Edmundson v. Independent School Dist. of Jackson

• Decision Date: 29 May 1896
• Citation: 67 N.W. 671,98 Iowa 639
• Parties: J. D. EDMUNDSON v. THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT OF JACKSON, THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT OF ALLISON, IN LYON COUNTY, IOWA, and SCHOOL BOARDS OF SAID INDEPENDENT DISTRICTS, et al., Appellants
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

67 N.W. 671

98 Iowa 639

J. D. EDMUNDSON v. THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT OF JACKSON, THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT OF ALLISON, IN LYON COUNTY, IOWA, and SCHOOL BOARDS OF SAID INDEPENDENT DISTRICTS, et al., Appellants

Supreme Court of Iowa, Des Moines

May 29, 1896

Appeal from Lyon District Court.--HON. JOHN F. OLIVER, Judge.

ACTION of mandamus to compel the defendants, as officers of the school districts named, to levy a tax to satisfy a judgment in favor of plaintiff against the independent school districts of Riverside, rendered on the fourth day of August 1885. The defendants pleaded that plaintiff's judgment was obtained by fraud and collusion with the officers of the school district, and that it is in excess of the constitutional limit of indebtedness which municipal corporations may incur. The case was tried to the court resulting in a judgment and order for plaintiff as prayed. Defendants appeal.

Affirmed.

McMillan & Dunlap for appellants.

E. C Roach for appellee.

OPINION

DEEMER, J.

In the spring of the year 1872, the independent district of Riverside, in Lyon county, was organized as a school district and continued as such until the spring of 1885, when the independent school district of Allison and the independent school district of Jackson were carved out of the territory theretofore known as the Riverside district. The affairs of the school district of Riverside were very corruptly, extravagantly, and perniciously managed. At the time plaintiff recovered the judgment hereinafter referred to, the assessed valuation of all the property within the district was eighty-four thousand two hundred and ninety-eight dollars, and the amount of the outstanding indebtedness against it was fifty thousand dollars. The largest amount of indebtedness it could legally incur under the constitutional limitation was four thousand two hundred and fourteen dollars. In the year 1882, and for some time prior thereto, one Skartvedt was the owner of certain real estate situate within the school district of Riverside. Taxes were levied and assessed against the property, which he neglected and refused to pay, and his land was sold for taxes. Miller and Thompson, and plaintiff, Edmundson, purchased the land at tax sale, and at or about the time of the expiration of the period of redemption were proceeding to obtain a treasurer's deed for the land. Skartvedt thereupon brought suit against the school district, the purchasers at the tax sale, the county of Lyon, and the then treasurer thereof, to enjoin and restrain the execution of the tax deed. Edmundson, and Miller, and Thompson appeared and filed an answer and cross-bill against their co-defendant, the school district. The suit was based upon the claim that the taxes were excessive and illegal, and that they were levied to pay a debt in excess of the constitutional limitation of five per cent. on the assessed valuation of the property within the district. The independent district affirmed the validity of the tax and of the indebtedness. The defendant, Edmundson, also affirmed the validity of the tax and of the indebtedness, and asked to have the amount he paid at tax sale made a lien upon the land. He further pleaded that the indebtedness for which the levies were made, was in the form of negotiable bonds, which were in the hands of innocent purchasers. In his cross-bill against the school district, he pleaded the sale of the land to him under levies made by the district, the payment of large sums by him at the sales, and prayed that, in the event it should be held the taxes were not a lien upon the Skartvedt land, he should have judgment against the independent district for all sums which were held to be illegal, and not a lien upon the land, as for money had and received. The independent district, in its answer to the cross-bill, denied all liability to Edmundson. It will thus be seen that the validity of the tax assessed against the land of Skartvedt was in issue between all the parties. Upon a trial of the case upon the issues thus joined, the court found that the taxes were not a lien upon the land, and enjoined and restrained the collection thereof. It also granted the injunction against the treasurer of the county, and gave Edmundson a judgment for the sums he paid at the tax sales, amounting in all to the sum of two hundred and twenty dollars and eighteen cents. This judgment and decree was rendered on the fourteenth day of August, 1885. The case at bar is an action of mandamus to compel the officers of the two school districts named to levy and collect a tax for the satisfaction of the judgment obtained by Edmundson in the prior proceedings. The defendants' answer to the petition filed in this case pleaded that plaintiff's judgment was obtained through fraud and collusion with the board of directors of the Riverside district; and they further pleaded that the judgment was rendered in violation of law and the constitution of the state, which was well known to the plaintiff and the officers of the school district, but that they wrongfully and fraudulently entered into a collusive agreement by which all knowledge thereof was kept from this court, to which an appeal of the original case was taken, for the purpose of evading the constitution and the laws of the state; and that in pursuance of said fraudulent agreement the appeal of the school district taken in the original case was dismissed. The case went to trial on these issues with the result already stated.

The following stipulations and agreements were entered into between the parties, at the commencement of the trial in the lower court: "It is admitted of record, that the independent district of Jackson, and the independent district of Allison, now compose the territory formerly composing the old independent district of Riverside, the defendant in the judgment of J. D. Edmundson, against the independent district of Riverside. It is admitted that the independent district of Allison, and the independent district of Jackson, were organized in the spring of 1885, out of the old independent district of Riverside. It is agreed as part of the testimony in said case, that if any indebtedness of the old independent district of Riverside exists, for which the defendant districts herein are liable, the said independent district of Allison is liable for two-thirds thereof, and the independent district of Jackson one-third thereof." Now, while the defendants in this case have pleaded that the judgment procured by plaintiff in the original case was obtained by fraud and collusion, yet the evidence does not bear out their plea, and it is not relied upon here. It appears, however, that an appeal was taken from the original judgment and decree, to this court, and that this appeal was dismissed, on motion of the plaintiff therein, on the eleventh day of January, 1887. The real...