Sch. Dist. Nos. 5 & 8 v. Sch. Districts Nos. 6 & 7.

• Decision Date: 06 July 1901
• Citation: 11 Okla. 72,65 P. 939,1901 OK 45
• Parties: SCHOOL DISTRICT NOS. 5 AND 8 v. SCHOOL DISTRICTS NOS. 6 AND 7.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

1901 OK 45

65 P. 939

11 Okla. 72

SCHOOL DISTRICT NOS. 5 AND 8 v. SCHOOL DISTRICTS NOS. 6 AND 7.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: July 6, 1901

Error from the Probate Court of Canadian County; before W. H. Griggsby, Probate Judge.

Syllabus

¶0 TOWNSHIP SCHOOL BOARD-- Expenditures of Funds by. Under the law of 1890, a certain township was divided into four school districts, and the township school board, in maintaining the four different schools, expended more money in two of the districts than in the other two. Under the statutes of 1893, by which each district was given a separate school board, and the township boards abolished, these same four districts remained separate districts, and each covered the same territory as before. The two districts which received the smaller appropriations under the township organization then commenced suit against the other two districts to compel them to pay to the plaintiffs a sufficient sum of money as would make all four districts receive an equal share of the revenues under the township organization. Held, the action cannot be maintained.

F. E. Gillette and John R. Goodwin, for plaintiffs in error.

Baldwin & Phelps, for defendants in error.

BURWELL, J.:

¶1 This is an action by school districts Nos. 6 and 7 against school districts Nos. 5 and 8, all of Canadian county, commenced in the probate court of that county. All four of these districts are within the same township, and form a part of the same township school organization under the statutes of 1890, from the time that law took effect until some time in 1893. The petition alleges that during the township organization, from 1890 to 1893, the township school board drew from the county treasury about the sum of $ 949.86, and that this sum was expended in behalf of the several districts as follows: For No. 5, $ 386.66; for No. 6, $ 140; for No. 3, $ 95.20, and for No. 4, $ 326.

¶2 In 1893, the school system was changed from township organization to district organization, and the territory of these four districts has remained the same, except that each is granted an independent organization. Districts Nos. 6 and 7 pray that districts Nos. 5 and 8 be compelled to refund to districts Nos. 6 and 7, an amount of money which will make all four districts receive the same amount of money under the township law.

¶3 To this petition the defendants filed a demurrer, on the grounds, (1,) that the petition failed to state a cause of action, and (2,) because there was a misjoinder of different...