People ex rel. Funk v. Hagist

• Decision Date: 18 November 1948
• Docket Number: No. 30806.,30806.
• Citation: 401 Ill. 536,82 N.E.2d 621
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. FUNK v. HAGIST et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

401 Ill. 536

82 N.E.2d 621

PEOPLE ex rel. FUNK

v.HAGIST et al.

No. 30806.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 18, 1948.

Appeal from Circuit Court, St. Clair County; R. W. Griffith, judge.

Quo warranto proceeding by the People, on the relation of Arnold Funk, against Rayhill Hagist and others.From the judgment, the plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

Louis P. Zerweck, state's Atty., and F. E. Merrills, both of Belleville, for appellant.

House & House, of Nashville, for appellees.

FULTON, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the circuit court of St. Clair County, dismissing appellant's complaint in a quo warranto proceeding charging the unlawful and illegal organization of Community Consolidated School DistrictNo. 10 in said county.The validity of a statute being involved, the appeal was perfected to this court.

On May 1, 1947, there was filed with the county superintendent of schools of St. Clair County a petition signed by at least 200 voters residing in the territory described in the petition, requesting that said superintendent call an election for the purpose of voting for or against the establishment of a community consolidated school district.The territory described in the petition included fifteen common school districts in St. Clair County.The petition also set forth the maximum tax rates for educational and building purposes which the proposed district would be authorized to levy, stating specifically that said rates were not to exceed .90 per cent of the full, fair, cash value as equalized or assessed by the Department of Revenue for educational purposes and .25 per cent for building purposes and the purchase of school grounds.

The county superintendent of schools, in compliance with said petition, called an election for Saturday, May 17, 1947, and posted notices thereof.The election was held and, after the returns were canvassed, the county superintendent of schools declared that a majority of the votes cast at said election were in favor of establishing a community consolidated school district, and thereupon called an election for members of a board of education, to consist of a president and six members, to be held on June 14, 1947.At this election the defendant, Rayhill Hagist, was elected president and the remaining six defendants were elected members.Subsequently the county superintendent of schools designated the district as Community Consolidated School DistrictNo. 10, St. Clair County, Illinois.

A complaint in quo warranto was filed in the circuit court of St. Clair County on September 4, 1947, by the State's Attorney of St. Clair County, Louis P. Zerweck, on the relation of Arnold Funk, the plaintiff-appellant, contending that the said president and members of Community Consolidated School DistrictNo. 10 in St. Clair County were unlawfully holding and executing the said offices.

The complaint challenged the organization and legal existence of the school district in general and particularly asserts that article 8 of the School Code and certain sections thereof violate the provisions of the Stateconstitution, and that the form of the notice and the type of ballot used at the election were legally insufficient.

On October 10, 1947, a supplement to the complaint was filed questioning the validity of an election called to vote on the detachment of former DistrictNo. 82 from the newly formed consolidated district.

On May 14, 1948, after final judgment had been entered by the trial court on April 20, 1948, a second amendment to the complaint was filed, alleging a violation of the School Survey and Reorganization Act.

A motion to dismiss the complaint as amended was filed by the appellees, which motion was allowed, and the complaint as amended was dismissed.From the judgment rendered in favor of the defendants, the appellants prosecute this appeal.

Appellants first charge that sections 4and6 of article 8 of the School Code ( Ill.Rev.Stat.1945, chap. 122, pars. 8-4, 8-6) violate section 18 of article II of the constitution of the State of Illinois, Smith-Hurd Stats., in that they provide for elections that are not equal, relying primarily on what is said in the case of Moran v. Bowley, 347 Ill. 148, 179 N.E. 526.They quote the following language from page 162 of 647 Ill., page 531 of 179 N.E.: ‘Elections are equal when the vote of each voter is equal in its influence upon the result to the vote of every other elector-where each ballot is as effective as every other ballot.’The Moran case held the Congressional Apportionment Act of 1931, Laws 1931, p. 545, redistricting the State for the election of representatives in Congress, unconstitutional because it violated the act of Congress of 1911, 2 U.S.C.A. s 2 et seq., providing that districts shall be compact and contiguous and of substantially the same population; and also held that said redistricting act violated the provisions of our State constitution that all elections shall be free and equal, as the districts under the act not being of substantially the same population, a vote in one district is not approximately equal in power and influence to the vote in another.

No such situation arises in this case.There is no attempt to bestow upon classes or sections of voters a greater power and influence in elections than upon other like groups.Our constitution has not provided the mode by which the thorough and efficient system of free schools required to be provided shall be organized, nor the officers by whom its affairs shall be administered.In People ex rel. Russell v. Graham, 301 Ill. 446, 134 N.E. 57, 60, it was said: ‘The Legislature has the power to act directly and create school districts by general or special acts, * * *.It is not for the courts to say that the Legislature has acted unwisely in selecting the agencies or methods which it deems best to carry out the mandate of the constitution’.It has always been considered by this court that the legislature has full and complete power to establish rules and requirements for school elections...