Williams v. Lee.
| Decision Date | 01 January 1920 |
| Docket Number | 23332 |
| Citation | 97 So. 14,132 Miss. 499 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | Williams Et Al. v. Lee. |
1. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. Superintendent or county board cannot add territory in county to consolidated district in three counties wthout acton of officials in other counties.
The county superintendent or county school board could not add territory within the county to consolidated district lying in three counties without action of officials of the other counties.
2. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS. Void attempt to consolidate subject to collateral attack.
An attempted consolidation, which is void, is subject to collateral attack.
On suggestion of error. Suggestion overruled. For former opinion, see 96 So. 401.
It is suggested that we erred in our former opinion in this case and several reasons are assigned why our decision is erroneous. We desire to correct the statement in the opinion wherein we inadvertently said that the inquiry was whether the superintendent of the county or "trustees of the district," etc., when we should have said "county school board," instead of trustees.
The authorities cited by appellant are not controlling here because, even though the districts might be consolidated, or new territory added to a district, it could not be done by the action alone of the authorities of one of the districts or alone of the new territory, in another county, as was attempted in this case.
As to the collateral attack on the consolidated district, we answer that the attempted act of consolidation was void and subject to attack.
Overruled.
SMITH C. J. I concur in the overruling of the suggestion of error and will herein set forth my reasons therefor:
In 1915 the school boards of Scott, Leake, and Rankin counties, acting in concert, created the Ludlow consolidated school district by consolidating adjacent districts lying in each of the counties, and thereafter bonds of the district were issued and an annual tax has been levied on the property in the district for consolidated school purposes. In 1921 the school board of Leake county passed an order adding to this consolidated school district territory situated wholly in Leake county. A majority of the trustees of the consolidated school district have declined to recognize the validity of this order of the Leake county school board, and have made an order that the children living in the added territory be not permitted to attend the school unless their tuition is paid.
In September, 1922, one of the trustees living in the added territory brought this suit against his fellow trustees for an injunction, restraining the trustees of the school from refusing to permit children living in the added territory to attend the school. Afterwards several of the patrons of the school were permitted to become parties complainant to the bill. On final hearing the temporary injunction was dissolved, and from the decree so doing the complainants have appealed to this court.
No question is here raised as to the validity of the acts of the school boards of Leake, Scott, and Rankin counties, by which the original Ludlow consolidated school district was created, but only as to the validity of the order of the Leake county school board adding new territory thereto. The grounds of the appellants' attack on the decree of the court below, as set forth in one of the briefs of their counsel, are in effect: (1) The order of the Leake county school board adding new territory to the Ludlow consolidated school district cannot be collaterally attacked. Consequently (2) the only question for decision is the validity of the order of the trustees that the children living in the added territory be not permitted to attend the school unless their tuition is paid. (3) The order of the Leake county school board adding the new territory to the district is valid.
The validity of the order of the trustees excluding the children of the added territory from the school depends on the validity of the order of the Leake county school board adding the territory to the district. An order of a school board made within the limits of its jurisdiction cannot be collaterally attacked. Dye v. Mayor, etc., 119 Miss. 359, 80 So. 761; Liddell v. Noxapat, 129 Miss. 513, 92 So. 631. But where such a board has no jurisdiction of the subject-matter of an order made by it, or, if having jurisdiction of the subject-matter, makes an order in excess of its jurisdiction, the order is void, and can be attacked collaterally. This is the rule uniformly followed by this court as to judgments and decrees of courts, and was recognized in Liddell v. Noxapater, supra, wherein it was said: "The court is only concerned with the question as to whether the board had proper jurisdiction of the matter before it."
Moreover as will hereinafter be made to appear, the order of the Leake county school board could not make the territory described therein a part of the district, unless concurred in by the school boards of Scott and Rankin counties. The power of school boards to consolidate school districts is not expressly conferred by any statute, and results from the power conferred upon them to create such districts originally. Trustees of Walton School v. Covington County, 115 Miss. 117, 75 So. 833. So that any power the school boards of adjacent counties have to consolidate adjacent school districts lying in each of the counties results from the power conferred upon them by section...
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