Taylor v. Bd. Of Educ. Of Davidson County

• Citation: 173 S.E. 608,206 N.C. 263
• Decision Date: 21 March 1934
• Docket Number: No. 503.,503.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: TAYLOR. v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF DAVIDSON COUNTY et al

173 S.E. 608

206 N.C. 263

TAYLOR.

v.BOARD OF EDUCATION OF DAVIDSON COUNTY et al

No. 503.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

March 21, 1934.

.

Appeal from Superior Court, Davidson County; Sink, Judge.

Civil action by T. J. Taylor against the Board of Education of Davidson County and others. From an adverse judgment, plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

Civil action to restrain the defendant board of commissioners of Davidson county, from issuing bonds of the county to care for necessary improvements of the consolidated schools of the county.

The case was heard on an agreed statement of facts, which may be abridged and stated as follows:

1. On September 4, 1933, pursuant to notice from the state board of health, the board of education of Davidson county met in joint session with the board of commissioners of said county and found as a fact that the water supply, sewage disposal plant, heating system, and building facilities for some of the consolidated schools of the county (operated by the county as an agency of the state on the county-wide school plan) were inadequate, and that the requisite permanent improvements and additional equipment necessary to operate and maintain said schools for the constitutional six-month period would call for the expenditure of $80,000. Said estimate was arrived at after a careful survey by a committee appointed for the purpose.

2. On November 6, 1933, the board of education of Davidson county duly authorized application for loan for said amount and for said purposes from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works.

3. On the same day, the board of commissioners of Davidson county, acting on the resolution of the board of education of said county, and a joint resolution of both boards, authorized a bond issue in the sum of $80,000 to provide the necessary improvements and additional building facilities required for the operation and maintenance of the consolidated schools of the county, operated on the county-wide plan.

4. In the same resolution, the board of county commissioners authorized the borrowing of $SO, 0OO from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, and the issuance and delivery therefor of county bonds, in said sum, with maturity dates as follows: $4,000 per year from 1935 to 1944, inclusive; $7,000 per year from 1945 to 1949, inclusive; $5,000 in the year 1950; said bonds to bear interest at the rate of 4 per cent. per annum.

5. It is agreed that $31,612, 143 was the assessed valuation of taxable property in Davidson county for the last preceding assessed valuation; and that the total bonded indebtedness of the county is $697,000.

6. Application has been filed with the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works to borrow said amount of money on the bonds of Davidson county, and said application has been approved.

7. Plaintiff sues as a resident and taxpayer of the county to restrain the issuance of said bonds. Eaton v. Graded School, 184 N. C. 471, 114 S. E. 689.

From a judgment upholding the validity of said proposed bonds and dismissing plaintiff'spetition with costs, he appeals, assigning error.

D. L. Pickard and Martin & Brinkley, all of Lexington, for appellant.

P. V. Critcher, of Lexington, for appellees.

STACY, Chief Justice.

We have held in a number of cases that the commissioners of a county, acting as an administrative agency of the state, may issue notes and bonds of the county for the purpose of acquiring sites, building the necessary school houses, and operating the public schools of the county without submitting the matter to a vote of the people "where...