Lewis v. Bateman

• Decision Date: 15 August 1903
• Docket Number: 1464
• Citation: 73 P. 509,26 Utah 434
• Court: Utah Supreme Court
• Parties: LEWIS LEWIS, Appellant, v. J. T. BATEMAN and BENJAMIN BATES, Respondents

73 P. 509

26 Utah 434

LEWIS LEWIS, Appellant, v. J. T. BATEMAN and BENJAMIN BATES, Respondents

No. 1464

Supreme Court of Utah

August 15, 1903

Appeal from the Fourth District Court, Utah County.--Hon. Thomas Marioneaux, Judge.

Action against the defendants, as trustees of the Alpine school district, to restrain them from permitting the public schoolhouse, the property of the district, to be used for public and private dances. From a judgment in favor of the defendants, the plaintiff appealed.

REVERSED.

J. W N. Whitecotton, Esq., for appellant.

M. M Warner, Esq., and D. D. Houtz, Esq., for respondents.

McCARTY J., delivered the opinion of the court. BASKIN, C. J., and BARTCH, J., concur.

OPINION

McCARTY, J.,

STATEMENT OF FACTS.

The plaintiff, who is a resident and taxpayer in the Alpine school district, Utah county, commenced this action against two of the school trustees of said district to restrain them from permitting the public schoolhouse, the property of the district, to be opened to and used for public and private dances. The complaint, in part, alleges that the seats in the schoolhouse are securely fastened to the floor by means of screws, and that the defendants, as trustees, threaten to open the schoolhouse and permit the same to be used as a dance hall for public and private dances, and, in order to render the rooms and floors convenient for dances, threaten to permit the seats in the schoolhouse to be taken up and temporarily removed therefrom, thereby interfering with the seating of the schoolhouse; that R. N. Bennett, the third trustee of said school district, is not made a party defendant because he is not co-operating in the wrongs complained of. The defendants, by their answer, "admit that they threaten to open said schoolhouse and permit the same to be used for said dances by the young people of the school district, and admit that they have threatened and that it is their intention to temporarily remove the seats in said schoolhouse for said purpose." One of the defendants testified at the trial as follows: "If we should have a dance in this hall [referring to one of the rooms in the schoolhouse], we propose to stack the seats up in the east end of the hallway, inside the building upstairs, outside the room, and in one of the anterooms--to stack them up there one above the other. . . . The seats are built with ink wells, and we propose to just leave the ink wells in their place." The record shows that, when the desks are slightly tipped, ink spills from the inkstands on the desks, and that it would be a difficult matter to remove the seats from the rooms where they are fastened without spilling the ink from the inkstands. The court found the facts in the case substantially as alleged in the complaint and admitted in the answer, and further found that the schoolhouse mentioned "is necessarily and regularly used during the daytime for school purposes." The court entered judgment for the defendants, and dismissed plaintiff's complaint, from which judgment he appeals to this court.

McCARTY, J.--After stating the facts, delivered the opinion of the court.

The only question involved in this case is, have the trustees of a school district the legal right and power to permit a public schoolhouse, which is the property of such district and which is used for school purposes, to be used for holding public and private dances--a use which is in no way connected with the school, and which would not promote or advance its interests, but, on the contrary, the effect if any, would necessarily be inimical and detrimental to schools? Section 1822, Revised...