31 Pa. 274 | Pa. | 1858
The opinion of the court was delivered by
In the court below, this was a bill in equity praying for an injunction to restrain the directors of Boggs township school district from collecting a tax levied in part for the purpose of building school-houses, and in part for the support of the common schools in that district. In accordance with the prayer of the bill, the defendants were enjoined against proceeding to collect
The entire proceeding is exceedingly irregular, and cannot be sustained.’ The bill prays for no process of subpcena. None was issued, and the record does not show that the party defendants were in court, or even had notice of the pending bill. How upon such a record an injunction could be decreed against the school directors of Boggs school district, we are not informed, and we are unable to discover.
But waiving this, and considering the case as if the defendants had been regularly in court, we do not perceive that levying a school tax for building purposes, is either contrary to law or prejudicial to the rights of the complainants. It is urged on their behalf, that such a tax is unauthorized by law.
The 33d section of the general" school law passed May 8, 1854, is as follows: “ The board of directors (or controllers in cities and boroughs, where the school property is vested in them agreeably to the provisions of section second) may at any time, not oftener than once in each school year, levy a special tax not exceeding the amount of the regular annual tax for such year, to be applied solely to the purpose of purchasing or paying for the ground and the building or erection of school buildings thereon; which said tax shall be levied and collected at the same time, in the same manner, and with like authority as the regular annual tax.” The argument of the appellees is, that the board of directors spoken of in this section is only a board in a city or borough, and not one in any other district. It is quite clear, however, that this is a mistaken view of the Act of Assembly. Its design was to provide a general system of common school education in every city, borough, and township of the Commonwealth. To such a system, school-houses are indispensable, and their necessity was not overlooked by the legislature. It would have been unaccountable, if, with the thought of this necessity before them, they had made provision only for cities and boroughs, and wholly neglected all the townships in the Commonwealth. Yet, of such neglect they were guilty, if the construction of the appellees be the true construction. In no other part of the act than the 33d section, is any provision made for permanently raising the means to purchase ground and to erect school-houses. True, the directors are authorized to borrow money for such purposes. But this is a temporary expedient. Without the power to levy a special tax, such loans could never be reimbursed, for the general tax is limited by the act to an amount sufficient and necessary to keep the schools of the district in operation. The intention of the legislature to confer upon the directors of every school district, the power of levying a special tax for such purposes is, however, too apparent to need the aid of such a presumption. Without entering into a
The tax levied by the defendants was, consequently, in strict accordance with the law, and they should not have been restrained from collecting it.
The injunction granted against the School Directors of Boggs township is dissolved, and the bill dismissed at the costs of the appellees.