44 Wash. 523 | Wash. | 1906
A meeting of the voters of appellant school district was called, under the authority of Bal. Code, § 2442, by order of the board of directors. Notice of said meeting was given by posting the following notice:
“No. 26.
“Notice of Special School District Meeting.
“Notice is hereby given that a special meeting of the legal school electors of school district No. 25, of Snohomish county, Washington, will be held at Primary School building in said district on the 8th day of August, 1906, beginning at the hour of one o’clock p. m. of said day, for the purpose of determining the location of a school site and the erection of a four room building thereon for school purposes.
“By order of the Board of Directors.
“Dated this 27th day of July, 1906.
“(Signed) M. Swinnerton, School District Clerk.”
The only question presented upon the appeal is as to the sufficiency of the notice hereinbefore set forth. It is contended by respondent that this notice is fatally defective under the statute and the decision of this court in the case of Peth v. Martin, 31 Wash. 1, 71 Pac. 549. In that case § 2280 of Bal. Code was construed, and it was held that the clause “By posting written or printed notice in like manner as is provided for calling an annual school district election,” required that, the notice should state the “hours between which the polls will be kept open” as provided for notice of annual elections. Said section 2280 makes provision for a meeting of the residents of two or more school districts for the purpose of establishing a union or graded school, and provides that if a majority of the electors of each district shall vote to unite, a union district is created.
This court in effect held, in the Peth v. Martin case, that the meeting provided for by said section of the statute is virtually an election, and that consequently the notice should set forth the hours during which the polls are to be kept open. But the meeting provided for by §' 2442 is not an election, and we do not' think that there is anything in the statute requiring a vote by ballot, a ballot box or the keeping open or closing of polls. It was a meeting of the voters of the district for conference and consultation, fashioned after the town meetings of the New England and other older states of
The notice here involved is in form that prescribed by the superintendent of public instruction and published with the school laws for many years. While the construction placed upon a statute by a department of the government having to do with the subj ect-matter thereof is not conclusive upon the courts, yet such interpretation (and especially when long observed) will not be ignored or lightly regarded. State ex rel.
The notice stated that the meeting Would begin at the hour of 1:00 o’clock p. m. Having then commenced and continued in session until 1:30, and there not having been anything in the notice to mislead any of the voters of the district, we think no legal or sufficient reason is shown for holding the proceedings illegal.
The judgment of the honorable superior court is reversed, and the cause remanded with instructions to dismiss the action.
Mount, C. J., Dunbar, Crow, Rudkin, Fullerton, and Hadley, JJ., concur.