Lynn County School Bd. v. Garlynn C. Co. L. Sch. Dist.

• Decision Date: 06 June 1938
• Docket Number: No. 4977.,4977.
• Citation: 118 S.W.2d 1070
• Parties: LYNN COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD et al. v. GARLYNN COMMON COUNTY LINE SCHOOL DIST. et al.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 1070

118 S.W.2d 1070

LYNN COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD et al. v. GARLYNN COMMON COUNTY LINE SCHOOL DIST. et al.

No. 4977.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. Amarillo.

June 6, 1938.

Rehearing Denied July 9, 1938.

Appeal from District Court, Garza County; Louis B. Reid, Judge.

Suit by the Garlynn Common County Line School District and another against the Lynn County School Board and another to restrain defendants from grouping, for high school purposes, two school districts, wherein the Lynn Rural High School District No. 3 intervened. From a judgment granting a temporary injunction, defendants and intervener appeal.

Affirmed.

Geo. S. Berry, Benson & Benson, and L. A. Prichard, all of Lubbock, for appellants.

T. L. Price and Joe S. Moss, both of Post, for appellees.

FOLLEY, Justice.

The appellee, Garlynn Common County Line School District No. 13 was in July, 1937 a county line district situated partly within both Garza and Lynn Counties, with jurisdiction for school purposes in Garza County. Contiguous to and immediately south of the Garlynn district is the Graham Consolidated Common School District, one of the appellants herein. The Graham district lies wholly within Garza County. Prior to July, 1937 the appellee Magnolia Common School District No. 26 joined the Garlynn district on the west and was situated wholly within Lynn County. Immediately north and west and contiguous to the Magnolia district was the New Lynn Independent School District, situated wholly within Lynn County.

On July 26, 1937, a sufficient number of qualified voters in each of the Garlynn and Magnolia districts petitioned respectively the county judges of Garza and Lynn Counties to call an election to consolidate the two schools to be held within both districts as provided by article 2806, R.C. S., Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. art. 2806. On the same day both county judges granted the respective petitions and issued orders for an election to be held in each of the districts on August 16, 1937, and notices were posted as required by law. On August 6, 1937, ten days after such elections were ordered and notices posted, the other appellant herein, the Lynn County Board of School Trustees, entered an order over the protest of the Magnolia district trustees attempting to group for high school purposes, under article 2922a, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. art. 2922a, the appellee Magnolia district with the New Lynn Independent School District to be known as the "Lynn Rural High School District No. 3".

The consolidation elections for the Garlynn and Magnolia districts were held on August 16, 1936, as originally scheduled, the results duly canvassed by the Commissioners' Courts of the respective counties and respective orders issued declaring the results to be in favor of such consolidation. The appellant Lynn County Board of School Trustees thereafter met on September 18, 1937, and entered an order rescinding and cancelling their prior order of August 6, 1937, which attempted to group the Magnolia district with the New Lynn Independent district.

On November 6, 1937, the county boards of school trustees of each Garza and Lynn Counties passed and entered a joint order attempting to group for high school purposes the appellee Garlynn district with the appellant Graham district, and as an incident to such grouping the two county boards ordered an election to be held on December 4, 1937 in each of the Garlynn and Graham districts.

On November 30, 1937, four days before the date of the last named election, the appellees Garlynn and Magnolia districts, joined by their respective trustees and a number of taxpaying citizens of the two districts, applied for and obtained a temporary restraining order restraining the county boards of each Garza and Lynn Counties, the Graham district and the county school superintendents of each Garza and Lynn Counties from grouping or attempting to group the Graham and Garlynn districts, and from declaring the results of the elections to be held on December 4, 1937, but asked no relief to restrain the holding of the election. The appellees, in their petition, asked that upon final hearing they have judgment declaring void the proposed order for the grouping of the Garlynn and Graham districts and for permanent injunction.

All parties appeared for a hearing before the district court of Garza County on January 10, 1938, at which time a petition in intervention was filed by the purported "Lynn Rural High School District No. 3," adopting the pleadings of the appellants, setting up a plea in abatement, which plea was adopted by the appellants, and several pleas to the merits. By supplemental petitions the appellees asked that the order of the Lynn County School Board of the date of August 6, 1937, be declared void. The court heard the case on its merits and overruled the plea in abatement of the intervener and that of the appellants; declared the order of August 6, 1937 void; and granted the appellees a temporary injunction; and declared the order of the school boards of Garza and Lynn Counties of the date of November 6, 1937, and the election held thereunder on December 4, 1937, a nullity. From such judgment the Graham district and the Lynn County Board of School Trustees have appealed to this court.

The appellants present only one question upon their appeal, and that is that an injunction suit was not the proper remedy to question the validity of the "Lynn Rural High School District No. 3," asserting that the court erred in overruling the plea in abatement of the intervener and appellants and should not have granted the temporary injunction. The appellants contend that the basis of the injunction was an attack upon the creation and existence of a legally existing municipal corporation which could only be attacked by a quo warranto proceeding in behalf of the State.

The validity of the acts of the Lynn...