North v. Bd. of Educ. of Cmty. High Sch. Dist. No. 203

• Decision Date: 28 October 1924
• Docket Number: Nos. 16112,16113.,s. 16112
• Citation: 145 N.E. 158,313 Ill. 422
• Parties: NORTH et al. v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL DIST. NO. 203. CRAIN et al. v. SAME.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

313 Ill. 422

145 N.E. 158

NORTH et al.

v.BOARD OF EDUCATION OF COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL DIST. NO. 203.

CRAIN et al.

v.SAME.

Nos. 16112, 16113.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 28, 1924.

Proceedings by John T. North and others against the Board of Education of Community High School District No. 203, and by Finis G. Crain and others, against the same district. From adverse judgments, defendant appeals.

Reversed.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Williamson County; D. T. Hartwell, judge.

J. L. Gallimore and Hosea V. Ferrell, both of Marion, for appellant.

H. E. Skinner and E. M. Spiller, both of Marion, for appellees.

THOMPSON, J.

These appeals present for decision the constitutionality of the Community High School District Act approved June 27, 1923. Section 89a provides that a community high school district may be established in any territory (1) which is compact and contiguous; (2) which comprises or includes a community center; (3) the limits of which do not extend more than one-half the distance between the community center of the proposed district and another community center; (4) where there will be a probable attendance of 75 pupils; and (5) which does not include territory at the time maintaining a high school. Section 89b gives to the circuit court in term time, or the judge of such court in vacation, upon the presentation of a proper petition, power to call or refuse to call, at his discretion, an election to determine whether such a district shall be established. Section 89g provides:

‘Whenever a majority of the legal voters residing within any contiguous portion of the territory embraced in any community high school district desire to be detached therefrom and added to a non-high-school district, or to another high school district they may present a petition therefor to the judge of the circuit court in vacation, or to the circuit court in term time of the county in which said district or the major part thereof lies. * * * If the board of education appears to contest the same, it shall file a written answer thereto and the judge or court shall hear the evidence both for and against the granting of said petition. * * * If in his or its opinion, the said territory, or any part thereof, sought to be detached is not properly a part of said community high school district under the provisions set forth in sections 89a and 89b for the organization of community high school districts, or if said territory, or any part thereof, is not an essential portion of said community high school district for the performance of its corporate functions, the said judge or court shall enter an order detaching said territory, or any part thereof, from said community high school district and adding the same to a non-highschool district or to another high school district as prayed in the petition; otherwise, said judge or court shall enter an order denying the petition.’ Laws of 1923, pp. 592-595.

Pursuant to the provisions of section 89g, two petitions were filed in the circuit court of Williamson county to detach two separte blocks of territory from community high school district No. 203. After a hearing on both petitions the courts entered an order detaching the territory described in each petitionand annexing said territory in both instances to the adjacent non-high-school district. An appeal was prosecuted in each instance, and the appeals have been consolidated in this court.

[1][2][3][4] It is difficult to conceive of an act more clearly unconstitutional than said section 89g. This court has held in a long line of decisions that the laying out of school districts and the altering of the boundaries of established school districts is a legislative function. People v. Graham, 301 Ill. 446, 134 N. E. 57;People v. Opie, 301 Ill. 11, 133 N. E. 689;Jackson v. Blair, 298 Ill. 605, 132 N. E. 221;Kenyon v. Moore, 287 Ill. 233, 122 N. E. 548. These decisions ar supported in principle by the holding in Funkhouser v. Randolph, 287 Ill. 94, 122 N. E. 144, and City of Galesburg v. Hawkinson, 75 Ill. 152. The same power cannot be either legislative or judicial, as the Legislature may determine to retain it or surrender it to the judiciary. If, as all the authorities hold, the boundaries of municipal corporations can be altered and changed by the Legislature in its discretion, then it is impossible that the courts can be invested with the same power. City of Galesburg v. Hawkinson, supra. Courts may determine what are the corporate limits already established, and they may inquire whether a municipal corporation has been created in...