Lone Tree Community School Dist. of Johnson and Louisa Counties, In re, 52492

• Citation: 260 Iowa 719,150 N.W.2d 637
• Decision Date: 02 May 1967
• Docket Number: No. 52492,52492
• Parties: In the Matter of the Proposed Reorganization of the LONE TREE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF the COUNTIES OF JOHNSON AND LOUISA, State of Iowa. BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF the LONE TREE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF the COUNTIES OF JOHNSON AND LOUISA, Appellee, v. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION OF JOHNSON COUNTY, Iowa, County Board of Education of Louisa County, Iowa, County Board of Education of Muscatine County, Iowa, Board of Directors of Nichols Independent School District of the County of Muscatine, State of Iowa, Marshall R. Field, County Superintendent of Schools, Johnson County, Iowa, State Department of Public Instruction In and For the State of Iowa, Paul F. Johnson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Appellants.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

Page 637

150 N.W.2d 637

260 Iowa 719

In the Matter of the Proposed Reorganization of the LONE TREE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF the COUNTIES OF JOHNSON AND LOUISA, State of Iowa. BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF the LONE TREE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF the COUNTIES OF JOHNSON AND LOUISA, Appellee, v. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION OF JOHNSON COUNTY, Iowa, County Board of Education of Louisa County, Iowa, County Board of Education of Muscatine County, Iowa, Board of Directors of Nichols Independent School District of the County of Muscatine, State of Iowa, Marshall R. Field, County Superintendent of Schools, Johnson County, Iowa, State Department of Public Instruction In and For the State of Iowa, Paul F. Johnson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Appellants.

No. 52492.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 2, 1967.

A. Wayne Eckhardt, Muscatine, and Robert F. Barclay, West Liberty, for appellants.

Robert Osmundson, Iowa City, and Russell R. Newell, Columbus Junction, for appellee.

RAWLINGS, Justice.

This is another controversy involving the reorganization of school districts.

A petition was filed for the formation of a new Lone Tree Community School District by merger of several of those then existing or portions thereof.

Involved in the newly proposed district are the Township School District of Fremont Township in Johnson County; the Lone Tree Community School District in Johnson and Louisa Counties; the Township School District of Pleasant Valley Township in Johnson County; and a portion of the Nichols Independent School District in Muscatine County.

After hearing held pursuant to notice given the interested county boards of education, convened as a joint county board, approved the proposal and established boundary lines.

On appeal to the State Department of Public Instruction hearing was again held.

Subsequent thereto the state department caused a so-called house-to-house survey to be conducted in the Nichols District.

Basing its decision in large part upon this post hearing study, the state department modified the boundaries of the new district as established by the joint board.

In so doing a portion of the Town of Nichols was included in the new district, a substantial part being left in the existing Nichols District.

Appeal was then taken to the Johnson County District Court.

The matter was there submitted for the most part on stipulated facts. The trial court held, (1) the state department acted improperly in conducting the post hearing survey and using the results obtained as a basis for its decision, and (2) in reforming the boundary lines so as to divide the Town of Nichols the department acted arbitrarily, unresonably and capriciously.

The trial court then proceeded to nullify the decision of the state department, specifically affirming and reinstating the decision of the joint board.

We affirm in part and reverse in part.

I. Standing in equity this matter is reviewable by us de novo. Appeal of Board of Directors of Grimes Ind. School Dist., 257 Iowa 106, 131 N.W.2d 802, 806.

II. The first issue to be resolved is whether the state department had lawful authority to conduct and base its decision in part upon a post hearing study.

When a dispute involving the action of a joint county board is brought before the State Department of Public Instruction, it is not an appeal in the accepted sense. Strict rules of pleading and practice are not required. Board of Education v. County Board Etc., 254 Iowa 1285, 1288, 121 N.W.2d 137.

And in the case of In re Community School Dist. of Malvern, 250 Iowa 1240, 1244--1246, 98 N.W.2d 737, we held the creation, enlargement or diminution of school districts, and the establishment of boundaries, is a legislative function being at most quasi-judicial.

This does not mean however an administrative tribunal such as the State Department of Public Instruction, in resolving a dispute involving school district boundary lines, may base its decision upon evidence secretly obtained.

Whenever an administrative agency wrestles with questions of law or policy, it is acting legislatively. However when such a tribunal makes a finding concerning the immediate parties to a controversy and others standing in the same position, it is performing a function adjudicatory in nature. See Cellhorn, Administrative Law, Cases and Comments, Second Ed., chapter 6, page 544.

In the instant case the state department was called upon to ultimately perform a legislative function but to do so by an adjudicative process.

When an administrative agency is called upon to act in a quasi-judicial capacity, such as that here involved, all parties to the proceeding are entitled to be fully apprised of the material evidence to be considered. They must be afforded a fair and reasonable opportunity to present their views. Nothing can be treated as evidence which has not been introduced or dealt with as such at the hearing. This is essential to a just and impartial hearing and to a proper appellate review. See In re Durant Community Sch. Dist., 252 Iowa 237, 248, 106 N.W.2d 670; Turnis v. Board of Education, 252 Iowa 922, 930, 109 N.W.2d 198; 2 Am.Jur.2d, Administrative Law, section 384, page 190; and Annos. 18 A.L.R.2d 554--592.

Furthermore we have neither found nor has there been cited to us any statutory authority for the challenged procedure here employed by the state department.

Code sections 275.1, 275.2, 275.4, 275.8, and 275.9 provide no authorization for any such investigation or survey.

The department attempts to give these legislative enactments a meaning and purpose neither expressed nor implied. Basically they require the state organization to assist county boards in making any studies or surveys required by chapter 275 of the Code. This is best illustrated by section 275.8 which provides in part: 'The state department of public instruction shall cooperate with the several county boards of education in making the studies and surveys required hereunder.'

Touching on that subject this court has held, once the required surveys have been conducted preparatory to adoption of a reorganization plan, no new or additional studies are required as a condition to any subsequent changes. Board of Directors v. Board of Education, 252 Iowa 1000, 1008--1009, 109 N.W.2d 218.

The trial court determined and we now hold the State Department of Public Instruction acted unfairly and arbitrarily in effecting and employing a post hearing survey in arriving at its decision without granting to all parties before it on appeal a timely and complete disclosure of the study report, including all facts relative thereto, with an attendant right to fairly and fully meet it, and present their respective views on the matter. They must be accorded this privilege.

III. It is also for us to determine whether the state department acted arbitrarily, capriciously and unreasonably in modifying the boundary lines established by the joint board. Here we allude...