Town of Sunnyvale v. Dallas County Bd. of School Trustees, 14997

• Decision Date: 30 September 1955
• Docket Number: No. 14997,14997
• Parties: TOWN OF SUNNYVALE, Texas, Appellant, v. DALLAS COUNTY BOARD OF SCHOOL TRUSTEES et al., Appellees.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 296

283 S.W.2d 296

TOWN OF SUNNYVALE, Texas, Appellant, v. DALLAS COUNTY BOARD OF SCHOOL TRUSTEES et al., Appellees.

No. 14997.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Dallas.

Sept. 30, 1955.

Wm. Andress, Jr., Dallas, for appellant.

Ernest F. Kucera, Henry Wade, Criminal Dist. Atty., Julien C. Hyer and J. J. Fagan, Asst. Dist. Attys., Dallas, for appellees.

CRAMER, Justice.

This is an appeal under Rule 385, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, from the denial of a temporary injunction. The facts were not in dispute. Appellant is a town duly incorporated under Ch. 11, Title 28, R.C.S. of Texas, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. art. 1133 et seq.; its incorporation having been validated by Ch. 177, p. 492, Acts 53rd Leg., 1953, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. art. 966c. The Town of Sunnyvale boundaries were thereafter duly extended, under authority of Art. 1139, R.C.S., by an annexation ordinance after petition of a majority of the inhabitants in the territory to be annexed (See Note ¹). On Nov. 21, 1953, by a vote of 47 to 5, Sunnyvale assumed and took exclusive control of the public free schools within its limits under Art. 2768, R.C.S., and Sec. 10, Art. 11, of the Texas Constitution, Vernon's Ann.St. effective Dec. 31, 1953. Thereafter the County Board of School Trustees adjusted the bonded indebtedness of such District and duly defined the new boundaries of the Mesquite and Sunnyvale Districts. On August 9, 1954 the Board of Trustees of the Mesquite District entered an order consenting to the annexation of such part of the Sunnyvale District.

On Sept. 9, 1954 the citizens in the territory involved petitioned the County School Board of Trustees to transfer such tract or territory from the Sunnyvale District and attach same to the Mesquite District. On Nov. 4, 1954 the County Board of School Trustees passed the matter, as well as a protest, to January 13, 1955. Thereafter on the same day a majority of the qualified voters of the detached area involved petitioned the County Board to take from the Sunnyvale District some 623.53 acres and add same to the Mesquite District,-to which the Mesquite District had consented. On the same day (Jan. 13, 1955) the County Board detached such area from Sunnyvale District and annexed it to Mesquite District.

This action was filed Jan. 21, 1955, and after a hearing the trial court entered the judgment here appealed from. Appellant states the 'Question for Review,' as follows: 'When the citizens of the Town of Sunnyvale have expressed their fundamental sovereign will to take exclusive control of the schools within the boundaries of the municipal school district identical with the Town, the County Board of School Trustees has no power or jurisdiction to contravene that sovereign will as expressed at an election by removing and transferring a portion of the municipal district, over its protest.' Appellee County Board counters as follows: 'The validity of an extension of territory of a city or school district can only be attacked by direct suit in the nature of quo warranto by the State or by a proceeding in which the State is a party, and the County Board of Trustees being possessed of power to annex specific territory by compliance with the statutory provisions in reference thereto did not render its act void so as to subject same to collateral attack.'

Art. 11, sec. 10, of our Constitution provides that 'The Legislature may constitute any city or town a separate and independent school district. * * *' Art. 2768, R.C.S., provides: 'Any city or town in this State may acquire the exclusive control of the public free schools within its limits. Any city or town which has heretofore, under the Act of March 15, 1875, or any subsequent law, assumed control of the public free schools within its limits, and has continued to exercise the same until the present time, or any city or town which may hereafter determine so to do by majority vote of the property tax payers of said city or town voting at an election held for that purpose, may have exclusive control of the public free schools within its limits. Acts 1905, p. 263.'

Our Supreme Court had theretofore held that Art. 2768, R.C.S., is...