Smith v. Blairsburg Independent School Dist.

• Decision Date: 17 November 1916
• Docket Number: 31043
• Citation: 159 N.W. 1027,179 Iowa 500
• Parties: P. C. SMITH et al., Appellants, v. THE BLAIRSBURG INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Appellees
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

159 N.W. 1027

179 Iowa 500

P. C. SMITH et al., Appellants, v. THE BLAIRSBURG INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Appellees

No. 31043

Supreme Court of Iowa, Des Moines

November 17, 1916

REHEARING DENIED, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1917.

Appeal from Hamilton District Court.--EDWARD M. MCCALL, Judge.

CERTIORARI to test the legality of certain proceedings of the defendant boards, and praying that they be annulled. The petition was dismissed, and plaintiffs appeal.

Affirmed.

Wesley Martin, D. C. Chase and R. G. Remley, for appellants.

J. E Burnstedt, C. G. Lee and J. R. Meltzer, for appellees.

LADD J. GAYNOR, C. J., EVANS and SALINGER, JJ., concur.

OPINION

LADD, J.

The validity of the organization of the Blairsburg Consolidated Independent School District is challenged in this suit. The petition therefor was addressed: "To the Honorable Board of Directors of Independent District, Township of Blairsburg, County of Hamilton, State of Iowa." Then followed the petition in usual form, reciting that the undersigned are resident electors of the territory proposed to be included; that such territory is not less than 16 sections, and they constitute more than one third of the electors residing therein; and that the county superintendent approves the petition; and then proceeds:

"We are desirous of and do hereby petition your honorable body for the formation of a consolidated independent school district, which shall include all contiguous territory herein set out, viz.: * * * (2) that it includes all of Subdistrict Number 1, Liberty Township, Section 1, Section 2, Section 11, and Section 12, excepting the Northwest fractional 1/4 of the Northwest 1/4 of Section 2. Of Subdistrict Number 2, Liberty Township, Section 3, Section 4, Section 9, and Section 10, excepting the North 1/2 of the Northwest 1/4 and the North 1/2 of the Northeast 1/4 of Section 4, and the North 1/2 of the Northwest 1/4, and the North 1/2 of the Northeast 1/4 of Section 3, all in Township 88 North, Range 24 West of the 5th P. M. Of Subdistrict Number 6, Blairsburg Township, Section 13, Section 14, Section 23, and Section 24. Of Subdistrict Number 5, Blairsburg Township, Section 15, Section 16, Section 21, and Section 22. Of Subdistrict Number 8, Blairsburg Township, Section 27, Section 28, Section 33, and Section 34, except the East 1/2 of the Northeast 1/4 and the East 1/2 of the Southeast 1/4 of Section 27, and the East 1/2 of the Northeast 1/4 and the East 1/2 of the Southeast 1/4 of Section 34, all in Township 89 North, Range 24 West of the 5th P. M. Of Williams Township, Section 30, and Section 31, Township 89 North, Range 23 West of the 5th P. M.

"We respectfully show and represent that we reside on the aforesaid territory, and we hereby respectfully ask that all the territory situated within the limits herein described be organized into one consolidated independent district, and that the question of such organization be submitted to the voters upon said territory at a meeting of the electors thereon after due notice has been given. The above petition approved at Webster City, Iowa, this 21st of January, 1914.

E. F. Snow,

County Superintendent."

Then followed the signatures of the petitioners. The board of directors addressed, having found the petition to have been signed by the required number of electors and approved by the county superintendent, caused to be prepared a notice of election, describing the territory to be included in the proposed district as follows:

"Sections Nos. 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 33, 34, 35, and 36 in Blairsburg Township, in said county; Sections Nos. 30 and 31 in Williams Township, said county; Sections Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12 in Liberty Township, in said county; and embracing the independent school district of Blairsburg, in said county."

This included the territory of the district whose board was addressed. The contention of plaintiffs is that: (1) A board of directors of a district not included in the proposed consolidated district passed on the petition; (2) that it included territory other than that described in the petition, and issued the notice of election whether a district including other territory than that described therein should be organized; (3) that the county superintendent approved the form of the petition, but not the petition after being signed; (4) that the petition was signed by less than one third of the resident electors; and (5) that it was not filed with the board addressed, but handed to one Gardner. Section 2794-a of the Code Supplement, 1913, prescribes the procedure in the organization of consolidated independent school districts, somewhat changed since (see same section, Supplemental Supplement, 1915), and the inquiry necessarily involved is whether that section was complied with. It provides:

"When a petition describing the boundaries of contiguous territory containing not less than sixteen sections within one or more counties is signed by one third of the electors residing on such territory, and approved by the county superintendent, if of one county, and the superintendent of each if of more than one county, and by the state superintendent of public instruction if the county superintendents do not agree, and filed with the board of the school corporation in which the portion of the proposed district having the largest number of voters is situated, requesting the establishment of a consolidated independent district, it shall be the duty of said board, within ten days, to call an election in the proposed consolidated district, for which they shall give the same notices as are required in Section twenty-seven hundred forty-six of the Code, and twenty-seven hundred fifty of the Supplement to the Code, 1907, at which election all voters residing in the proposed consolidated district shall be entitled to vote by ballot for or against such separate organization. When it is proposed to include in such district a city, or town or village, the voters residing upon the territory outside the incorporated limits of such city, town or village shall vote separately upon the proposition for the creating of such new district. The judges of said election shall provide separate ballot boxes in which shall be deposited the votes cast by the voters from their respective territory, and if a majority of the votes cast by the electors residing either within or without the limits of such city, town or village, is against the proposition to form a consolidated independent corporation, then the proposed corporation shall not be formed. If a majority of the votes so cast in each territory shall be in favor of such independent organization, the organization of the proposed consolidated independent school corporation shall be completed by the election of a board of directors for said school corporation, as provided in Section twenty-seven hundred ninety-five of the Code, and when so organized shall not be reduced to less than sixteen sections unless dissolved as provided by this act."

I. The petition, it will be observed, should describe "the boundaries of the contiguous territory" and be filed with "the school corporation in which the portion of the proposed district having the largest number of voters is situated." The territory described was contiguous to that of the independent district to whose board the petition was addressed, and evidently,...