179 Iowa 500 | Iowa | 1916
“We are desirous of and do hereby petition your honorable body for the formation of a consolidated independent school district, which shall include all contiguous territory herein set out, viz.: * * * (2) that it includes all of Subdistrict Number 1, Liberty Township, Section 1, Sec-
“We respectfully show and represent that we reside on the aforesaid territory, and we hereby respectfully ask that all the territory situated within the limits herein described be organized into one consolidated independent district, and that the question of such organization be submitted to the voters upon said territory at a meeting of the electors thereon after due notice has been given. The above petition approved at Webster City, Iowa, this 21st of January, 1914.
E. F. Snow, ,
County Superintendent.”
Then followed the signatures of the petitioners. The board of directors addressed, having found the petition to have been signed by the required number of electors and approved by the county superintendent, caused to be pre
“Sections Nos. 18, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 33, 34, 35 and 36 in Blairsburg Township, in said county; Sections Nos. 30 and 31 in Williams Township, said county; Sections Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12 in Liberty Township, in said county; and embracing the independent . school district of Blairsburg, in said county.”
This included the territory of the district whose board was addressed. The contention of plaintiffs is that: (1) A board of directors of a district not included in the proposed consolidated district passed on the petition; (2) that it included territory other than that described in the petition, and issued the notice of election whether a district including other territory than that described therein should be organized; (3) that the county superintendent approved the form of the petition, but not the petition after being signed; (4) that the petition was signed by less than one third of the resident electors; and (5) that it was not filed with the board addressed, but handed to one Gardner. Section 2794-a of the Code Supplement, 1913, prescribes the procedure in the organization of consolidated independent school districts, somewhat changed since (see same section, Supplemental Supplement, 1915), and the inquiry necessarily involved is whether that section was complied with. It provides:
“When a petition describing the boundaries of contiguous territory containing not less than sixteen sections within one or more counties is signed by one third of the electors residing on such territory, and approved by the county superintendent, if of one county, and the superintendent of each *if of more than' one county, and by the state superintendent of public „ instruct ion if 1he county superintendents do not agree, and filed with the board of the school corporation in which the portion of the proposed
According to Webster’s Dictionary, “contiguous” means:
“In actual contact; touching; also near, though not in contact; neighboring; joining.”
And the Century Dictionary defines the word as:
“Touching; meeting or joining at the surface or border; hence, close together; neighboring, bordering or joining; adjacent, as to two certain objects, houses or estates.”
The evident design of the legislature was that the 16 or more sections composing the consolidated district should together constitute an undivided or solid body of land. It is not very material whether the territory be described as contiguous to that of the district having the greater number of voters, as contended by appellees, or the entire body to be included therein be indicated by specifying the different tracts to constitute the proposed district, or the boundary lines only be designated. It is enough if the petition as a whole indicates the boundaries of the proposed district in any definite manner, and that the territory included constitutes one body of land. The lands contiguous to that of the independent district were described. If