People ex rel. McLain v. Gardner

• Decision Date: 18 January 1951
• Docket Number: No. 31725,31725
• Citation: 408 Ill. 228,96 N.E.2d 551
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. McLAIN et al. v. GARDNER et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 551

96 N.E.2d 551

408 Ill. 228

PEOPLE ex rel. McLAIN et al. v. GARDNER et al.

No. 31725.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Jan. 18, 1951.

A. Austin Lewis, State's Atty., of Granite City, L. H. Holland, of Wood River, and Jesse R. Brown, of Edwardsville, for appellants.

Donald M. Buckley, of Edwardsville, for appellees.

WILSON, Justice.

The People of the State, on the relation of Donald McLain and Floyd W. Raddcliffe, brought a quo warranto action in the circuit court of Madison County, questioning the validity of Roxana Community Unit School District No. 1, and charging that Don Gardner and his six codefendants, had assumed to act as the members of its board of education without any authority or warrant in law. Defendants answered the complaint, justifying their membership on the board of education and their actions by the proceedings incident to the formation of the district and their own election. Thereafter, Wayne Russell and John O'Neil, residents and taxpayers of Common School District No. 105, and Len V. Major, a resident and taxpayer in what was formerly School District No. 103, were permitted to file an intervening petition on behalf of themselves and all other person similarly situated and, also, the school children in in school districts No. 105 and No. 103 and in Roxana Community Unit School District No. 1. Defendants' motion to strike portions of the petition was denied. A second intervening petition was filed by Harry Ringering and three others, citizens and taxpayers of East Alton-Wood River Community High School District No. 144, individually, and in their official capacity as members of its board of education. Defendants made a motion to strike material portions of the second intervening petition and, thereafter, answered the petition. The cause was heard upon the pleadings, evidence adduced, and a stipulation of facts. A decree was entered finding that the territory embraced in the district was compact and contiguous, and adjudging defendants not guilty of usurping the offices of members of the board of education. Plaintiffs and the intervening petitioners prosecute this appeal, a franchise being necessarily involved.

The Roxana Community Unit School District No. 1 was organized under section 8-9 of the School Code (Ill.Rev.Stat.1949, chap. 122, par. 8-9,) which provides in part that, upon receipt of a petition signed by 100 or more voters residing in any contiguous and compact territory having a population of not less than 2000 persons and an equalized assessed valuation of not less than $6,000,000, described in the petition, the county superintendent of schools of the county in which the territory, or the greater part, is situated shall order an election to be held for the purpose of voting for or against the proposition of establishing a community unit school district to maintain grades one to twelve, inclusive. A form of notice of election to be posted by the county superintendent is provided. Section 8-10 sets forth the form of official ballot. Section 8-12 makes detailed provision for the election of a board of education.

December 15, 1948, a petition, signed by 196 legal voters residing in the territory having a population of not less than 2000 persons and an equalized assessed valuation in excess of $6,000,000, was filed in the office of the county superintendent of schools of Madison County, requesting him to call a special election for the purpose of voting for or against the proposition to organize a community unit school district within the territory described, pursuant to section 8-9 of the School Code. The petition was presented to the Madison County school survey committee on January 6, 1949. The county superintendent, on February 21, 1949, ordered an election to be held on March 5, 1949. A majority of 218 votes out of 230 votes cast favored the establishment of a community unit school district which, thereafter, the superintendent designated as Roxana Community Unit School District No. 1, and hereafter referred to by us as Roxana District. An election called by the county superintendent resulted in the election of Don Gardner and six others as the members of its board of education.

All of the corporate limits of the village of Roxana and a small portion of the corporate limits of the city of Wood River comprise the sole territory of the new school district. Other territory has been annexed to Roxana District since its organization. The area situated in the city of Wood River was formerly a part of the Roxana High School District and the Roxana Grade School District, both of which were dissolved by the organization of the new district, namely, the Roxana District. Included in the Roxana District is a tract of land designated and described as the 'Shell Tank Farm,' situated in Chouteau township and within the corporate limits of the village of Roxana. This land was formerly a part of Common School District No. 105, hereafter called District No. 105, and, also, a part of East Alton-Wood River Community High School District No. 144, which will be referred to as District No. 144. The Shell Tank Farm consists of approximately 160 acres, located at the southwest corner of the new school district. Inclusion of this property adds to the Roxana District an area about 700 or 800 feet in width at the point where it is attached to the rest of the district, which area expands to a width of over one mile east and west and about one-third of a mile north and south. The assessed valuation for the year 1949 of the Shell Tank Farm was $1,827,395, as determined by the State Tax Commission multiplier. Uncontroverted evidence discloses that this property, at the time it was included in the territory to be incorporated in the Roxana District, and at all times since, has been unoccupied, has no families living on it, and no school children, but was and is highly industrialized property upon which the Shell Oil Company has built what is commonly known as the Shell Tank Farm.

The two intervening petitions charged that Roxama District is neither contiguous nor compact and that the portion of its area improved by the tank farm owned by the Shell Oil Company was taken from school districts Nos. 144 and 105 and added to the new district, thereby making the latter a 'land-grabbing affair,' contrived and planned for the advantage of the village of Roxana rather than in the interests of maintaining a free public-school system. Both petitions alleged that the proposed district was presented to the school survey committee of Madison County and that the committee voted to disapprove the formation of the district. Concluding general allegations of the petitions are that Roxana District was organized under an unconstitutional and void State law, without further describing the statute. With respect to these allegations, we deem sufficient the observation that the constitutional validity of the Community Unit School District Act has been sustained against numerous constitutional objections leveled against it. People v. Deatherage, 401 Ill. 25, 81 N.E.2d 581.

The principal issue made by the pleadings and argued upon this appeal is whether the area of the new school district, Roxana District, is contiguous and compact, within the contemplation of section 8-9 of the School Code. The gist of the contentions urged by plaintiffs and the intervening petitioners is that Roxana District was organized primarily, if not solely, for the purpose of obtaining valuable property, namely, the Shell Tank Farm, 'wherein there are no taxpayers or no voters * * * and without any probability of there ever being a school child living within the area to be educated,' for the new community unit school district and taking it from districts Nos. 144 and 105 to which it had hitherto belonged. The controlling question relates not to the motivating force incident to the organization of the new school district but is, instead, whether it meets the applicable requirements of the School Code, and, specifically, whether it is contiguous and compact.

Recourse to section 8-9 of the School Code discloses that the rules and conditions under which a community unit school district may be organized are...