75 Mo. 558 | Mo. | 1882
On the 25th day of June, 1877, a petition was filed in the St. .Francois circuit court on behalf of certain school districts through which the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway runs, asking that a mandamus be issued to the justices of the county court of St. Francois county, compelling them to distribute among said districts certain school taxes collected from said railroad for the years 1871,1872,1873, 1874 and 1875, under a levy made in January, 1875. A peremptory writ was awarded by the circuit court, as prayed by the petitioners. The only question presented by the record is whether the said taxes should be distributed among all the school districts in the county, in the proportion which the number of children in each district bears to the whole number of children in said county, as provided by the act of March 31st, 1875, April 28th, 1877, and section 6880 of the Revised Statutes, or whether said taxes should be distributed -only among the school districts through which the railroad