Smith v. Ray
| Decision Date | 21 April 1948 |
| Docket Number | 31123.,31115 |
| Citation | 149 Ohio St. 394,79 N.E.2d 116 |
| Parties | SMITH et al. v. RAY et al. (two cases). |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
Under Section 4831 et seq., General Code (120 Ohio Laws, 509 et seq.), the power of the state Superintendent of Public Instruction was limited to approval or modification of a plan submitted by a county board of education for the territorial organization of school districts within the particular county; and where the superintendent by his final action substituted a new and different plan of territorial organization for the one proposed and submitted by a county board, he exceeded the authority conferred upon him by statute.
Appeals from Court of Appeals, Shelby County.
These two appeals involve the same question. They grow out of a suit for an injunction filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Shelby county in October of 1944, by which it was sought inter alia, to restrain the Board of Education of the Shelby County School District, an appellant herein, from putting into operation a plan for the territorial organzation of the school districts of Shelby county, which plan appellants claim was adopted in conformity with Section 4831 et seq General Code, 120 Ohio Laws, 509 et seq., in effect at that time.
Upon motion made at the conclusion of the evidence offered by those seeking the injunction, the trial court dismissed the action for injunctive relief and entered judgment for the defendants.
On appeal to the Court of Appeals, that court reversed that judgment and ordered the issuance of a mandate to the Court of Common Pleas instructing it to grant the injunction prayed for.
The controversy is in this court for decision on the merits following the allowance of motions to require the Court of Appeals to certify its record.
Hugh S. Jenkins, Atty. Gen., and R. Brooke Alloway, of Columbus, for appellant Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Harry K. Forsyth, of Sidney, and Knepper, White & Dempsey, of Columbus, for appellant Board of Education of Shelby County School District.
Philip C. Ebeling, of Dayton, Cummins & Boller and R. E. Boller, Jr., all of Sidney, for appellees.
On January 15, 1944, the Board of Education of the Shelby County School District adopted a plan of territorial organization for the various school districts under its supervision. By a part of that plan, the East Salem Local School District was obliterated and the territory of such district was transferred to two adjoining districts, viz., the Perry Local School District and the Jackson Center Village School District--a part to each.
Within a short time afterwards, a petition was filed with the county board carrying the signatures of more than 75% of the resident electors of the East Salem school district and requesting that the territory described in such petition, comprising what was then the major portion of the East Salem Local School District, be transferred to the Sidney City School District.
On March 3, 1944, the county board adopted a plan of territorial organization, superseding the original plan of January 15, 1944, by which the described territory of the East Salem school district was transferred to the Sidney City School District as requested and as authorized by Section 4831-13, General Code. Such later plan of organization was published in accordance with Section 4831-2, General Code.
The plan as published was then duly transmitted to the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Ohio, as provided by Section 4831-4, General Code.
On August 17, 1944, the state superintendent, purportedly acting under Section 4831-6, General Code, approved generally the plan submitted by the county board, which in the main left the territorial organization of the school districts of the county as they were in 1943. However, the state superintendent rejected the plan so far as it transferred the territory of the East Salem district to the Sidney City School District and in place thereof he formed a single local school district out of the territory comprising the Jackson Center Village Local School District, the East Salem Local School District and the Perry Local School District.
Upon receipt of the plan approved by the state superintendent, the county board gave notice in writing to the various local boards as prescribed by Section 4831-7, General Code.
Objections to this plan were filed with the state superintendent by the boards of education of the East Salem Local School District and the Perry Local School District, as provided by Section 4831-8, General Code. Upon notice to all concerned, representatives of the state superintendent conducted a hearing on such objections at the courthouse in Sidney in compliance with Section 4831-9, General Code.
Thereafter, the state superintendent, purporting to act under Section 4831-11, General Code, announced the finally approved plan, which abolished the East Salem Local School District and placed a part of the territory of that district in the Jackson Center Village Local School District and the remaining part in the Perry Local School District, both of such districts being in the Shelby county school system.
The county board, being notified by the state superintendent of his final determination, passed the resolutions as outlined in Section 4831-12, General Code, carrying the finally approved plan into effect. Such action precipitated the described suit for an...
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