People ex rel. Mills v. Fairfield Cmty. High Sch. Dist. No. 225

• Decision Date: 22 May 1947
• Docket Number: No. 30066.,30066.
• Citation: 73 N.E.2d 292,397 Ill. 233
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. MILLS et al. v. FAIRFIELD COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL DIST. NO. 225.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

397 Ill. 233

73 N.E.2d 292

PEOPLE ex rel. MILLS et al.

v.FAIRFIELD COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL DIST. NO. 225.

No. 30066.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

May 22, 1947.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Wayne County; Caswell J. Crebs, judge.

Proceeding in quo warranto by the People, on the relation of Virgil W. Mills, State's Attorney, and others, against Fairfield Community High School District No. 225, charging that defendant, without any warrant or any authority of law, had assumed and was exercising authority and jurisdiction over certain described territory in Wayne county the same as if such territory were included within and a part of defendant district, and that it had usurped and was continuing to usurp such rights and privileges. From a judgment for defendant, the relators appeal.

Reversed and remanded with directions.

Virgil W. Mills, State's Atty., of Fairfield, and Conger & Elliott, of Carmi, for appellants.

Creighton & Kerr and Marshall & Feiger, all of Fairfield, for appellee.

THOMPSON, Justice.

This is a proceeding in quo warranto, instituted in the circuit court of Wayne county by the State's Attorney of that county of his own accord and at the instance of five individual relators against the defendant, Fairfield Community High School District No. 225, charging that defendant, without any warrant or authority of law, had assumed and was exercising authority and jurisdiction over certain described territory in Wayne county, the same as if such territory were included within and a part of the defendant district, and that it had usurped and was continuing to usurp such rights and privileges.

Defendant answered, admitting that it was and had been since January 17, 1941, exercising jurisdiction over the territory in question, but denied that such jurisdiction was illegally exercised without warrant or authority of law. The answer alleged that on January 17, 1941, the territory was legally detached from the nonhigh school territory of Wayne county and attached to defendant district by a proceeding under section 96a of the School Law, Ill.Rev.Stat.1941, c. 122, s 104a; that after such annexation proceeding, Burnt Prairie Community High School District No. 229 of Wayne, White and Hamilton counties was organized, including within its boundaries the disputed territory, so that the territory was included in the boundaries of both the defendant district and the Burnt Prairie district; that on June 18, 1942, a petition was filed in the county court of Wayne county by Roy Woodrow, a voter of the territory, setting forth the boundaries of the two districts and praying that the court determine their boundaries so that said territory would be included in only one district; that such petition was set for hearing on June 29, 1942, and notice thereof published 10 days prior thereto; that after hearing all persons resident in such territory who desired to be heard, the court, from a consideration of distance and convenience of travel of school children in going to and from the schoolhouses located in such districts, as shown by the evidence, found the said territory to be included in and a part of the Fairfield district, and by its final order of June 30, 1942, adjudged, decreed and declared the said territory to be included in and a part of said Fairfield district and not included in or a part of said Burnt Prairie district, all as provided by section 91c of the School Law in force in 1941. (Ill.Rev.Stat.1941, chap. 122, par. 99c.) The answer to the quo warranto complaint also alleged that the relators were barred by laches and acquiescence from questioning defendant's jurisdiction over the territory in question.

Plaintiffs replied to the answer. They denied the validity of the annexation proceeding and the validity of the county court decree. They denied that laches was a proper defense or that there had been any laches or improper delay. They alleged that the annexation proceedings of January 17, 1941, were void and of no effect, for the reason that on January 2, 1941, a petition was filed with the county superintendent of schools of Wayne countyfor the organization of the Burnt Prairie Community High School District, including the disputed territory, and on January 18, 1941, the said Burnt Prairie district was duly and legally organized, including the territory in question. In support of their attack on the validity of the county court proceedings, plaintiffs alleged that the section of the statute under which the same were had was unconstitutional, or, in the alternative, that its only effect was to determine the boundaries of the districts until such time as it might be determined, in an action of quo warranto, to which district the territory belonged.

The court, after a hearing, entered judgment in favor of the defendant and against the individual relators for costs. Plaintiffs have appealed to this court, the validity of a statute being involved.

There is no controversy as to the facts. They are mostly stipulated and are briefly as follows: January 2, 1941, a petition was filed with the county superintendent of schools of Wayne county, pursuant to section 89a of an act to establish and maintain a system of free schools, (Ill.Rev.Stat.1939, chap. 122, par. 97,) requesting that the superintendent order an election to be held for the purpose of voting for or against the proposition to establish a community high school within certain described territory, including the territory now in dispute, which was then a part of the non-high school territory of Wayne county. Thereupon such an election was called and held by the county superintendent on January 18, 1941. A majority of the votes cast at the election was in favor of the organization of the district, known as Burnt Prairie Community High School District No. 229. In the meantime, on January 17, 1941, a petition for the detachment of the territory now in dispute from the non-high school territory of Wayne county and its annexation to the Fairfield district was filed with the county superintendent, who, on the same day filed in the office of the county clerk, pursuant to section 96a of the School Law, a map showing said territory as annexed to and included within the boundaries of the Fairfield district.

June 18, 1942, Roy Woodrow, a legal voter in the disputed territory, filed a petition in the county court of Wayne county, alleging that such territory was embraced within the boundaries of the Fairfield district and also within the boundaries of the Burnt Prairie district and praying that the court determine the boundaries of each district, so that the disputed territory should not be included in more than one high school district offering a regular four-year high school course. The county court, after a hearing upon such petition and due notice thereof, in accordance with the statute under which the same was had, entered an order reciting that from a consideration of the distance and convenience of travel of children in going to and returning from the schoolhouses located in such districts, the territory alleged to be in both community high school districts was found to be a part of the Fairfield Community High School District and determining new boundaries of the said Fairfield and Burnt Prairie districts, so that such territory was included within and as a part of the Fairfield district and was not included within and as a part of the Burnt Prairie district.

July 13, 1942, a proceeding in quo warranto against the members of the board of education of the Burnt Prairie district was instituted to test the legal existence of that district. Judgment in favor of the defendants, finding the district to be legally organized, was entered in 1943. The relators appealed to this court, contending that the annexation proceedings of January 17, 1941, took precedence of and had the effect of rendering void the election and all other proceedings in connection with the organization of the Burnt Prairie district, thereby absolutely destroying the legal existence of that district, notwithstanding the fact that such organization proceedings were initiated prior to the annexation proceedings. January 20, 1944, we filed our opinion in that case, affirming the judgment of the lower court. We held that section 89a of the School Law, under which the proceedings for the organization of the Burnt Prairie district were had, and section 96a of the same act, under which the annexation proceedings of the Fairfield district were had, must be construed together in the light of the general purpose and object of the act, and in such a way as to...