Powell v. Charco Independent School Dist.

• Decision Date: 15 May 1918
• Docket Number: (No. 6035.)
• Citation: 203 S.W. 1178
• Parties: POWELL v. CHARCO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST. et al.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 1178

203 S.W. 1178

POWELL v. CHARCO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST. et al.

(No. 6035.)

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. San Antonio.

May 15, 1918.

Rehearing Denied June 12, 1918.

Appeal from District Court, Goliad County; John M. Green, Judge.

Suit by N. R. Powell against the Charco Independent School District and others. From a decree for defendants, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Dougherty & Dougherty and G. C. Robinson, all of Beeville, and G. E. Pope, of Goliad, for appellant. Sam C. Lackey and H. W. Wallace, both of Cuero, for appellees.

FLY, C. J.

Appellant instituted this suit against the Charco independent school district and J. C. Calhoun, Norman Calhoun, G. T. Powell, T. J. Reagan, and R. E. Roberts, trustees of said district, seeking to restrain appellees from issuing certain bonds of said district which had been authorized by an election of the voters of the district. The court, after a full hearing, denied the injunction.

It was agreed between the parties that the school district was created by a special act of the Thirty-Fourth Legislature (Special Laws 1915, p. 161); that on November 27, 1916, an election for the issuance of bonds was ordered by the trustees of the school district, and an election held and the bonds voted. Bonds in the amount of $8,000 were executed and made ready to issue by the trustees. That election was declared invalid by the trustees, and another election was held on May 5, 1917, resulting in the approval of an issuance of bonds in the sum of $10,000. The last order for an election was issued on April 21, 1916, 14 days before the election was held, and 10 days' notice of the election was given. The order declaring the result of the election was made on May 7, 1916, and on the same date an order was made for the issuance of the bonds, and the law complied with as to provisions for interest and sinking fund. The total property values in the district were $371,986. It seems that a tax of 25 cents on the $100 which is provided for by law and the order of the trustees would not be sufficient to meet the interest and provide a sinking fund for the whole $10,000 voted, but it was also shown only so many of the bonds would be issued and sold for which the taxes would provide interest and a sinking fund.

After a statement of the nature of the case and result of the trial appellant has placed in his brief his first proposition which he says is "under his first assignment of error." However, the first assignment is not copied until after a statement, covering about 11 printed pages, is made, when it is copied just above the authorities cited. The first propositions, said to be under the second and third assignments of error, are followed by the third and second assignments of error. No statement is found under either of the assignments. The only other assignments of error, the seventh and eighth, are placed after the propositions, the seventh being placed at the beginning of the statement following the proposition, and the eighth at the end of the statement. In fact, all of the assignments of error are treated as being a part of the statement of the facts, and not as the basis of the propositions of law. This is not in compliance with the rules which require that each ground of error relied on in a brief shall be separately presented under an assignment of error. It was never contemplated that assignments of error should be mixed up with a statement, which should follow a proposition which should follow an assignment. The brief is not only in total disregard of the rules, but has entailed much labor upon this court to discover assignments buried in statements. No objection, however, has been urged to the brief by appellees, and, as the assignments have been correctly copied into the brief, we have considered those not violating other rules, but this action will not be considered as a precedent to guide in the briefing of cases. The rules are simple, and when followed assist the court in arriving at a conclusion as to the points sought to be raised.

The judgment is attacked, through the first assignment of error, because the notice of election was not posted for 20 days before the date of the election. In the special law creating the Charco independent school district it is provided that, when it becomes necessary to borrow money to purchase grounds and erect, furnish, and equip school buildings, the amount shall be ascertained as well as the rate of tax to be levied, and the board of trustees "shall then immediately cause an election to be held on some secular day, not a legal holiday, within twenty days after the date of ordering such election, of which ten days prior notice shall be given by the board of trustees by written notice duly posted at three public places within said district." That law was strictly complied with, and, if not unconstitutional, was sufficient to sustain the election.

It is the contention, however, through the third assignment of error, that the law is unconstitutional, because antagonistic to section 56 of article 3 and section 3 of article 7 of the state Constitution. In section 56 of article 3 it is provided that the Legislature shall not, except as otherwise provided in the Constitution, pass local or special laws, as to a number of things, among the number being "regulating the affairs of counties, cities, towns, wards or school districts." Section 3 of article 7 of the Constitution is an amendment adopted by the people in 1909, the parts added to the original section 3 being:

That such "school districts, whether created by general or special law, may embrace parts of two or more counties. And the Legislature shall be authorized to pass laws for the assessment and collection of taxes in all said districts, and for the management and control of the public school or schools of such districts, whether such districts are composed of territory wholly within a county or in parts of two or more counties."

These quotations form the parts added to the section in question in 1909, with the exception of the words "heretofore formed or hereafter to be formed," which were added as descriptive of the districts in which an additional ad valorem tax may be authorized by the Legislature. Appellant quotes the language deemed by him applicable to school districts, but omits the gist of the amendment which empowers the Legislature to pass laws, either general law or special law, without the notice required in other cases of special legislation, and in order that there might be no ground for contention that the authority was given only as to districts lying partly in one county and partly in another it describes the districts as those "composed of districts wholly within a county" and those "in parts of two or more counties." In spite, however, of that clear and explicit declaration, it is the contention of appellant that the amendment was made "looking alone to county line districts." Even if the definite description of the districts affected by the amendment had not been given, it would have been clear from the other language used that all school districts were in view, for "such" and "said school districts," of course, refer back to the districts that the Legislature is authorized to form, whether in one county alone or "parts of two or more counties."

It is clear that by the amendment the Legislature is authorized by general or special law to create school districts, to provide for the assessment and collection of taxes therein and for the management and control of their schools, and to authorize the levy and collection of additional ad valorem taxes, not only in such districts as then existed, but those thereafter formed. These extra powers conferred upon the Legislature do not in any wise conflict with section 56, art. 3, because the inhibition in that section is made subject to any exception "otherwise provided." It made provision for any amendment to the Constitution as to regulating the affairs of counties, cities, towns, wards, or school districts, giving the power to regulate such affairs. Undoubtedly the amendment "otherwise provided" for such regulation by "local or special law." The broad powers given by the amendment to the Legislature authorized the passage of the special law creating the Charco independent school district, and under the power granted "to pass laws for the assessment and collection of taxes in all said districts and for the management and control of the public school or schools of such district" the Legislature could by "a special law, without the local notice required in other cases of special legislation," authorize the assessment and collection of taxes and manage and control the public schools in the district as fully as could be done through a general law. No one can reasonably contend that the powers granted the Charco school district could not have been given through a general law, and the amendment adopted in 1909 extends the authority to the Legislature to give such districts such powers through special laws without the necessity of the usual notice required in other cases of special legislation. It may be that the desire to authorize the formation of school districts composed of parts of two or more counties was what primarily prompted the submission of...