46 P. 212 | Ariz. | 1896
The appellant, Nathaniel Sharp, as plaintiff:, commenced an action against the appellees, W. L. George et al., as defendants, for an injunction to restrain the defendants from the collection of a tax for the maintenance of a certain union high school in a union high-school district, composed of school districts numbered' 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 16, 21, 27, 30, 34, and 38, in Maricopa County, Arizona. All of said school districts were adjoining, and a majority of the trustees of each petitioned the county school superintendent to establish a union high-school district, to be composed of said school districts. After receiving such petitions from all of said districts, the said superintendent fixed a date for the election, prepared notices thereof, and elections were held on said date in all of said districts, excepting school district No. 16. It appears from the evidence that by accident no notices of said election were posted up in said district No. 16. The evidence shows that at said election there were for the establishment of a union high-school district two hundred and eleven votes, and against it one hundred and twenty-nine votes. It is evident from the record that the trial court treated the territory embraced within' the exterior limits of all the said school districts as one, body; the several districts being treated as so many places' for voting, as election precincts.
It is admitted that the majority at said election in favor of the proposition was not a majority of the qualified electors of the district, and for that reason appellant contends that a union high-school district was not created. In section 3 of said Act No. 32, supra, is the following, viz.: “If a majority of such votes be cast in favor of a high school. ...” These words, considered' in connection with other expressions used in said act lead us to the conclusion that the majority referred to is the majority of those voting, and has no reference to the number of qualified electors residing in the district. People v. Union High School Dist., 101 Cal. 655, 36 Pac. 119; McCrary on Elections, sec. 173, p. 114; State v. Renick, 37 Mo. 270; County of Cass v. Johnston, 95 U. S. 360; St. Joseph Township v. Rogers, 16 Wall. 644.
It is admitted that no notice of the election was given, and that no election was held, in school district No. 16. It is contended by appellant that the failure to give the proper notice for the election in said district, and the failure to hold an election therein, made the entire election in said union high-school district void. We have already said that each school district was a part of the union high-school district, and
Hawkins, J., and Bethune, J., concur.