176 N.E. 284 | Ill. | 1931
This is an appeal from a judgment of ouster and costs entered by the circuit court of Lake county upon an information in the nature of quo warranto brought by appellee against appellants attacking their right to act as members of the board of education of Community High School District No. 127, Lake county, Illinois. The sole ground of attack is the contention of the appellee that the act of the General Assembly approved June 17, 1929, under which Community High School District No. 127 was organized, (Smith's Stat. 1929, chap. 122, par. 99a, p. 2622,) entitled, "An act to add section 91a to 'An act to establish and maintain a system of free schools,' approved June 12, 1909, as amended," is unconstitutional. To the information filed, by leave of court the appellants filed a plea setting forth in detail the organization of the school district and their election as a board of education. To this plea the appellee filed a demurrer attacking the constitutionality of the act in question. The trial court sustained the demurrer, and when the appellants elected to stand by their plea the judgment above mentioned was entered against them. *399
The petition filed in this cause set forth that the appellee is a township high school district in Lake county organized and existing under the laws of this State; that on June 17, 1929, the General Assembly passed an act adding section 91a to the School law; that thereafter the county superintendent of schools of Lake county, claiming to act under the provisions of section 91a, entered an order detaching certain territory from Deerfield-Shields Township High School District No. 113 and creating a new community high school district comprising the territory so detached, to be known as Community High School District No. 127; that section 91a is unconstitutional and void, and that therefore the appellants had no lawful right to the offices which they claimed to hold and for the same reason district 127 had no lawful existence. An order was entered by the court granting leave to file the information, and thereupon the information in the nature of quo warranto was filed attacking the title of the appellants to the office of high school trustees, alleging the unconstitutionality of section 91a. The appellants filed their appearance as respondents to the petition, with their plea of justification. The plea sets forth that district 113 is a duly organized township high school district and prior to the creation of district 127 comprised certain described territory, including within its boundaries the incorporated city of Highland Park, of more than 10,000 inhabitants, and the incorporated city of Lake Forest, of more than 5000 inhabitants; that on April 1, 1930, a petition was filed with the county superintendent of schools of Lake county, signed by more than 2000 legal voters, constituting more than two-thirds of the legal voters in the territory described in the petition, asking that such territory be detached from district 113 and created into a new community high school district in accordance with the provisions of section 91a. The plea then sets forth in detail the procedure followed in forming the new district and manner of the nomination and election of the appellants as members *400 of its board of education and its organization in due course. Since no irregularities are pointed out in the various steps taken to organize the new district, we shall confine our inquiry solely to the constitutionality of the amended statute permitting such new districts to be created.
Without burdening this opinion with lengthy quotations from the provisions of amended section 91a, we may say, generally, that it grants additional authority to the county superintendent of schools to create new high school districts and/or alter the boundaries of existing high school districts when petitioned by certain numbers of voters. Under its provisions authority is granted, first, to detach territory from one existing district and add it to another; second, to create a new community high school district out of territory detached from one or more existing districts; third, to annex territory not within a high school district to an existing district; and fourth, to create a new community high school district out of territory detached from existing districts and also non-high school territory. In the case before the court a new community high school district was formed with territory detached from an existing district under the provisions of the second clause, which is subject to the proviso in the statute that both the new district and the remainder of the existing district shall each contain an incorporated city of at least 3000 inhabitants.
It is chiefly contended by the appellee that section 91a is a special law, and therefore unconstitutional in that it permits the formation of a new district in this case simply because the city of Lake Forest contains 3000 or more inhabitants and the city of Highland Park contains 3000 or more inhabitants, while the act by its terms denies such privileges to many districts similarly situated which do not have within their boundaries any city or village of 3000 or more inhabitants. For this reason it asserts that the provisions of the statute in question are arbitrary and unreasonable restrictions and violative of that portion of section 22 *401
of article 4 of the constitution which prohibits the passing of local or special laws "granting to any corporation, association or individual any special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever." On the other hand, the appellants contend that the only provision of section 22 of article 4 dealing specifically with schools is the provision that no special or local law shall be enacted "providing for the management of common schools." These opposite contentions with reference to section 22 of article 4 were heretofore considered by this court in People v. Weis,
The same contention was made in the Weis case as is made in the case at bar, namely, that section 22 of article 4 of the constitution has no reference to the establishment of schools. In response to that contention this court said, commencing at page 588 of the opinion: "It is contended that this court has held in a number of cases that no constitutional limitation has been placed on the legislature with reference to the formation of school districts, and our attention has been called toSpeight v. People,
The reasoning and decision of this court in the Weis case
were followed in two other cases involving the same question then pending, (Lafferty v. Moore,
The appellants cite several cases in support of their contention that section 91a is not unconstitutional as a local or *404
special law. Two of these cited cases (Speight v. People,supra, and Land Comrs. v. Kaskaskia Commons, supra,) were mentioned and distinguished in a portion of the opinion in theWeis case above quoted. In other cases cited by them (Maulding v. Skillet Fork Drainage District,
From the authorities cited it will be seen that special as well as local laws are forbidden under our constitution respecting the several subjects enumerated in section 22 of article 4, (People v. Wilcox, supra,) but upon other subjects they may be constitutional even where they apply only to a portion of the people of the State, provided they apply equally to all members of a designated class and are based upon a reasonable classification having proper relation to the objects and purposes of the legislation. (People v. Weis, supra.) In other words, conceding that the special objects sought by the legislature in the enactment of section 91a are not forbidden by section 22 of article 4, it only remains for us to determine whether the law in question offers a reasonable basis of classification to attain the objects sought in its passage. *405
While the legislature may make classification the basis for legislation in proper instances, the general rule is that a classification will suffice as a basis for legislation only where such classification is based upon a rational difference of situation or condition found to exist in the persons or objects upon which the classification rests. (People v. Nellis,
What were the objects and purposes of the legislation in question? Undoubtedly the legislature was concerned primarily with the general objects and purposes of the whole School law enacted in compliance with the mandate of the constitution, (art. 8, sec. I,) as follows: "The General Assembly shall provide a thorough and efficient system of free schools, whereby all children of this State may receive a good common school education." It has frequently been *406 held by this court that the establishment and maintenance of high schools is a part of the general scheme of the system of free schools contemplated by this section of the constitution. It therefore follows that any classification which arbitrarily prevents any portion of the inhabitants of the State from enjoying the benefits of the act on account of restrictive provisions not reasonably related to the objects and purposes of the legislation must be construed to be invalid and such act unconstitutional. The general law providing for the creation of high school districts makes no classification of such character. No provision can be found, except in section 91a, requiring a high school district to contain an incorporated city or village of at least 3000 population. Since nearly one-third of the counties in this State do not contain a city or village with a population of 3000 or over, it can readily be seen that such a classification as the one stated prevents the inhabitants of many high school districts of this State from receiving any advantages under the law. The act in question is not based upon the total population of the new district and each of the remaining districts, but it goes further and provides, regardless of total population, that at least 3000 of such population must in each case be included within the corporate limits of a city or village. This is an arbitrary provision which has no logical connection or reasonable relation with the objects or purposes of the legislation. Its effect is to exclude the inhabitants of a great portion of the State from many of its benefits. Many community or township high school districts in the State do not contain an incorporated city or village of 3000 inhabitants within their boundaries but nevertheless should be given, if desired, the privilege of altering their high school district lines to conform to changes in population or for other reasons deemed by them important. For instance, the provisions of section 91a would permit two districts to be made of one having a total population *407 of 7000 so long as each of these districts contained an incorporated city or village of 3000 or more inhabitants, but would deny such change in a district containing a total population of 8000 where each of the proposed districts contained a city of only 2500 inhabitants. In the last example cited, the district to be created and the one remaining might each have a greater population, greater wealth and greater need to change their boundary lines than those in the first example, yet under the provisions of this law they would be arbitrarily excluded from its benefits because their population, while greater, was insufficiently concentrated in their two cities. It is difficult to understand what possible connection there can be between the requirements that the new district and each of the remaining districts must each contain a city or village of not less than 3000 population, and the necessity or desirability of altering boundary lines and creating new districts. There would seem to be no reason why districts which do not contain cities of 3000 population should be deprived of the right to alter their boundaries or create new districts, while other districts — some larger and some smaller in total population — are allowed that privilege simply because each contains a city of 3000 inhabitants. The distinction is purely arbitrary. Many high school districts in the State would not be able to come within the precise limitations of such a law and it would thus not operate uniformly upon all.
In our judgment the provisions of section 91a are contrary to the constitutional provision forbidding special legislation and are therefore void.
The judgment of the circuit court of Lake county is accordingly affirmed.
Judgment affirmed. *408