Webster v. Toulon Tp. High Sch. Dist. No. 4

• Decision Date: 28 October 1924
• Docket Number: No. 15568.,15568.
• Citation: 313 Ill. 541,145 N.E. 118
• Parties: WEBSTER et al. v. TOULON TP. HIGH SCHOOL DIST. NO. 4 et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

313 Ill. 541

145 N.E. 118

WEBSTER et al.

v.TOULON TP. HIGH SCHOOL DIST. NO. 4 et al.

No. 15568.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 28, 1924.

Bill by James D. Webster and others against Toulon Township High School District No. 4 and others. Decree for plaintiffs, and defendants appeal.

Affirmed.

Dunn, J., dissenting.Appeal from Circuit Court, Stark County; T. N. Green, Judge.

James H. Rennick and F. B. Brian, both of Toulon, for appellants.

John W. Fling, Jr., of Wyoming, Ill., and Barnes, Magoon, Black & Horton, of Peoria (George W. Hunt, of Peoria, of counsel), for appellees.

DUNCAN, C. J.

One hundred forty-nine taxpayers and legal voters owning lands in the territory (hereinafter referred to as the detached territory) detached from Toulon Township High School District No. 4 by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, filed their bill in the circuit court of Stark county on December 21, 1921, against said high school district and the members of the board of education, G. C. Baker, superintendent of schools of said county, William E. Nixon, county clerk of the county, Harry W. Walker, township treasurer of Toulon township, the bank of Charles P. Dewey & Sons, William G. Roberts, the unknown holders of bonds of the district, and the first National Bank of Chicago, to which interest is paid on bonds for unknown holders thereof, praying for a decree that the district shall not include the detached territory; that the board of education of the district be enjoined from exercising authority over the detached territory and from incurring any indebtedness which would operate as a lien thereon; that the county clerk be enjoined from extending any tax on the detached territory for the maintenance of the district, and for other and further relief. A general demurrer filed to the bill was overruled, and, the defendants (appellants) electing to abide by their demurrer, decree was entered in favor of complainants (appellees). By its decree the court found that the district as originally formed was not composed of compact and contiguous territory and that it is equitably estopped from claiming that it includes any of the detached territory, and decreed that the district be restricted to 68 1/4 sections of land (the lands remaining in the district after the detached territory was taken from it), and that the district shall not include any of the lands in the detached territory; that the board of education be permanently enjoined from claiming that any of the lands detached by the order of the state superintendent are a part of the district, and that the county clerk be enjoined from extending any tax against the detached territory levied by the district. The school district and the members of the board of education have appealed from the decree of the court.

The material facts and statements averred in the bill and admitted by the demurrer are in substance the following: Toulon Township High School District No. 4 was organized July 30, 1912, under the High School Act of 1911, declared invalid by this court in People v. Weis, 275 Ill. 581, 114 N. E. 331. The validating act of 1917 (Laws 1917, p. 744) did not legalize the district, because the territory thereof was not contiguous and compact within the constitutional sense as defined by the decisions of this court. The original district comprised 97 sections of land of an assessed valuation of $4,000,000, was 16 miles north and south by 8 miles east and west, and embraced more than one-third of the entire area of Stark county. The detached territory consists of 10 1/2 sections of land situated in the north end of the original district, and 18 1/4 sections situated in the south end thereof, leaving in the district 68 1/4 sections, hereinafter referred to as the restricted territory, or the district as restricted by the state superintendent. The district as originally organized is unreasonably large, abnormal in shape, and is not composed of compact and contiguous territory easily accessible to all the pupils of school age in the district. The city of Toulon, where the high school is to be located, is situated very near the center of the district. A large portion of both parts of the detached territory is broken country, in which the roads are crossed by streams subject to overflow in rainy seasons, and many of the pupils therein would be required to travel 12 miles or more from their homes in order to attend the school. On account of the distance to be traveled and the conditions aforesaid, it would be impossible, during a large part of the winter and spring months, for students residing in the detached territory to regularly attend school by going and coming from their homes. It would be impossible for the pupils of the detached territory to have the advantages of the high school without boarding and lodging at or near the school center, at considerable expense. In 1915 an election was had in the original district to vote for or against a $40,000 bond issue to build a school house, etc. in which appellees participated, and the bond issue was defeated. On November 15, 1919, there was another election in the district as restricted by the state superintendent, for the purpose of voting for or against a bond issue of $100,000 to provide funds to erect a new school building, which resulted in favor of such bond issue, but it would have been defeated if appellees had participated in that election. They did not participate in such election because the detached territory at that time was not recognized by the board of education as a part of the district. No notice of any kind was published or posted in the detached territory, and no notice or knowledge was had by the parties living in the detached territory that they were, or ever would be again, recognized as having any right to participate in such election, but were led to believe by the conduct of the board of education, hereinafter related, that it regarded the question of the boundaries of the district as permanently settled by the state superintendent.

On August 1, 1917, a petition was filed by the required number of residents and legal voters, under section 90 of [313 Ill. 545]our school law, asking that the territory later detached, and other territory, be detached from the district, on the ground that the district as originally organized did not consist of compact and contiguous territory, easy of access to all the pupils in the district. On October 5, 1917, that petition was denied by the ex officio board of Stark county, because it could not detach all the territory asked to be detached, but it recommended that in justice the detached territory should be detached. On appeal from that order the State Superintendent of Public Instruction on March 13, 1918, after a full hearing, made an order detaching from the original district the detached territory aforesaid, at which hearing the district and the board of education were represented by their attorneys. Afterwards the county superintendent of schools of the county made and filed with the county clerk a map of the district in accordance with the order and finding of the state superintendent, showing the boundaries of the district to be the restricted territory aforesaid, and also made a map showing the detached territory to be in a non-high-school district. Since that time, and up to about August, 1921, the residents of the detached territory and their property have been taxed in the non-high-school district, and appellees and the other residents of the detached territory paid all their taxes so assessed by the non-high-school district. The high school district during the 2 1/2 years or more that the detached territory was taxed in the non-high-school district, and up to December, 1921, demanded and received tuition from the resident pupils of the detached territory who attended the high school, and during that time did not tax or attempt to tax the residents of the detached territory, or their property, for high school purposes. After the $100,000 bonds were voted, as aforesaid, the board of education of the high school district prepared a statement for prospective bond buyers, in which the board described the territory then composingthe district as the restricted territory, and stated to those concerned in the purchase of such bonds that the assessed valuation of the district (the restricted territory) was $3,495,475. O...