Lee v. Bassett

• Decision Date: 22 April 1929
• Docket Number: 27626
• Citation: 121 So. 842,153 Miss. 854
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: LEE et al. v. BASSETT et al. [*]

121 So. 842

153 Miss. 854

LEE et al. v. BASSETT et al. ^[*]

No. 27626

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 22, 1929

Division A

1. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. Order consolidating school districts without petition, assuming indebtedness of certain schools by majority of electors of remaining districts, was void and no authority for bonds (Hemingway's Code 1927, section 8744).

Order consolidating school districts without petition assuming indebtedness of certain schools signed by majority of qualified electors of remaining districts in accordance with requirement of Hemingway's Code 1927, section 8744, was void, and was no authority for issuance of bonds based on order creating district.

2. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. Proper order assuming outstanding indebtedness of districts is condition precedent to organization of consolidated district (Hemingway's Code 1927, section 8744).

Proper order assuming outstanding indebtedness of school districts attempted to be included in consolidation, as required by Hemingway's Code 1927, section 8744, is condition precedent to final completed organization of consolidated district, and is fundamental and jurisdictional, and, being void, that which follows is dependent on it for vitality.

HON. G C. TANN, Chancellor.

APPEAL from chancery court of Jasper county, HON. G. C. TANN Chancellor.

Suit by O. D. Lee and others against James Bassett and others Trustees of the Stafford Springs consolidated school district, consolidated with a proceeding by the board of supervisors to validate bonds which the district had authorized by an election. From a decree of dismissal and an order validating the bond issue, complainants appeal. Reversed and rendered.

Decree reversed.

W. J. Pack and Sam Whitman, for appellants.

Deavours & Hilbun and J. M. Travis, for appellees.

OPINION

MCGOWEN, J.

This proceeding first arose by bill for injunction filed by the appellant, Lee and others, against the appellee Bassett and others, trustees of the Stafford Springs consolidated school district, the county school of Jasper county, and the board of supervisors of Jasper county, in which the appellees were enjoined from operating a consolidated school and from issuing bonds therefor.

After the bill was filed, upon which a temporary injunction was issued, there was a motion on behalf of the school authorities to dissolve the injunction, which, upon a hearing, was sustained, and the injunction dissolved. Subsequently a proceeding was instituted by the board of supervisors to validate the bonds, the issuance of which by the school district, had been authorized by an election. Upon the day set for the hearing of the validation proceedings, by the agreement of the parties, the injunction suit was set down for final hearing, and the two causes were consolidated and heard as one case, and are so presented here. On its hearing, the court below dismissed the bill and entered an order validating the bond issue, from which decree Lee and others, complainants in the court below and objectors to the validation proceeding, prosecute an appeal here.

The original proceedings in this case were instituted for the purpose of creating a line consolidated school district, which undertook to consolidate into one district, to be called the Stafford Springs consolidated school district, the Vossburg separate school district, the Pine Grove separate school district, and the Heidelberg municipal separate school district, situated in Jasper county, together with the Fairview separate school district in Clarke county, Miss. The school boards, in conjunction with the boards of supervisors of the two counties, Jasper and Clarke, undertook to put in effect the organization of this district, and to issue the bonds therefor as provided by the statute.

There are a number of objections to the validity of the organization of the district, but, in view of the conclusion we have reached, only one of these will be considered here--the fourth assignment of error. The review and decision of the other questions raised are pretermitted. The fourth assignment of error is in this language:

"At the time of the attempted creation of the Stafford Springs Consolidated School District by the School board of Jasper county, the board of supervisors of Jasper and Clarke counties had not adjudicated the question that the bonded or other outstanding obligations of the school district being consolidated, had been assumed through the necessary petitions."

The attack is upon the order of the school board of Jasper county, which undertook to create this consolidated district. The pertinent part of the order of consolidation is as follows:

"It is further ordered that the petitions of a majority of the qualified electors of Stafford Springs School, addressed to the county school board and the board of supervisors assuming the outstanding bonded indebtedness of the Fairview and Pine Grove Schools be approved and ratified in every particular.

"It is further ordered that the Stafford Springs School shall have five Trustees."

The decision of the question raised involves the construction of section 109, chapter 283, Laws of 1924 (section 8744, Hemingway's 1927 Code), which is as follows:

"A county school district...