The Board of Education of The City of Topeka v. The State of Kansas and School District No. 22

• Decision Date: 11 January 1902
• Docket Number: 11,915
• Citation: 67 P. 559,64 Kan. 6
• Parties: THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE CITY OF TOPEKA v. THE STATE OF KANSAS AND SCHOOL DISTRICT No. 22
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

67 P. 559

64 Kan. 6

THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE CITY OF TOPEKA v. THE STATE OF KANSAS AND SCHOOL DISTRICT No. 22

No. 11,915

Supreme Court of Kansas

January 11, 1902

Decided January, 1902.

Error from Shawnee district court; Z. T. HAZEN, judge.

SYLLABUS

SYABUS BY THE COURT.

1. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS--Attached Territory--Liability on Bonds. In 1886 a school district which adjoined a city of the first class issued bonds, a part of which were used for the purchase of a site for a schoolhouse, and the remainder, together with the proceeds of another issue in 1888, were expended in the erection and furnishing of a school building. In 1889 the city extended its boundaries, and annexed a large part of the territory of the school district, including the land on which the schoolhouse was situated. By chapter 128 of the Laws of 1893 (Gen. Stat. 1901, §§ 6428-6430), there was provided a method for a settlement between a school district and a city when a district, or part of it, is annexed by an extension of the city limits. Held, that the law although retroactive in its effect in this case, is valid and that a moral obligation rested on the city, after the annexation, to assume payment of the bonds outstanding, issued by the school district to pay for the school building and site, which this law changed into a legal obligation.

2. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS--Statute Construed--"Schoolhouse" Includes Site. Section 2 of chapter 128, Laws of 1893 (Gen. Stat. 1901, § 429) provides that the board of education, or the district board retaining the schoolhouse, shall assume the bonded indebtedness incurred in building and furnishing such schoolhouse. Held, that, under the facts stated in the first paragraph of this syllabus, the city is not only liable to pay the bonds issued by the school district and used for building and furnishing the schoolhouse, but also the amount of said bonds used for the purchase of a site. The word "schoolhouse" includes the site.

3. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS--Title of Act Sufficient. The title of chapter 128, Laws of 1893, in its application to section 2 of the act, is sufficiently broad to satisfy the requirements of section 16, article 2, of the constitution.

Welch & Welch, for plaintiff in error.

Troutman & Stone, for defendant in error.

SMITH J. DOSTER, C. J., JOHNSTON, GREENE, JJ., concurring.

OPINION

SMITH, J.:

This was an action brought by the state of Kansas on behalf of its permanent school fund to recover from school district No. 22 of Shawnee county upon two series of bonds issued by the district, which were ten bonds of $ 300 each, executed and delivered on October 9, 1886, bearing six per cent. annual interest, and eight bonds of $ 500 each, dated August 15, 1888, drawing interest at five per cent. In August, 1889, the city of Topeka, by an ordinance which was approved by the district court, extended its boundaries to include a large portion of the adjoining territory of school district No. 22, and annexed to the city that part of the district on which the schoolhouse stood. On motion of the school district, the board of education was made a party defendant to the action. The school district filed an answer and cross-petition, praying that the board of education be adjudged liable to pay the full amount of said bonds and interest. The case was tried below on the following agreed facts:

"First, that of the bonds sued upon by the plaintiff and as issued by the defendant school district No. 22 in 1886, the sum of $ 1500 was expended for the purchase of the school site which was afterwards built upon by said district and afterwards taken into the city by the lawful extension of its limits, and that the balance of the issue of said bonds in 1886, to wit, $ 1500 and all of the issue of the $ 4000 in bonds sued upon by plaintiff, were expended in the erection and furnishing of said school district heretofore referred to.

"Second, that out of the moneys in the treasury of said school district there was, after the first issue but prior to the second, expended in addition to the above, for the erection and furnishing of said schoolhouse and its environments, a sum in excess of $ 1500."

The board of education filed an answer and cross-petition, in which it averred that the board and the school district, after the annexation, mutually agreed to divide the expense of maintaining the school, and arranged between them that the board of education should assume and pay a certain proportion of the bonds. These allegations were held by the court below on demurrer to furnish no basis for a cross-demand against the school district or any defense to the bonds. The board of education in this pleading expressly consents that the court render judgment against it for the full sum of the bonds, less the amount due it from district No. 22, which it sets out.

In 1893 an act was passed by the legislature entitled: "An act relating to cities of the first and second class, providing for the settlements between a school district or a part of a district and the city, when annexed by the extension of the city limits." (Gen. Stat. 1901, §§ 6428-6430.) Section 1 of the act (Gen. Stat. 1901, § 6428) provides that when all the territory of a school district is annexed to a city all its property shall be transferred to the board of education of such city, and the latter held responsible thereafter for the valid floating and bonded debt of the district. Section 2 (Gen. Stat. 1901, § 6429) relates to the disposition of the property of the school district when a part of its territory is annexed to the city, and provides a method of adjustment by which the county superintendent is to determine the present value of the school property in the district, and equitably apportion the same, together with all moneys due to or in the hands of the district treasurer. The next to the last paragraph of this section reads: "The board of education, or the district board retaining the schoolhouse, shall assume the bonded indebtedness incurred in building and furnishing such schoolhouse." (Gen. Stat. 1901, §§ 6428-6430.) The court below rendered a judgment as follows:

"That the state of Kansas have judgment against said school district No. 22 for the sum of $ 11,447; that said plaintiff also have judgment against the defendant, the board of education of the city of Topeka, for the sum of $ 8994, and that the said board of education of the city of Topeka is primarily liable for said last-mentioned sum, and that the defendant school district No. 22 is exclusively liable for the residue of said judgment, to wit, $ 2453."

It was ordered that the plaintiff exhaust its remedy against the board of education for the collection of said $ 8994 before it proceed against the school district for the collection thereof. The $ 2453 for which the school district was held to be exclusively liable reprerents the cost of the site for the schoolhouse, which amount the court below decided could not be imposed upon the city under the terms of the legislative act of 1893, above referred to. To reverse this ruling the school district has...