240 Iowa 744 |
| Parties | COOK et al. v. CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DIST. OF TRURO IN MADISON AND WARREN COUNTIES et al. STATE ex rel. COOK et al. v. CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DIST. OF TRURO IN MADISON AND WARREN COUNTIES ET AL. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from District Court, Clarke County; Geo. A. Johnston Judge.
Wisdom & Wisdom, of Des Moines, for appellants.
R E. Killmar and Ward W. Reynoldson, of Osceola, for appellees.
The defendant, is a consolidated independent school district which, at the inception of the proceedings involved herein, contained approximately sixty sections of land in the counties of Madison, Warren and Clarke. While it is designated in the title of the case as 'The Consolidated School District, etc.,' it also in the record calls itself 'The Consolidated Independent School District, etc.,' and the petitions which it prepared for circulation among, and signing by, the electors, were addressed to the 'President and Board of Directors of the Independent School District of Truro, counties of Madison, Warren and Clarke.' The important fact is, that it is a consolidated school district and was no doubt so organized. We think it may also be called and is a consolidated independent school district. For brevity, and to distinguish it from any other school district, we will speak of it as the consolidated district.
The geography of the situation will be helpful. Clarke County lies directly south of and abuts on the east half of Madison County and the west half of Warren County. The northeast corner of Washington township in Clarke County, and the southeast corner of Ohio township, in Madison County, and the southwest corner of Virginia township, in Warren County, all converge and coincide at the same point. The consolidated district has an irregular boundary and sprawls over much territory. Considerable part of which was annexed to the original district.
The school building is in the town of Truro--population about 400. The town occupies parts of sections 15 and 16 in Ohio township and it is due north of and about three or four miles distant from the north line of sections three and four in Washington township in Clarke County. The district occupies a part of South township which lies just north of Ohio township in Madison County, and part of Walnut township just west of Ohio township. In 1938 the Independent School District of Broadhorn in Warren County containing sections 5, 6, 7 and 8 in Virginia township became a part of the defendant district, through the concurrent action of the two boards of directors. Litigation involving the annexation is reported in Peterson v. Independent School Dist., 227 Iowa 110, 287 N.W. 275, and in Peterson v. Swan, 231 Iowa 745, 2 N.W.2d 70. The northwest forty acres of section 19 in Virginia twp. of Warren County was also attached to the defendant district.
Sometime later the defendant district, under the procedure prescribed by what is now chapter 276, Code of 1946, I.C.A., pertaining to consolidated school districts, sought to annex territory in sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12 in Madison township lying just west of Washington township in Clarke County. The Madison school township resisted the proceedings and the county boards of education of Madison, Warren and Clarke counties in joint session dismissed the petition for annexation. In February 1946 the litigants compromised the controversy, and by concurrent action of the respective boards of the two districts four and one-half sections became a part of the consolidated district. The figure below is a tracing from Exhibit 6. The uppermost line of the tracing represents a part of the boundary between Madison and Clarke Counties. The extreme right of the tracing represents the north-south boundary between Madison and Washington townships in Clarke County. The shaded portion shows the part annexed by the defendant district. The unshaded portion remains a part of Madison School Township.
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Section 276.20, Code of 1946, I.C.A., provides that when territory is taken from a school corporation to form a consolidated school corporation the remaining sections 'shall be so situated as to form a suitable corporation'.
In February, 1947, the defendants, by an election proceeding such as was used in the proceeding before us, annexed parts of sections 34 and 33 of Walnut township, in Madison County.
The land which the defendants are attempting to annex in the appeal before us are sections 1, 2, 11 and 12, which comprise sub-district No. 1, and the east half of sections 3 and 10, which are a part of sub-district No. 2, all in Washington School township in Clarke County.
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The rough plat here shown is improvised from exhibits and shows the territory involved. The top or north line of the plat is part of the boundary between Madison and Clarke Counties. The heavy black mark extending north and south a quarter of a mile east of the west line of sections 2 and 11 represents the road known as County Trunk S. It is an allweather road surfaced with crushed stone and extends from Truro south until it joins Primary Highway 69 about a halfmile north of Osceola. The other parallel lines on the plat indicate unimproved, dirt roads, not to permanent grade which are impassable in wet weather except with horse-drawn vehicles. The plaintiffs live or own land in the east part of sub-district No. 1, and County Trunk S over which the school bus of the defendant district travels to the central school at Truro is of little benefit to them in bad weather because of their difficulty in reaching it. This testimony respecting the dirt roads is not disputed.
Prior to February 27, 1947, the defendants prepared typewritten petitions directed to the president and board of directors of defendant district asking them to call a special election in the defendant district and in the above-described territory in Washington township, to submit to the voters residing therein the propositon: 'Shall an independent school district be formed consisting of the present School District of Truro, in Madison, Warren and Clarke Counties, in the State of Iowa (within which is included the town of Truro having a population of more than 100 residents), and the territory comprising sections 1, 2, 11, 12 and the east half of sections 3 and 10 of Twp. 73 N.R. 26 west of the 5th P.W. in Clarke County, Iowa?' These petitions were circulated in the town of Truro and the territory contiguous thereto, including the territory in Washington township. Twelve resident electors of the town of Truro and 238 resident electors of contiguous territory signed such petitions all on the 27th and 28th days of February, 1947. They were filed on said dates with the secretary of the defendant district. Each of its five directors, having waived 'all notice of the time, place and purpose of a special meeting', met at the school building in Truro and canvassed the petitions. The board found that one petition was signed by eleven resident voters of the town of Truro, which had a population of over 100, and that the petition was a sufficient compliance with section 274.23 of the 1946 Code, I.C.A. The board then canvassed three other petitions of 238 signers, who represented themselves as 'electors residing in the territory above-described, including territory both within and without said present school district of Truro, and outside the town of Truro, and that we constitute a majority of all the electors residing in the territory above-described outside said town:' The board found the signers were a majority of the resident electors in the territory described, apparently including the additional sections in Washington township. The board at this meeting fixed the election for March 17, 1947, and directed the secretary to post proper notices thereof. No notice was published as provided by section 276.11, Code of 1946, I.C.A. In these proceedings, which were for the purpose of extending the limits of anexisting consolidated independent school district, the board followed the provisions of sections 274.23 and 274.24, Code of 1946, I.C.A., for the original 'formation' of an independent city, town, or village, school district, with contiguous territory, and disregarded statutory requirements for establishing or extending a consolidated independent district.
On March 11, 1947, plaintiffs filed their petition for an injunction against the proceedings of defendants. On March 14, 1947, the defendants petitioned the Supreme Court of Iowa against the plaintiffs herein and District Judge Miles for a writ of prohibition restraining the latter from proceeding under the petition for injunction filed in his court by the plaintiffs herein. On March 14, 1947, Chief Justice Wennerstrum ordered a writ of prohibition to issue directing Judge Miles not to enjoin the special election on March 17, 1947, but permitting him to proceed with the determination of any other issues involved in the injunction suit. On the following day, on stipulation of the parties to the evidence, and that the status quo of the existing school districts in Washington township should be preserved irrespective of the outcome of the election, Judge Miles made such a restraining, order against the defendants.
The school election was held March 17, 1947, with polls open from 12 o'clock noon to 7 o'clock P.M., in accordance with five notices posted in the existing territory of the district and four posted in the territory sought to be added. The election records before us and the testimony establishes that the proposition voted on carried 17 to 0 in the town of Truro, 21 to 13 in the new territory to be added, and 11 to 0 in...
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