State ex rel. Purdy Reorganized School Dist. No. II, Barry County v. Snider

• Decision Date: 02 August 1971
• Docket Number: No. 9051,9051
• Citation: 470 S.W.2d 805
• Parties: STATE of Missouri ex rel. PURDY REORGANIZED SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. II, BARRY COUNTY, Missouri, Appellant, v. Chester SNIDER, Clerk of the County Court of Barry County, Missouri, Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 805

470 S.W.2d 805

STATE of Missouri ex rel. PURDY REORGANIZED SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. II, BARRY COUNTY, Missouri, Appellant, v. Chester SNIDER, Clerk of the County Court of Barry County Missouri, Respondent.

No. 9051.

Springfield Court of Appeals, Missouri.

Aug. 2, 1971.

Motion for Rehearing or for Transfer to the Supreme Court

Denied Sept. 17,

1971.

Michael Baker, Baker & Campbell, Springfield, for appellant.

Royle Ellis, Emory Melton, Cassville, for respondent.

HOGAN, Judge.

This case comes to us on appeal from the trial court's refusal to issue a peremptory writ of mandamus compelling the respondent, as county clerk, to extend the tax books to include certain realty which appellant claims is properly within its boundaries.

The facts in the case were stipulated, but with reference to a large, rather complicated map of the school districts involved, and several exhibits. It would be impractical to try to include the map itself, and we undertake to summarize the stipulated facts by the use of plats taken from the map, which we append as exhibits in the opinion. The area generally involved consists of about four sections of land in the northwest part of Berry County. It is the tract outlined in exhibit one, which, it will be seen, is divided into northern and southern parts. The dotted line which divides the tract irregularly from southeast to northwest is the present boundary between the relator (Purdy School District) and the Cassville School District. The relator claims that the southern part of the tract is lawfully within its boundaries, and this action was brought to require extension of the tax books to include that land as part of its territory. The Cassville District lies generally southeast of the tract outlined in exhibit one; the relator, Purdy School District, lies generally to the north.

The whole tract outlined on exhibit one was originally part of a school district known as the Butterfield School District, which was annexed by the Cassville School District in May 1951. Thereafter, residents of that area petitioned the board of directors of the Cassville District for a change of boundary under the statute then applicable, § 165.170, RSMo (1949), V.A.M.S. The petitioners (12 in all) requested that the boundary between the Purdy District and the Cassville District be changed by permitting annexation of the following described area to the relator's predecessor in interest, the Purdy Consolidated School District No. 8:

Beginning at the southeast corner of the Southwest Quarter of Section 30, Township 24, Range 28, Barry County, Missouri; thence north one-fourth mile; thence west one-quarter mile; thence one and one-fourth mile north to the northeast corner of the Northwest Quarter of the Northeast Quarter of Section 24, in said township and range; thence west one and one-half miles to the northeast corner of the Northwest Quarter of the Northwest Quarter of Section 23; thence south one-half mile; thence east one-quarter mile; thence south one-half mile; thence west one-quarter mile; thence south one-quarter mile; thence west one-half mile; thence south three-fourths of a mile to place of beginning.

Plotting of the land described in this petition--as we have undertaken to show by exhibit two--indicates that the scrivener undertook to describe a tract similar in outline to the tract outlined in exhibit one, but inspection of the description call by call shows that: (a) if the point of beginning is taken as stated, that is, as being in Township 24 North, Range 28 West, and the description is followed counterclockwise, a tract of land lying six miles west of the intended tract is described, and such a description would place the land in another school district known as the Wheaton School District; (b) there is a gap between calls number two and three; ¹ (c) the last two calls for course and distance are such that the tract described includes 160 acres in Sections 26 and 27 which are not included in the tract described in exhibit one, which by stipulation is the whole area in controversy, properly described; and (d) the description does not close on the south side.

Notice of the desired change of boundary was posted on March 15, 1952, in accordance with the requirements of § 165.170, par. 1, RSMo (1949), V.A.M.S. No plat of the area was attached, but the realty involved was again described by metes and bounds. The description contained in the notice is somewhat more complete in that the gap between the second and third calls for course and distance is closed, but otherwise it has all the vices of the description contained in the petition which initiated the election.

At the election, the voters of the Purdy District (relator's predecessor) approved the change, and the voters of the Cassville District rejected it. A board of arbitrators, appointed as required by § 165.170, RSMo (1949), V.A.M.S., decided in favor of the Purdy District. Their award included no plat, but described the realty by course and distance precisely as it had been described in the petition for a boundary change. The superintendent of schools transmitted the results of the arbitration to a Mr. England, then county clerk, by letter, describing the award by metes and bounds, and using the description found in the arbitrators' report. No appeal was taken from the decision of the board of arbitrators. It is stipulated that on the basis of these proceedings the tract outlined on exhibit one was transferred to the Purdy District, and was assessed and taxed for the benefit of the relator from 1952 through 1965. In 1966, the respondent, of his own volition, assessed and taxed the tract in controversy (exhibit one) for the benefit of the Cassville District.

It is further stipulated that in April 1967, at the request of the Purdy District, another boundary change proposal was submitted to the voters of the Purdy and Cassville Districts, and this proposal involved the northern part of the tract outlined on exhibit one. We are not advised whether the two districts at that time were three or six director districts, and step by step compliance with the applicable statute (either § 162.431 or §§ 162.681 and 162.691, RSMo (1969), V.A.M.S., which were then in effect) is not shown, but no question is raised concerning the regularity of this last boundary change election. Respondent's exhibit 3, submitted here and referred to in the stipulation, is a letter to respondent from a Mr. Paul Welch, stipulated to be relator's superintendent of schools. In this letter, Mr. Welch advises respondent that a board of arbitration 'met and voted in favor of the boundary change proposal that was voted on April 4, 1967.' The letter goes on to say: 'Enclosed is an official description of the land in question.' The enclosure states that '* * * the boundary line between said (Purdy and Cassville) School Districts will be as follows:

Beginning at the...