189 Iowa 853 | Iowa | 1920
Plaintiffs are residents and taxpayers within the consolidated independent district of Jefferson, Jefferson Township, Polk County, Iowa,, and defendants comprise its board of directors, and the auditor and treasurer of said county. The petition assails the validity of the organization of said district upon the grounds of indeffniteness, irregularity, inaccuracy, and conflict in the description of the proposed boundary and territory thereof, as set forth in the petition and notices of election therefor,
The petition also charges that, if the incorporation of the district was valid, it had, at the times complained of, ceased to have a legal existence, for the reasons that, since its organization,, the United States government has acquired, for military purposes, more than two sections of the territory situated therein, same constituting a part of the cantonment known as Camp Dodge; that 120 acres originally included therein have been ceded by the board of directors to the neighboring district of Crimes; that no effort to carry out the purpose of said incorporation has been made since its organization, in 1917; and that said', district has been abandoned, and ceased to function as such;; and that, by reason of the action of the United States government and the board of. directors, as above set forth, the territory within said district has been reduced to less than 16 sections.
It is also alleged in said petition that the defendant board of directors has determined that no school shall be conducted in said district, except in a building located within the limits of the territory acquired by the United States government for military purposes, and is threatening and proposing to remove a schoolhouse, situated in said consolidated district, to a site located outside of the territorial limits of the said district, which site is unsanitary and unsuitable for school purposes, for the reasons that same is located near an interurban railway and station, and in the vicinity of picnic grounds, and of a place frequented by, and forming a common meeting ground for, immoral characters of both sexes,, and used for immoral purposes; that soldiers in charge of trucks and automobiles
It is further alleged in said petition that, on or about June 30, 1917, at an election held for that purpose, the electors within said district voted to issue bonds in the sum of $20,000, for the purpose of creating a fund to be used in the erection of a schoolhouse; and that, subsequent thereto, the defendant board of directors made and certified a tax levy for school purposes to the county auditor of Polk County upon a part only of the real estate originally comprised in said district; that the taxes so levied, if payment thereof-be enforced and the bonds issued and sold, would impose an unlawful and oppressive burden upon the property and taxpayers within said district, and a burden not contemplated by the parties at the time of the organization of said district. Plaintiffs pray that the defendants be enjoined from removing said school building, and from issuing and selling bonds, and that the taxes levied and certified to the county auditor be canceled, and their collection enjoined. Possibly,, the foregoing summary of the allegations of plaintiff’s petition does not include all of the essential matters therein set forth, but the omission, if any, will be supplied in the discussion to follow.
This is practically conceded by counsel for ■ appellant;
The selection of a site for the school building is peculiarly within the authority and discretion of the board of directors, and can be reviewed only upon appeal to the county superintendent, or to the superintendent of public instruction upon appeal from his decision. Munn v. Independent Sch. Dist., 188 Iowa 757; Clay v. Independent Sch. Dist., 187 Iowa 89. It is well settled in this state that the courts may not review the action of school officers which is based upon the exercise of discretion, and which is within their powers. Templer v. School Township, 160 Iowa 398; Knowlton v. Baumhover, 182 Iowa 691; Clay v. Independent Sch. Dist., 187 Iowa 89; Munn v. Independent Sch. Dist., supra. If, however, the threatened action of the board, which it seeks to have enjoined, is in excess of its legal authority, injunction will lie to restrain such action. Knowlton v. Baumhover, supra; Hume v. Independent Sch. Dist., 180 Iowa 1233; Kinzer v. Directors, 129 Iowa 441; Hinkle v. Saddler, 97 Iowa 526; Burkhead v. Independent Sch. Dist., 107 Iowa 29; Peterson v. Pratt, 183 Iowa 462.
What is here said applies also to the remaining grounds upon which it is sought to enjoin the removal of said school building. They all relate to the suitable character of the proposed new site for the location of a school building. In the selection of a site for the location of a school
The petition charges that the promoters of the proposed consolidated district, in advance of the election, fraudulently arranged with the owners of the 120-acre tract to cede the same to the independent school district of Grimes, before it would be subjected to taxation in the new consolidated district, in exchange for the support or acquiescence of such owners in the organization of the proposed district, and that said land was ceded, in pursuance of said fraudulent arrangement. Whatever might be the probative value of such arrangement, if shown, upon the trial of an action to test the validity of the corporation, it can be given no weight in determining the legality of the levy in question.
The prayer of the petition is that the taxes levied be canceled, and the treasurer enjoined from enforcing payment thereof. It is not alleged in the petition, or claimed by counsel, that the levy was not made upon all of the taxable property within the district, except the 120-acre tract, or that the board sought, in making such levy, by specific provision to exempt the same from bearing its appropriate portion thereof. The action of the board in ceding the 120-acre tract to a neighboring district, if unauthorized and illegal, may, of course, be set aside in an appropriate proceeding for that purpose, and the tract be subjected to the payment of taxes for the support of the consolidated district.
Counsel for appellants contend with much earnestness that the allegations of the petition admitted by the demurrer entitle plaintiff to the relief prayed. We are of the opinion, however, that, for the reasons stated, the petition does not state a cause of action; and many of the questions presented are fully settled by the prior decisions of this court. It fol