109 Iowa 541 | Iowa | 1899
The school house in question is in sub-district No. -6 of the territory of the plaintiff. The defendant Thomas Myles was director for that sub-district during the year which ended in March, 1897. An election ■ to select his successor not having been held, he appeared
The claim of the plaintiff is -somewhat plausible, but is not, we think, sound. The question underlying the entire controversy, and upon the determination' of which all other questions involved depend, may be stated as follows: Was Thomas Myles entitled to hold the office of sub-director, and to discharge the duties thereof, when this action was commenced? Section 1752 of the Code of 1873, as amended by chapter 19 of the Acts of the Twenty-fourth General Assembly, provided that “each sub-director shall, on or before the third Monday in March following, his election, appear before some officer qualified to administer oaths, and take an oath to- support the constitution of the United States, and that of the state of Iowa, and that he will faithfully discharge the duties of his office; and in case of failure to qualify, or the district fails to elect, the board shall fill the office by appointment.” It may be true, as insisted by the plaintiff, that what was done at the regular meeting of the board of directors was not effectual as an appointment of Myles to succeed himself, but the fact remains that he claimed to hold the office, and to be entitled to discharge its duties by due authority, and that he was in actual possession of the school house under that claim. We said in State v. Alexander, 107 Iowa, 177: “It is the general rule that courts of equity have no jurisdiction to determine the respective rights of claimants to a public office, for the reason that the remedy at law is adequate; and it is also the general rule that an injunction will not lie to restrain a person acting as a public officer from exercising the functions pertaining! to- the office-, on the ground that he- is no-t entitled to- the office.” The case of District Tp. v. Barrett, 47 Iowa, 110, was an attempt to determine which of two- persons had the right to teach school, and that question depended to some extent on who was the legal sub-director in the district.