Validation of $250,000 School Bonds, Greene County School Dist., In re, 42623
| Decision Date | 04 March 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 42623,42623 |
| Citation | 150 So.2d 412,246 Miss. 470 |
| Parties | In re VALIDATION OF $250,000 SCHOOL BONDS, GREENE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT. Hardy MILLS et al., Objectors, v. BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF GREENE COUNTY, Mississippi, et al. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Jesse M. Byrd and Ben Stevens, Hattiesburg, for appellant.
Curtis Breland, Leakesville, William A. Bacon, Jackson, for appellee.
During the early part of the year 1962 the whole of Greene County, Mississippi, was organized, consolidated and reconstituted into the Greene County School District.
On February 1, 1962, the Greene County School District through its County Board of Education adopted a resolution, and submitted a certified copy of the same to the Board of Supervisors of Greene County, Mississippi, as provided by Section 6532-04, Code of 1942 Rec., wherein it is recited, as provided by Section 6532-04, Code of 1942 Rec.:
'Be it Resolved by the Greene County School Board, acting as such, and as Trustees of the Greene County School District, that the Board of Supervisors of Greene County, Mississippi, be, and it is, hereby requested to proceed, under the provisions of * * * Sections 6532-01, et seq., of the Mississippi Code of 1942, Annotated, to call and have an election to authorize, and to issue thereafter, in whole or in part bonds of the said Greene County School Districts, which includes the entire of Greene County Mississippi, in an amount not to exceed Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000.00), for the following purposes:
'(a) Erecting, repairing, equipping, remodeling and enlarging school buildings and related facilities, including gymnasiums, auditoriums, lunch rooms, vocational training buildings, libraries, teacher's homes, school barns, garages for transportation vehicles, and purchasing land therefor;
'(b) Establishing and equipping school athletic fields and necessary facilities connected therewith, and purchasing land therefor;
'(c) Providing necessary water, light, heating and sewerage facilities for school buildings, and purchasing land therefor.'
Thereafter on February 5, 1962, the Board of Supervisors of Greene County took note of the said resolution and request of the Greene County School Board, and found that school bonds in an amount not to exceed $250,000 should be issued for the purposes set forth in the said resolution of the County School Board. And on that same day the Board of Supervisors called an election in accordance with a notice from the Chancery Clerk of Greene County to the Election Commissioners, to be held on March 13, 1962, to determine the question of whether or not school bonds not to exceed $250,000 should be issued for the purposes set forth in the resolution adopted by the County School Board on February 1, 1962, as specifically required by Section 6532-04, Code of 1942 Rec.
The Election Commissioners reported that the said election had been duly held, and had carried in favor of the bond issue by a vote of 1190 to 789, the required three-fifths vote necessary in such an election and which majority vote was thereafter duly determined and adjudicated by the Board of Supervisors. The amount of the purposed bond issue did not exceed any limitation prescribed by law for such a bond issue.
We have duly and carefully examined all of the proceedings had and done by the County School Board of Education, the Board of Supervisors, the County Election Commissioners, and the Chancery Clerk, and we find that all of the said proceedings are regular and in full compliance with the applicable statutes as to form and substance; that the returns of the election have been duly and legally certified to and show that the required three-fifths vote was in favor of the issuance of said bonds and that 789 votes were cast against the issuance thereof; and that said report of the Election Commissioners was signed and filed with the clerk of the proper court on March 14, 1962, and shows that the notice to the qualified electors of the holding of said election fully set forth the purposes for which the bonds were issued, in accordance with Sections 6532-01 and 6532-04, Code of 1942, Rec.
After the date was set for the hearing before the Chancellor of the petition for a validation of the bond issue, the objectors Hardy Mills, Charlie Byrd, Woodie McLeod and Willie Kittrell submitted their objections to the validation of the said bonds, stating, among other things, that the order of the Board of Supervisors calling for said election and the notice thereof as published are (1) 'too general in their terms and are not specific as to the exact plans and purposes for which said bonds are to be issued and as to what construction, repairs and improvements were to be made with the money derived from the proceeds of the said bonds'; (2) that the objectors have been informed and they charge the truth to be that there had been certain failures to comply with the law in the matter of holding the election, namely, that a number of ballots in each of the voting precincts were not initialed; that persons who were not qualified electors were permitted to vote in each of the voting precincts of the school district; that at the Maples and State Line precincts voters were openly instructed by certain of the election officials at said precincts as to how to vote; and that at the Leakesville, State Line and Vernon precincts certain voters marked their ballots and voted outside of the booths provided as voting places for such precincts. Under the decisions of this Court in the cases of In re Savannah Special Consolidated School District of Pearl River County, 208 Miss. 460, 44 So.2d 545 and Tedder et al. v. Board of Supervisors of Bolivar County, 214 Miss. 717, 59 So.2d 329, no plans and specifications were required to be adopted prior to the issuance and sale of the...
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