The State ex rel. Balch v. Fry
| Decision Date | 15 February 1905 |
| Citation | 85 S.W. 328,186 Mo. 198 |
| Parties | THE STATE ex rel. BALCH, Appellant, v. FRY et al |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from Newton Circuit Court. -- Hon. H. C. Pepper, Judge.
Reversed.
R. J Balch and O. L. Cravens for appellant.
The whole law in regard to school districts is treated in chapter 154 in four different articles. The provisions of each several article relate to a different class of districts. Thus, the provisions of article one are intended to relate only to the government of country districts, while the second article relates only to school districts of towns, villages and cities, and so on. It is a logical proposition which can not be successfully refuted, that if the courts apply to a village district the restrictive provisions, whereby any of its franchises or privileges may be abridged or taken away of any of the other articles of this chapter, then to that extent its corporate rights are invaded. If the provisions of the article governing country school districts can be construed to apply to the articles governing village districts, then, with equal show of reason, can it be urged that the article governing manufacturing and business companies has some sections in the article concerning banks which would apply. This would be absurd. But it may be urged that section 9747, which defendants claim authorized the division of the village district, uses the broad language "whenever any school district" shall be divided by a county line, etc. Does this authorize the court to apply it indiscriminately to a school district organized under any one of the four articles? We think not. In the first place, in order to determine the meaning of the section we should read it in the light of the other sections in pari materia, and when this is done we are readily convinced that, general though the words are, the section applies only to country school districts. In the second place, it is apparent from the whole scheme of the section that it was not intended to apply to city or village districts, because it contemplates that the vitality of the original district should not be affected; but we find here that the life of the village district is taken away because no village is left in the district, and this must be the result following in case of any other district similarly situated. In the third place that the section was intended to apply only to country districts is made to conclusively appear, notwithstanding the general words with which the section begins, by the ninth and tenth lines of the section, where provision is made for notifying the district clerks of the districts interested in the result of the election. In the case at bar no district clerk could be notified of the result, because a village district had no clerk. It had only a secretary. Sec. 9864; State ex rel. v. Marshall, 48 Mo.App. 560.
John T. Sturgis for respondents.
The policy of our law has been steadily against the maintenance of school districts partly in one county and partly in another. The reasons are too obvious to need mentioning. The section of the statute giving the voters in either fractional part the unrestricted right to terminate the dual county district with its many inconveniences was first enacted in 1874. Laws 1874, p. 152. In the revision of 1889 (sec. 7976), this section was so amended as to prohibit the formation of new districts divided by county lines except in one specified case; and so the law remains to this day. That the language of said section 9747 is broad enough and does embrace village as well as country school districts, must be conceded. The language is, "whenever any school district or districts shall be divided by county lines" the voters of either fractional part may call a meeting and form a new district or join a district wholly in their own county. Why restrict this to one class of districts only? The article in which it is found, article 1, chapter 154, is entitled "Public Schools." That such article is designed to and does contain the general law relative to all public schools is apparent from a reading of the same. The next article merely provides for the organization of village schools and confers some additional powers and privileges peculiar to such districts, leaving the general laws contained in the first article applicable to them. Secs. 9866 and 9860, R. S. 1899. There are but twenty sections in article 2. All the laws applicable to school districts in general, without any reference to the peculiar character of the district, are found in article 1. Why then should it be said that this section providing for a division on county lines is applicable to country districts alone? The answer of relator is that article 2 contains a section (9865a, Laws 1901, p. 246) which provides a special manner for disorganizing village districts. It will be observed, however, that this last section has been on the statute books only three years, while the section in question has been part of the school law for thirty years. Nothing was repealed by this later section, and it does not purport to take the place of any prior law. It has nothing to do with the division of districts divided by county lines, but was enacted for a wholly different purpose. It simply provides a method by which any village district even wholly in one county may abandon its village organization and adopt the country district organization. The results to be accomplished by the two sections are wholly different and the method of procedure is wholly different. Under it the fractional part in one county is powerless to act without the concurrence of two-thirds of the whole district.
This is an appeal from a judgment of the circuit court of Newton county in favor of respondents, in a proceeding by quo warranto against them, instituted in said court by the prosecuting attorney of said county, to oust them from the office of director of a school district in said county, designated as "School District No. 8, Township 24, Range 30, of Newton county."
The salient facts are, that in 1895, a village school district was duly organized as the school district of Stella, consisting of territory partly in Newton and partly in McDonald counties, in about equal proportions, the village of Stella being near the boundary line in that portion of the district in Newton county. In the district there are about seventy legal voters, and one hundred and fifty school children of school age. Of the voters about thirty-eight, and of the school children about ninety, are resident on the Newton county side of the line, and the remainder on the McDonald county side. As thus organized, this village school district has ever since continued to exist and perform its functions.
On the twentieth of May, 1902, twenty-two of the legal voters of said district resident on the ...
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