10 N.E.2d 806 | Ill. | 1937
The questions presented in this cause are whether section 91a, added to the School law in 1929, (Laws of 1929, p. 741,) is void and unconstitutional in its entirety, and *238 the right of appellants to prosecute this appeal. Appellee and others filed a petition with the county superintendent of schools of Kankakee county for the annexation of certain non-high school territory to the Momence Community High School District No. 158. It is agreed that the petition and proceedings conformed to the provisions of section 91a. The county superintendent refused to annex the territory. Upon relator's petition and the answer of the county superintendent of schools, the circuit court awarded a writ of mandamus commanding the annexation.
Appellants were not parties to the mandamus proceeding. They appeal on the ground that they were owners of land within the territory ordered to be annexed and are injured by the order awarding the writ and will be benefited by its reversal. Appellee contends that neither the record nor the assignment of errors show that, at the time the notice of appeal was filed, appellants owned any land in the territory ordered to be annexed and that, therefore, they have no right to appeal.
Prior to the enactment of the Civil Practice act, one not a party to a suit had no right to appeal. (People v. FranklinCounty Building Ass'n,
Section 91a provides for creating new districts and the alteration of the boundaries of existing districts by the county superintendent of schools when petitioned by the requisite number of voters. By separate numbered paragraphs, it specifies he shall change the boundaries of township or community high-school districts so as (first) to detach territory from one high school district and add it to another high school district; (second) to create a community high school district from territory belonging to one or more township or community high school districts; (third) to annex territory not within a high school district to an existing high school district; and (fourth) to create a community high school district from territory belonging to one or more high school districts or a non-high school district; provided, no new community high school district be created wholly or in part from territory belonging to one or more high school districts unless the new district, and each of the remaining districts affected, contains an incorporated city or village of at least 3000 population. The proceedings in this case were under the third paragraph.
Appellants' contention that section 91a is unconstitutional in its entirety is based solely on our holding in People v. Read,
It is obvious that the issues and their determination in that case were confined to the question of the effect of the proviso to the fourth paragraph. No question as to the validity of any other paragraph of section 91a was considered or at issue. It is equally obvious that the four paragraphs have no relation to each other. The situation intended to be covered by each of them is different from and independent of that of the others. In this case the proceedings were under the third paragraph, with which the illegal proviso to the fourth paragraph has no connection.
It has often been recognized that some of the provisions of a statute may be opposed to the constitution, while other provisions, standing by themselves, are unobjectionable. Void and valid parts of an act may be found in the same section or in different sections. The fact that part of a statute may be unconstitutional does not authorize the courts to declare the remainder void unless all the provisions are so connected in subject matter, and are so dependent upon each other, that the legislature would not be presumed to have passed the one without the other. (People v. Crowe,
The order of the circuit court is, therefore, affirmed.
Order affirmed.