State v. Gill

• Decision Date: 01 June 1905
• Citation: 190 Mo. 79,88 S.W. 628
• Parties: STATE ex rel. GAULT et al. v. GILL et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

88 S.W. 628

190 Mo. 79

STATE ex rel. GAULT et al. v. GILL et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

June 1, 1905.

1. SCHOOL DISTRICTS — ORGANIZATION—STATUTORY PROVISIONS—CONSTRUCTION.

In view of the history of Rev. St. 1899, § 9860, providing that "any city, town or village," the plat of which has been previously filed in the recorder's office, may be organized into a single school district, first adopted in Gen. St. 1865, p. 274, c. 47, § 1, by inserting the word "incorporated" before the word "city," and then expressly repealed by Act March 21, 1870 (Laws 1870, p. 127), and a new section enacted by eliminating the word "incorporated," which has since been in force as embodied in section 9860, the section applies to unincorporated and incorporated villages, and any village, incorporated or unincorporated, the plat of which has been filed in the recorder's office, may be organized into a school district.

2. SAME.

Rev. St. 1899, § 9861, which provides for the organization of a common school district into a village district, with the special privileges granted by the statutes, authorizes the organization of any common school district into a village district; and the fact that the village in the district is unincorporated and the plat thereof defective does not affect the validity of a village district organized from a common school district in the manner provided by law.

3. SAME—PETITION TO CHANGE INTO VILLAGE DISTRICT—DUTY OF DIRECTORS — ORDERING ELECTION—NOTICES—WITHDRAWAL.

Where the directors of a common school district received a proper petition requesting an election on the question whether the district should be changed into a village district, as authorized by Rev. St. 1899, § 9861, and they ordered an election and gave notice thereof as required by the section, a majority of the board could not thereafter order the withdrawal of the notice of election; the duty of the board in ordering an election and giving notice thereof being mandatory and ministerial.

In Banc. Appeal from Circuit Court, Jackson County; Shannon C. Douglass, Judge.

Quo warranto proceedings by the state, on the relation of J. W. Gault and another, against E. B. Gill and others, to oust defendants from the offices of school directors of a school district. From a judgment for defendants, relators appeal. Affirmed.

Ward & Hadley, for appellants. Frank P. Sebree, Silver & Brown, and E. B. Gill, for respondents.

BRACE, C. J.

Quo warranto to oust defendants from the offices of school directors of the school district of Dallas, in Jackson county, Mo. Appeal from the Jackson county circuit court. Judgment below for the respondents, and the relators appeal.

On the 13th of May, 1903, and for many years prior thereto, there was a common school district in said county, duly organized as school district No. 4, township 48, range 33, in which there resided about 50 qualified voters, and in which there was an unincorporated village called Dallas, a plat of which had been duly executed, acknowledged, and recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds of said county on the 15th of January, 1903. By section 9861, art. 2, c. 154, Rev. St. 1899, it is provided: "Whenever it may be desired to organize a common school district into a city, town or village school district, with special privileges granted under this article, the board of directors shall, upon the reception of a petition to that effect and signed by ten qualified voters who are resident taxpayers of the district, order an election held for that purpose, and shall give notice of such election by notices posted in five public places within the district for fifteen days prior to the day of such election, said meeting to be held at 2 o'clock p. m. at the public school house in said district, if there be one, but if there be no public school house, then at such place within the district as may be designated in the notices; and when said meeting is assembled, it shall elect a chairman and secretary, who shall keep a correct record of the proceedings of said meeting, and turn the same over to the board, properly signed and attested by the chairman, and the board shall have a copy of the same entered upon the district records. Said election may be held at an annual or at a special meeting, and the order of business under this section shall be as follows: First—To organize as a city, town or village school district; those voting for the organization shall have written or printed on their ballots `For Organization,' and those voting against the organization shall have written or printed on their ballots `Against Organization'; and each person desiring to vote shall advance to the front of the chairman and deposit his ballot in a box to be used for that purpose. When all present shall have voted the chairman shall appoint two tellers, who shall call each ballot aloud, and the secretary shall keep a tally and report to the chairman, who shall announce the result; and if a majority of the votes cast are `For organization,'...