Sch. Twp. of Allen v. Sch. Town of Macy

• Decision Date: 24 February 1887
• Citation: 10 N.E. 578,109 Ind. 559
• Parties: School Township of Allen v. School Town of Macy.
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

109 Ind. 559

10 N.E. 578

School Township of Allen

v.School Town of Macy.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

February 24, 1887.

Appeal from circuit court, Miami county.Shirk & Mitchell and Effinger & Loveland, for appellant. Brown & Antrim and D. P. Baldwin, for appellee.

NIBLACK, J.

This was a suit by the school town of Macy, in the county of Miami, in this state, against the school township of Allen, in the same county, to quiet the title to, and obtain a conveyance for, a tract of land containing about three acres, and situate within the territorial limits of said town of Macy, upon which a school building had been erected. The complaint averred that the town of Macy had, at the March term, 1884, of the board of commissioners of said county of Miami, become an incorporated town, and had since so continued to be; that said town had thereafter elected three school trustees as the law required, and had become fully organized as a school corporation; that prior to the incorporation of such town its territorial limits constituted a part of the territory of the township of Allen, which had been divided into nine school-districts, in each of which school-houses had been erected at the common expense of all the tax-payers of the township; that said school-district No. 1 embraced all of the territory of said town of Macy, and other contiguous territory; that on the sixth day of May, 1882, the school township of Allen purchased the tract of land in controversy, and afterwards received a conveyance therefor; that during the year 1883 a school-house was erected on said tract of land for the use of said school-district No. 1, which had since been exclusively used by the citizens of such district for school purposes; that all the inhabitants of the remaining territory of said school-district No. 1 had been attached to said school town of Macy for educational purposes, and had become entitled to participate, and were in fact participating, in the use of said school-house and grounds thereto attached; that there was no other public-school house remaining either in said school town of Macy, or within said school-district No. 1; that the said school township of Allen was claiming the exclusive ownership and control of said school-house, and the tract of land on which it is situate, and asserting the right to sell and dispose of such tract of land, with the appurtenances, without the consent of said school town of Macy, and to appropriate the proceeds thereof to the use of such school township. Wherefore the said school town of Macy asked that its title to said tract of land, with the school-house situate thereon, be quieted, and that said school township be required to convey said tract of land to it, the said school town, for school purposes.

A demurrer to the complaint being first overruled, the school township answered, admitting, either expressly or impliedly, the material allegations of the complaint, but averring that the tract of land described in the complaint was purchased at a cost of $250, which was paid out of the special school revenue belonging to the township; that during the year 1883 the school township erected on the tract of land in question a large brick school building, at a cost of $5,000; that $2,000 of said sum was paid out of the special school revenue of the township; that the remaining $3,000 was obtained by borrowing that sum from one Charles H. Brownell on the credit and notes of the township as a school corporation; that thereafter such township had complete possession and control of said school building until the said town of Macy was incorporated, after which the school trustees of said town forcibly took possession of said building, and had ever since...