People ex rel. Vautrin v. Madison

• Decision Date: 23 October 1917
• Docket Number: No. 11536.,11536.
• Citation: 117 N.E. 493,280 Ill. 96
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. VAUTRIN et al. v. MADISON et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

280 Ill. 96

117 N.E. 493

PEOPLE ex rel. VAUTRIN et al.

v.MADISON et al.

No. 11536.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 23, 1917.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Woodford County; George W. Patton, Judge.

Petition by the People, on the relation of L. E. Vautrin and others, for leave to file an information in the nature of a quo warranto against W. D. Madison and others. Leave denied, and relators appeal. Judgment affirmed.Ernest J. Henderson, State's Atty., of Minonk, and Tichenor, Todd & Wilson, of Peoria, for appellants.

Thomas Kennedy, of Minonk, for appellees.

DUNN, J.

On December 30, 1916, the state's attorney of Woodford county presented to the circuit court, and asked leave to file, an information in the nature of quo warranto in the name of the people of the state of Illinois, on the relation of L. E. Vautrin and others, against W. D. Madison and six other persons, charging them with holding and executing without title or right the offices of president and members of the board of education f an alleged township high school district known as high school district No. 121, and requiring them to show by what warrant they claimed to hold and execute such offices. A rule was entered requiring the defendants to show cause by the first day of the next term why leave should not be granted. The defendants appeared at the next term and filed affidavits in opposition to the petition, and on April 9, 1917, leave was denied, and the relators appealed.

During the pendency of the appeal the General Assembly passed, with an emergency clause, ‘An act t legalize the organization of certain high school districts,’ which was approved by the Governor on June 14, 1917. Laws 1917, p. 744. This act provided, among other things, that in all cases where a majority of the inhabitants of any contiguous and compact territory voting on the proposition have voted at any election called for the purpose by a county superintendent of schools in favor of the organization of such territory into a high school district, and when, at a subsequent election similarly called and held, a board of education has been chosen for such district, each such election was thereby made legal and valid and such territory was thereby declared legally and validly organized and established as a high school district and a valid and existing school district and body politic and corporate of this state for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a high school. The board of education acting for each such district was declared to be the duly constituted corporate authority thereof, and all acts and proceedings theretofore done, had, or performed by each such district, and the persons from time to time elected and acting as the board of education thereof, such as were authorized to be done, had or performed by school districts or boards of education thereof by the general school law of this state, were declared to be legal and valid in all respects.

The petition for leave to file the information shows that the attempted organization of the high school district was under the act of 1911 (Laws 1911, p. 505), which was held unconstitutional in People v. Weis, 275 Ill. 581, 114 N. E. 331. The organization was therefore void. No authority of law existed for the organization of a high school district except that derived from section 85 of the general school law (Hurd's Rev. St. 1915-16, c. 122, § 85), and the following sections. Organization of high school districts was, however, a lawful purpose. We may take judicial notice of the fact that many attempts were made to organize high school districts under the law of 1911, and from the unconstitutionality of that law it necessarily follows that the boards of education of those districts, in levying taxes, equipping and conducting high schools and incurring indebtedness for such purposes, were acting without authority of law. The General Assembly, in view of this situation, deemed it best for the public interest that the high school districts so attempted to be organized should be regarded as valid districts and passed the act in question, which is general in its terms, making no express reference to the act of 1911, but applying to every attempted organization of a high school district, whether in attempted compliance with the act of 1911 or that of 1895, or without compliance with any statute, so long as there had been an election called by the county superintendent of schools, a majority of the inhabitants of contiguous and compact territory voting on the proposition and a subsequent election similarly called of a board of education.

Where there is no constitutional prohibition the Legislature may validate by a curative act any proceeding which it might have authorized in advance. People v. Militzer, 272 Ill. 387, 112 N. E. 57;People v. City of Rock Island, 271 Ill. 412, 111 N. E. 291;People v. Wisconsin Central Railroad Co., 219 Ill. 94, 76 N. E. 80. The Legislature might have authorized the creation of a high school district out of any contiguous and compact territory by a vote of a majority of the inhabitants at an election called by the county superintendent of schools. There is no constitutional provision requiring a vote of the people for the establishment of a school district or prohibiting the passage of local or special laws establishing such districts. The Legislature may provide for the organization, division, or consolidation of districts, fix their boundaries, and afterward change them as it deems best for the public interest, without any petition for that purpose and without any vote on the question.

It is objected that the curative act is unconstitutional because it violates section 22 of article 4 of the Constitution, which prohibits the passage of any local or special law granting to any corporation, association, or individual any special or...