276 S.W. 584 | Ark. | 1925
This is a controversy between two adjoining special school districts in Pulaski County concerning the distribution of taxes on certain tracts of land, each district claiming that the lands in controversy lie within its boundaries. The action was instituted by appellant in the Pulaski Chancery Court against appellee and the county clerk and treasurer of the county to restrain the clerk and treasurer from distributing the taxes on the lands in controversy, and to compel the officers, by mandamus, to distribute those taxes to appellant district, and also to restrain the distribution of taxes for future years to appellee district. In the original complaint there was also a prayer for recovery from appellee district of the amount of taxes on these lands for prior years used by appellee district, but the amended complaint omits that prayer; at least, it is not insisted here that appellant is entitled to recover of the Halstead Special *646 School District the taxes received and used by the district in prior years. The only effort is to secure for appellant district the taxes for the years 1923 and 1924, which were in the hands of the treasurer, and also to prevent diversion of those funds to the Halstead District in future years.
The history of the formation of both the districts and the description of the boundaries, so far as disclosed by the records of the county court, are brought into the record of this case. It appears from those records that Common School District No. 1 was created by an order of the county court in the year 1869, and embraced the lands involved in the present controversy. Common School District No. 39 was created by order of the county court on March 10, 1885, out of a part of the territory of District No. 1, including the lands in controversy. On June 27, 1885, Common School District No. 40 was created by order of the county court out of part of the territory of District No. 39, and embraced the lands in controversy, and on April 27, 1906, District Nos. 39 and 40 were consolidated and designated as Common School District No. 40. In the year 1914, Common School District No. 40 was converted into a rural special or single school district designated as Mabelvale Special School District. It is thus seen that, according to the record, the lands in controversy were originally in Common School District No. 1 and then in District No. 39 and then in District No. 40 and then in Mabelvale special School District, and, and according to those records the lands are in that district now.
It is the claim in behalf of Halstead Special School District that about the year 1901 there was an order of the county court changing the boundaries of Districts Nos. 1. and 39 so that the lands in controversy were retransferred from the latter to the former, and that when the Halstead Special School District was created by order of the county court in the year 1918 out of the territory of Common School District No. 1, the lands in *647
controversy thereby fell within the boundaries of that district. In the trial of the case in the chancery court, the Halstead Special School District sought to sustain its contention by introducing parol testimony to prove an order of the county court retransferring the lands in controversy from Common School District No. 39 to Common school District No. 1. Conceding that such proof was competent to establish such a record (Davies v. Pettit,
Our conclusion therefore is that the court erred in denying the relief sought for by appellant.
There is no effort at the present time, as we have already said, to recover taxes for prior years, and it is obvious that appellant is not entitled to recover taxes which have been regularly, though erroneously, distributed to appellee district and consumed in educational purposes. It is too late now for appellant to recover *649 those funds, but appellant is entitled to the funds arising from taxation on the cited lands and to have those funds distributed to it; that is to say, the taxes in the hands of the treasurer at the time this suit was commenced and all subsequent taxes.
The decree is reversed, and the cause remanded with directions to enter a decree in accordance with the the prayer of amended complaint.