State ex rel. Dalton ex rel. Stonum v. Reorganized Dist. No. 11, Clinton County

• Decision Date: 09 December 1957
• Docket Number: No. 44386,R-IV,44386
• Parties: STATE of Missouri ex rel. John M. DALTON, Attorney General of Missouri, ex rel. R. C. STONUM, Joe H. McCollough, Carlos Hill, Archie Cox, J. A. Denton, William R. Morrow and Enlarged School Districtof Ray County, Missouri, Relators, v. REORGANIZED DISTRICT NO. 11, CLINTON COUNTY, Missouri, J. A. Eames, Jerome Coleman, Paul Moore, C. L. Van Buren, Gerald Cross, and Reid DeMoss, Respondents.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 501

307 S.W.2d 501

STATE of Missouri ex rel. John M. DALTON, Attorney General of Missouri, ex rel. R. C. STONUM, Joe H. McCollough, Carlos Hill, Archie Cox, J. A. Denton, William R. Morrow and Enlarged School District R-IV of Ray County, Missouri, Relators, v. REORGANIZED DISTRICT NO. 11, CLINTON COUNTY, Missouri, J. A Eames, Jerome Coleman, Paul Moore, C. L. Van Buren, Gerald Cross, and Reid DeMoss, Respondents.

No. 44386.

Supreme Court of Missouri, En Banc.

Dec. 9, 1957.

Wm. T. Thompson, Richmond, and John S. Lodwick, Excelsior Springs, for relators.

Gerald Cross and Pross T. Cross, Lathrop, and Walter A. Raymond, Kansas City, for respondents.

DALTON, Chief Justice.

This is an original proceeding in quo warranto. It involves a dispute between two reorganized school districts. Both districts claim the right to exercise jurisdiction over the territory in Ray County formerly comprising Benton School District No. 9 and Elmira School District No. 92. The action was instituted in this court by John M. Dalton, Attorney General, at the relation of Enlarged School District R-IV of Ray County (hereinafter referred to as relator district) and the members of its board of directors against Reorganized District No. II of Clinton County (hereinafter referred to as respondent district) and the members of its board of directors. The application for leave to file was filed in this court on April 20, 1954 and the information was filed May 10, 1954. The information describes the individual relators not only as members of the board of directors of relator district but also as residents and taxpayers of said district. They, therefore, participate in this action in the said several mentioned representative capacities. The ultimate purpose of the action is, of course, to determine which school district has legal authority to exercise jurisdiction in the disputed area claimed by both, and to oust the usurper, if any.

This court appointed Hon. G. Derk Green of Brookfield, Judge of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, as a special commissioner to take the evidence on the issues joined on the merits of the cause and to report his findings of facts and conclusions of law. His report, finding the disputed issues in favor of relators, was filed in this court November 3, 1956. The commissioner found that 'respondents have no lawful authority over the territory in dispute.' He recommended that 'the writ of ouster should be issued against respondents.' The cause has since been briefed and argued in this court and was submitted here on September 30, 1957.

It is conceded that the action is a proper one to determine the issues in dispute between the mentioned districts. No questions are raised with reference to the pleadings. The legality of organization and valid existence of relator and respondent districts and that of the Ray County Board of Education is admitted.

Most of the facts upon which the legal conclusions herein turn are not in dispute. The events leading up to the mentioned dispute and the institution of the present action may be stated somewhat in chronological order, as follows:

The Ray County Board of Education was organized on September 4, 1948, under the provisions of Sections 165.657-165.707 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S. On January 29, 1951, it submitted to the State Board of Education a specific plan for the reorganization of the school districts of Ray County, including the Benton and Elmira districts, common school districts hereinbefore referred to. This plan for reorganization was disapproved by the State Board of Education on February 13, 1951 and the plan returned to the secretary of the Ray County Board on February 17, 1951.

On February 23, 1951, a petition was filed for the creation of a consolidated school district to be known as Consolidated District No. 6, which proposed to include the disputed Benton district.

March 9, 1951, the Ray County Board submitted to the State Board its revised plan for reorganization of the school districts of Ray County, which plan included the Benton and Elmira districts.

On March 15, 1951, a petition was filed with the Board of Directors of the Benton district for the annexation of that district to respondent district. On April 3, 1951, an election was held on the annexation proposal and a majority vote was cast in favor of annexation. On the following day, April 4, 1951, respondent district accepted the annexation of the Benton district.

On April 6, 1951, an election was held on the petition to create Consolidated District No. 6 and a majority vote was cast in favor thereof.

On April 12, 1951, a petition was filed with the Board of Directors of the Elmira district for the annexation of that district to respondent district. The annexation proposal was voted on on April 28, 1951, and a majority vote cast in favor of annexation. On May 7, 1951, respondent accepted the annexation of the Elmira district.

On April 16, 1951, the State Board of Education disapproved and returned to the Ray County Board its revised plan of reorganization which had been submitted on March 9, 1951.

On May 4, 1951, the Ray County Board, as relator, filed quo warranto proceedings in the circuit court of Ray County against Consolidated School District No. 6 of Ray and Clay counties and their board of directors challenging the legality of the organization of said Consolidated District No. 6. The case was given number 6896 and was later consolidated with cases numbered 6893, 6894 and 6895, instituted by the directors of District No. 6, since all cases were pending in the said circuit court of Ray County between the same parties and involving the same issue, to wit, whether Consolidated District No. 6 of Ray and Clay counties was a legally created and existing school district. Thereafter, on February 25, 1952, the circuit court of Ray County entered a decree against Consolidated District No. 6, in case number 6896 finding it 'null and void.'

On June 27, 1952, the Ray County Board submitted to the voters of said county at an election its own plan for the reorganization of the school districts of the county. The plan was approved by a majority vote in seven out of nine proposed enlarged districts, including the relator district, which under the plan was a new enlarged district containing the Benton and Elmira districts hereinbefore mentioned.

From the foregoing it appears (1) that all of the prescribed statutory steps were taken for the annexation of the Benton and Elmira districts to the respondent district; and (2) that all of the prescribed statutory steps were taken for the incorporation of the Benton and Elmira districts into the relator district. In these circumstances it is relators' contention that, since the Ray County Board of Education on January 29, 1951, submitted its first plan for reorganization of the school districts of Ray County, including the Benton and Elmira districts, and since each plan, thereafter, included the Benton and Elmira districts, the Ray County Board of Education first acquired jurisdiction of the territory comprising the Benton and Elmira districts, prior to any steps being taken to annex them to respondent district; and that this jurisdiction remained in effect and was exclusive until the said districts were finally incorporated into the relator district by the adoption, on June 27, 1952, of the Ray County Board's own plan for reorganization.

Relators rely upon the well established rule of law referred to as the doctrine of 'prior jurisdiction.' As for example, where under different statutes vesting jurisdiction in different persons or authorities, the same territory is subject to formation into a new municipality or to annexation to an existing municipality, the jurisdiction first invoked becomes exclusive and the proceedings may be carried on to a final termination. State ex rel. Fry v. Lee, 314 Mo. 486, 284 S.W. 129, 135; State ex inf. Goodman ex rel. Crewdson v. Smith, 331 Mo. 211, 53 S.W.2d 271, 273; State ex inf. Taylor ex rel. Kansas City v. North Kansas City, 360 Mo. 374, 228 S.W.2d 762, 779; State ex inf. Taylor ex rel. Oster v. Hill, Mo.Sup., 262 S.W.2d 581, 583; State ex rel. Corder School Dist. No. R-3 v. Oetting, Mo.App., 245 S.W.2d 157, 160; Willard Reorganized Dist. No. 2 of Greene County v. Springfield Reorganized School Dist. No. 12, 241 Mo.App. 934, 248 S.W.2d 435, 443(9). And see London Indep. School Dist. v. Thomerson, Tex.Civ.App., 223 S.W.2d 314, 318. Relators insist that the purported annexations of the Benton and Elmira districts by respondent district were absolutely void and they ask an order ousting the usurper from exercising jurisdiction over the disputed territory.

Respondents do not question the doctrine of 'prior jurisdiction' relied upon by relators, but contend that the Ray County Board of Education lost its jurisdiction over the Benton and Elmira districts by reason of 'its long delays, abandonment, misleading tactics and adjudication of the issues against its present position.' Respondents further say 'the continuing jurisdiction of the Ray County Board depended upon diligence.'

The points relied upon by respondents are (1) that the proceedings in the consolidated cases numbered 6893, 6894, 6895, and 6896 are res adjudicata herein and constitute a complete bar to this proceeding; (2) that relators are estopped to question the legality of the annexation of the Benton and Elmira Districts by their dilatory tactics and legal position taken in the previous litigation in the Ray County Circuit Court; (3) that the long delay of the Ray County Board of Education in forming relator district constituted an abandonment of the Board's right to exercise jurisdiction over the Benton and Elmira districts; (4) that relators were barred from bringing and maintaining this action by their own laches; and (5) that quo warranto is a discretionary writ and it should not be granted in this case because it is not in the public interest. We shall...