Jones County v. Grisson

• Decision Date: 20 June 1910
• Citation: 52 So. 629,97 Miss. 193
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: JONES COUNTY v. WADE M. GRISSON ET AL

52 So. 629

97 Miss. 193

JONES COUNTY v. WADE M. GRISSON ET AL

Supreme Court of Mississippi

June 20, 1910

March 1910

FROM the circuit court of, second district, Jones county, HON ROBERT L. BULLARD, Judge.

Grisson and others, appellees, were plaintiffs in the court below Jones county, appellant, was defendant there. From a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, awarding a writ of mandamus, the defendant appealed to the supreme court. The county school board of Jones county undertook to organize, in conjunction with the like board of Smith county, a separate school district out of unincorporated territory a portion of which district was in each of the counties. The board of supervisors of Jones county refused to levy a tax for the support of the district school and the object of the suit was to compel the levy of such a tax.

Reversed and petition dismissed.

Deavours & Shands, for appellant.

The view of appellant is, that the alleged Summerland separate school district is not and was not legally constituted. The agreed statement of facts in this case and the petition of appellees show that in the alleged separate school district there was less than sixteen section in Jones county, and the order of the school board of Jones county of date July 27 1908, on which order appellees relied, was null and void, unless there can be a rural separate school district composed of territory from two or more counties. According to the contention of the appellant, there is no authority for the organization of such a district, and an order of a county school board creating a district composed of a part of two counties, is null and void, unless there is in the county of the school board, sixteen sections of land to be embraced in the proposed rural separate school district. The creation of a separate school district is purely and solely a statutory proceeding, and whenever a separate school district is created or formed, it must be done strictly according to the statute. Nowhere in the statute law of the state of Mississippi is there any provision for the creating of a rural separate school district out of the parts of two or more counties; nor do we think that the law makers contemplated that any such action would ever be undertaken by the school boards of the various counties of the state.

We consider it a very significant fact that by Code 1906, § 4533, provision was made whereby any part of a county or counties adjoining a municipality which is a separate school district may be included in such district, and no provision is made in that section or in any other section so far as we can find for the creation of a rural separate school district out of territory embraced in two or more counties. The reason of this is to our minds perfectly apparent.

If part of two counties could be embraced in one rural school district, there is no reason why a part of three or four counties could not be embraced in the same district. Suppose as is the case, four counties should corner at the same point; under the contention of appellee, the rural separate school district might be composed by taking four sections from each of these counties; that district would be a perfectly legal district if the alleged rural separate school district about which this petition was brought, is a legal one. We can easily see the complications that would arise in case of a separate school district so composed of a part of the counties of A. B. C. and D. The Code provides that the tax levied for the support of this school district should be collected by the tax collector of the county and deposited with the county treasurer to the credit of the district for which it...