1 S.D. 593 | S.D. | 1891
Lead Opinion
This was an action based upon three certain warrants drawn in favor of one H. H. Calhoun by the school board of distrtct No. 6, Davison county, which district was succeeded by the City of Mitchell. The warrants are dated September 10, 1881, are of the amounts of $350, $350, and $330, respectively, and were issued by the school board of that district in final settlement upon a contract for building a school house, and subsequently transferred by Calhoun to the plaintiff. The answer of defendant alleges that the warrants or orders set out in the several causes of action were issued by school district No. 6 without authority of law, and alleges several affirmative defenses denying the liability of the district to pay them, but makes an offer to allow judgment to be taken against it for the sum of $350, together with interest at 10 per cent, from the 10th day of September, 1881, to the present time, together with costs of the action; the same being the amount claimed by the plaintiff in its first cause of action. This offer was made under Section 5246, Comp. Laws. An agreed statement of facts was filed, to be taken in lieu of facts determined and found by a jury. The cause was submitted to, and duly tried by, the court, and the following findings of fact and conclusions of law were found:' “Findings of fact: The above entitled cause came on for trial before the court by agreement of parties, and the court finds that the facts hereinbefore set forth, and agreed upon by said parties, are true, and that there is due said plaintiff from said defendant the sum of $1,030, with interest thereon at the rate of 10 per cent per annum from said 10th day of September, 1881.” The court made and found the following conclusions of law: “(1) That upon the incorporation and organization of defendant, City of Mitchell, and the merger of said school district No. 6 herein, the defendant, City of Mitchell, became legally responsible for, and holden to pay and discharge, the valid and legal claims and obligations then outstanding against said school district number 6. (2) That said school district number 6 was, and this defendant,
In considering the first proposition, — of the authority of the school board to change the plan of the school house before or during its erection, — the agreed statement of facts must be critically examined to ascertain the full power of the board as delegated to it by the legal voters of the district. The facts show that at a meeting of the school district No. 6, duly noticed and called, on the 1st day of July, 1880, this board was authorized ‘ ‘to build a suitable school house for said school district, and to expend a sum of money not- to exceed five thousand dollars in building the same.” At the same meeting the school board were instructed to procure plans for a school house, to be presented to the people for their consideration at the place of holding their next meeting. The meeting then ad
Was the school board authorized to issue the three orders or
With great care we have fully examined all the Cases cited by appellant in support of its position, particularly the leading case of Zottman v. City of San Francisco. 20 Cal. 97. That was an action founded on a bill for extra work, including material furnished for its execution. The charter of San Francisco pr-ovided explicitly how improvements should be made, and how contracts for' work should be let, and empowered the common council to pass all proper and necessary laws for such improvements, and required every ordinance providing for
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting.) I am unable to assent to the conclusions reached by a majority of the court. The case, as I understand the agreed statement of facts, is substantially this: In July 1880, at a regularly called meeting of the electors of school district No. 6, it was unanimously voted that the school board be authorized to build a suitable school house, and to expend therefor not to exceed the sum of §5,000. This is the only authority ever given to the school board to raise or expend any money on account of this school building, and no funds were provided by the district meeting for the construction of the school house, except it was embraced in the authority given the board to build the school house, and “to expend therefor not to exceed the sum of §5,000.” On August 2, 1880, five days before the contract to build the school house was let, 'the school board issued and sold a school district order for §5,000 to raise funds with which to build the school house the distinct had authorized to be built at its July meeting. The question, then, presented is, was the school board authorized — after having issued and negotiated the school district order for §5,000, the amount to which the board had been limited by the district meeting — to issue further orders, binding upon the district, without further authority from the electors of the school district?
1. School districts are corporations of the lowest order of public corporation, and they and the officers thereof, or school
In New Hampshire, in Harris v. School Dist., supra, the court says: “The district may clearly, by their votes for building and repairing school houses, limit the expense to a definite sum; and they may limit the precise repairs, or the exact description of the school house to be built; and when this is done the committee cannot bind the district by exceeding those
There are several other questions presented by the briefs of counsel, and discussed in the opinion of the court; but as my dissent is based upon the want of authority in the school board to issue the orders in controversy, issued in September, 1881, they being, as I claim, in addition to the $5,000 order issued August 2, 1880, I do not deem it necessary to consider them.