Harrell v. Williams

• Decision Date: 15 December 1922
• Docket Number: 3076.
• Citation: 115 S.E. 97,154 Ga. 632
• Parties: HARRELL, SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, ET AL. v. WILLIAMS ET AL.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

115 S.E. 97

154 Ga. 632

HARRELL, SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, ET AL. v. WILLIAMS ET AL.

No. 3076.

Supreme Court of Georgia

December 15, 1922

Syllabus by the Court.

A petition for mandamus by the patrons of a public school of a school district, showing the election of trustees in accordance with the provisions of section 120 of an act entitled "An act to codify the school laws of the state of Georgia," etc. (Acts 1919, p. 288), and that the returns of the election have been duly made to the proper office, is not open to attack by general demurrer.

The provision, in section 92 of the act above referred to (Laws 1919, p. 326), which relates to the consolidation of school districts and their rearrangement, that "it shall be the duty of the county superintendent to call an election to be held in said district or districts affected," must be construed, in view of the entire section and their cognate sections, to provide for an election in the entire consolidated district, and not in one of the districts of which it is composed.

Error from Superior Court, Dodge County; J. L. Kent, Judge.

Mandamus by B. S. Williams and others against M. W. Harrell, School Superintendent, and others. Judgment for petitioners, and defendants bring error. Reversed.

Chas W. Griffin and W. A. Wooten, both of Eastman, for plaintiffs in error.

Eugene Talmadge, of McRae, for defendants in error.

BECK P.J. (after stating the facts as above).

1. The court did not err in overruling the general demurrer. The petition sets forth the facts showing the regular election of trustees in the Pitts school district and the refusal on the part of the superintendent of schools and the board of education to commission these trustees. The petition is silent as to the order of consolidation combining Pitts school district and the Chauncey school district into one school district. On its face it shows a regular election of trustees, as the statute provides, in a duly established school district, and the regular election of trustees of the school for that district. And those facts appearing and the allegations in regard to them in the petition being taken as true, the demurrer was properly overruled.

2. While the petition in this case is not open to attack by general demurrer, as ruled above, it does not follow that upon the case as made by the evidence a mandamus absolute should have been granted. It was agreed at the hearing that the allegations of the petition and the answer should be taken as true, and the evidence set forth above was introduced. Taking the allegations of the answer as true, it appears that the Pitts school district and the Chauncey school district had been combined and consolidated into one district. Section 90 of the Code of School Laws, contained in the act entitled "An act to codify the school laws of the state," etc. (Acts 1919, p. 288), is as follows:

"The board of education of any county shall have the right if, in their opinion, the welfare of the schools of the county and the best interests of the pupils require, to consolidate two or more schools located in the same or different districts into one school, to be located by said board at a place convenient to the pupils attending the same said schoolhouse to be located as near the center of the district or districts as practicable. Whenever two or more schools are consolidated as hereinafter provided, the county superintendent shall call an election of trustees for said consolidated

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