95 A. 48 | Md. | 1915
This is a mandamus case, and the appeal is from an order of the Circuit Court for Caroline County, passed on the petition of the appellee, one of the patrons of a public school in that county called Furman's Grove School, requiring the Board of County School Commissioners to open said school at once and to keep it open throughout the scholastic year 1914-1915.
The history of the proceedings, and the circumstances under which the order appealed from in this case was passed, are fully set out in the opinion in the case of the Board of County SchoolCommissioners of Caroline County v. Wesley Breeding and others,ante, page 83.
In that case the bill was filed by the Board of County School Commissioners against Wesley Breeding and others to enjoin them from using the school building of Furman's Grove School and from maintaining a school therein, and this Court in disposing of the case held that the controversy was one involving the proper administration of the public school system of the State which should be referred to and finally settled by the State Board of Education, and that the Court had no power to interfere. Our reasons for so holding, and the authorities supporting our conclusion, are stated in that opinion. They apply with equal force to this case, and it would serve no good purpose to repeat here what we there said.
The record of the case referred to and the opinion of this Court show that the first petition filed by the appellee for *472 a mandamus was dismissed by the Court below because the petitioner had not applied to the State Board of Education for the relief sought; that the matter was subsequently referred to the State Board of Education and disposed of by the State Board in the following order:
"The Board of School Commissioners of Caroline County are hereby directed to fix the boundaries of the `Furman's Grove School district, and when so determined, if the annual average attendance of bona fide pupils of the school district as shall be laid down were twelve or more for the school year 1913-1914, the Board of School Commissioners shall open the school and keep it open until the consent of sixty per cent. (60%) of the school patrons of said school district shall be obtained to consolidate the same with some other school.'"
The petition in the present case was filed after that order was passed by the State Board of Education, and it is nowhere alleged in the petition, nor does it appear from the evidence in this case that the boundaries of Furman's Grove School District had been fixed by the Board of County School Commissioners, as required by said order.
In the case of Underwood v. School Board,
It follows that the order appealed from can not be sustained upon the theory that it was passed to enforce the order of the State Board of Education.
For the reasons stated in this opinion, and in the opinion of this Court in the case of Board of County School Commissionersof Caroline County v. Wesley Breeding and others, supra, we must reverse the order of the Court below and dismiss the petition.
Order reversed, with costs to the appellant, and petitiondismissed. *474