164 Wis. 13 | Wis. | 1916
The following opinion was filed May 23, 1916:
The plaintiff contends that these resolutions are insufficient to authorize any loan because (1) the statute does not authorize a loan for the purpose stated in the first resolution; (2) the resolution does not specify the time of payment; and (3) it does not specify the manner of payment, whether in annual instalments or otherwise.
It is urged that since the statute permits a loan only for the purpose of aiding in the erection or purchase of a schoolhouse, money cannot be borrowed for the purpose of remodeling a schoolhouse and building an addition thereto; that the remodeling of a building is not equivalent to an erection thereof. We think such a construction is too narrow. The statute was intended to enable school districts that did not have adequate schoolhouses to obtain them by purchase or erection, and it should receive a liberal construction to effectuate that purpose. The remodeling of a building is more than repairing it or making minor changes therein. The ordinary significance of the term imports a change in the re
The objection that the resolution does not specify the manner of payment is technically' correct. • Sec. 415 requires the time and manner of payment to be stated. But the omission in the resolution is supplied by sec. 258a — 1 and sec. 261, Stats. 1915. The former provides for annual instalments of principal and interest on all loans from trust funds to be payable on the first day of February of each year, and the latter limits the length of loans to school districts to fifteen years. The district voted the loan, and hence if it can lawfully be made from any available source its validity should be upheld. ‘Construing it as a loan from the state trust funds we have this •situation: The resolution does not comply with the strict requirements of the statute in that it does not specify the man-. .ner of payment, but, as pointed out, this omission is supplied ■by the statute. Having specified in the resolution that the time of payment should be fifteen years, the statute steps in and says the loan must be repaid in fifteen annual instal-ments, payable, with interest, on the first day of February of •each year. The clause “or some other source,” found in the resolution, may be treated as surplusage.
It was held in Burgess v. Dane Co. 148 Wis. 427, 134 N. W. 841, that the resolutions of minor deliberative bodies .should receive a liberal construction to effectuate their evident
The fact that the resolution provides for an interest rate of four and one-half per cent, and the statute for only four per cent, on state trust funds does not invalidate it, for a lower rate is advantageous to the district.
By the Oourt. — Order reversed, and cause remanded with directions to enter an order sustaining the demurrer to the complaint.
A motion for a rehearing was denied, with $25 costs, on October 3, 1916.