Sorknes v. Board of County Commissioners of Lac Qui Parle County
| Decision Date | 05 November 1915 |
| Docket Number | 19,448 - (106) |
| Citation | 154 N.W. 669,131 Minn. 79 |
| Parties | H. L. SORKNES v. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF LAC QUI PARLE COUNTY |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Lewis I. Husebo, a freeholder of School District No. 74, petitioned the board of county commissioners of Lac qui Parle county to be set off from that school district and attached to District No. 94, because the taxes in the former district were so high as to be confiscatory. The petition was granted. From the order granting the petition, after a rehearing in compliance with a writ of mandamus issued from the district court for Lac qui Parle county, H. L. Sorknes, a member and president of the school board of the Independent School District of Madison, appealed to the district court of that county. The appeal was heard before Daly, J., who granted a motion to reverse the order of the board. From the judgment entered pursuant to the order for judgment, Lewis I. Husebo appealed. Reversed.
School district -- appeal from order of county board.
1. Upon a statutory appeal to the district court from an order of the county board detaching land from one school district and attaching it to another, the act of the county board being legislative in character, the court will limit its inquiry to the question whether the act of the board was arbitrary or fraudulent or oppressive and such as to work manifest injustice, and will not review the legislative judgment and discretion committed to the board.
School district -- allegations of petition for transfer to another district.
2. Upon such appeal the petition to the board need not be drawn with the formality of a pleading; and, if sufficient to put before the board facts upon which it can base an investigation and determination as to the propriety of the detachment, it is sufficient.
Appeal and error -- petition sufficient.
3. The county board having detached land from one district and attached it to another, and a freeholder having appealed to the district court, which reversed the order of the county board, upon the ground that the allegations of the petition were insufficient, it is held, upon the appeal of the petitioner to this court, that the petition was sufficient to justify the board in hearing it, and making the order, though the complaint in the petition was in substance that the taxes were exorbitant and confiscatory.
T. J McElligott, for appellant.
A. W Ewing and H. L. Sorknes, for respondent.
The appellant Husebo presented a petition to the board of county commissioners of Lac qui Parle county, asking that certain lands owned by him be detached from one school district and attached to another. His petition was granted and an order made accordingly. The respondent Sorknes, a freeholder of the district from which appellant was detached, appealed to the district court. On the appeal the order of the board of county commissioners was reversed and judgment entered affirming it. This appeal is from such judgment.
1. An appeal to the district court is authorized by Laws 1915, p. 146, c. 113, enacted subsequent to the order from which the appeal is taken. It is conceded, on the authority of Oppegaard v. Board of Co. Commrs. of Renville County, 110 Minn. 300, 125 N.W. 504, 25 L.R.A. (N.S.) 1244, that the statute authorizing the appeal is retroactive. The 1915 statute makes applicable the provisions of G.S. 1913, § 2676 (R.L. 1905, § 1285), which have to do with the organization of school districts, and the grounds of appeal are these:
The appeal in this proceeding alleges the second and third grounds.
The act of detaching land from one district and attaching it to another is of course legislative in character. True enough it involves judgment and discretion; but it is legislative judgment and discretion not subject to judicial review. In reviewing the action of the county board, upon a...
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