4 Wash. 299 | Wash. | 1892
The opinion of the court was delivered by
1. Whatever criticism might be justly visited upon the school directors for calling and recalling elections, we cannot say that the result of the last election did not authorize the issuance of the bonds. Such action as that complained of mightperhaps sustain proceedings to
2. It is argued that the election was not free or fair, and that the electors voted for the bonds, if a majority of them did so, through disgust with the whole proceeding, or through intimidation in view of the directors’ threat that they would keep on calling elections until their plan was adopted. But that state of facts is not in the complaint, except by inference in the allegation that the threats were made.
3. The election was held June 20,1891, under a notice dated June 5th. Three copies only of the notice were posted in the district, and the full time of notice was fourteen days. It is conceded that the matter of notice was regulated by the statute, and that the statute must be complied with. Appellant maintains that these special school elections could only be held after twenty days’ notice posted in five places, as prescribed by § 45 of the general school law of 1886 (Acts, p. 17).
The act authorizing school districts to issue bonds (Laws 1889-90, p. 46) prescribed that the question of issuance should be submitted to an election held in the manner pre
We do not attach the importance, urged by the appel. lant, to the bonding act of 1890 in the matter of calling these elections. Had that law prescribed that bond elections should be called “ in the manner provided for calling special school elections by the act of 1886,” the case would have been different. That would have been an incorporation of the act of 1886 into the new act; but the language used merely shows that the law of the subject is to control, as it may be changed from time to time.
4. Was registration necessary? We conclude from a comparison of the general school law of 1890, and the registration law of that year, that it was not. No provision whatever is made in the latter law for furnishing poll books to school directors; the duty of the clerk is limited
5. Section 2 of the act authorizing school districts to issue bonds, provides for their issuance upon a majority vote in their favor, unless the proposed bonds will increase the district indebtedness to a sum more than one and one-half per cent of the taxable property therein, when the majority must be three-fifths; but from the gross amount of thebonds there maybe deducted any outstanding indebtedness to be redeemed with the proceeds of the bonds. The complaint shows that 254 votes were cast at the election in this instance, of which 155 were in favor and 99 were against the bond issue. There was, therefore, a three-fifths majority for the bonds. Against this showing it is alleged that “a large number of illegal votes were cast,” to wit, more than ten, by persons not residents of the district for the bonds, and that if these votes were rejected, there would not be a three-fifths majority remaining; also, that “a number of persons who were under the age of twenty-one years” voted for thbe onds; also, that eighty
This leaves the allegations that ten non-residents, and a number of persons under twenty-one years of age, voted illegally for the bonds. The second allegation was too indefinite to be considered. The first one the court also held insufficient, because the persons who voted as alleged were not named. Whether this be a material error (if, indeed, it be an error at all, which we shall not decide) will depend on whether the exclusion of ten votes would have changed the result. The fourteenth allegation of the complaint was as follows:
“That if the bonds are issued by said district in the sum of $5,475, the indebtedness of school district No. 46 will be thereby increased to an amount exceeding one and one-half per centum of the taxable property of such school district.”
But it appears that out of the proceeds of the bonds $450 was to be devoted to paying outstanding indebtedness of the district, and it is not stated whether when that sum has been thus used the debt of the district, including the bonds, will be more than the one and one-half per cent. The presumption is that it will not be, and therefore only a majority vote was necessary, and the rejection of the ten illegal votes would not change the result. Nor do we think that any complaint in such a case would be sufficient unless it stated the amount of the taxable property in the district.
Some other points were argued,but they are not material to the decision of the case.
The judgment of the superior court sustaining a demurrer to the complaint and dismissing the action is therefore affirmed.
Anders, O. J., and Hoyt and Scott, J.J., concur.
Dunbar, J., not sitting.