277 Mo. 28 | Mo. | 1919
The prosecuting attorney of Pike County, upon the relation of D. R. Kemble and others, filed an information in the nature of a, quo warranto for the purposes of annuling the corporate franchise of Consolidated School District No. 3, which had been created according to law, and of ousting its duly elected directors from their offices as such, upon the ground that said corporation and its directors had failed to perform the duty prescribed by law, “to-wit, the maintenance of a high school or consolidated district school therein. "
After the overruling of their demurrer, respondents answered, admitting the incorporation of the consolidated district out of portions of territory of five school districts, at an election held on June 29, 1915; admitting that said consolidated school district had not maintained a high school, but averring that it had maintained two public schools within said consolidated district for instruction up to and including what is known as the eighth grade, and that all school advantages which the inhabitants of said consolidated district had enjoyed before its incorporation were provided and had been maintained for them ever since;, averring further that said prosecuting attorney, shortly after the formation of said consolidated district, to-wit, October 4, 1915', filed an information in the nature of a quo warranto upon the relation of D. R. Kemble and other persons, attacking the validity of the incorporation of said- consolidated district and seeking to forfeit its franchise and oust its then directors from their offices as such; that upon issues joined by answer and reply, said cause was tried in the circuit court on October 22, 1915, and a judgment entered therein against the relators in said proceeding and in favor of the re
To this answer respondents, in the present proceeding, filed a reply admitting their previous attempt by information in the nature of quo warranto, to annul the charter of said consolidated district, and that judgment in that proceeding was rendered in favor of respondents therein; averring that respondents, after the institution of the present action, sought to prohibit its entertainment in the circuit court and that the Supreme Court denied that application. Respondents further replied that thereby the Supreme Court held that the pendency of the former proceeding did not bar the institution of the present information in the nature of a quo warranto, which was brought pending the appeal in the former.
Upon these issues the present case was submitted to the court without a jury. The learned trial judge found that respondents had not established or maintained a high school or consolidated district school since the organization of said Consolidated School District Number Three, whereupon he rendered judgment, on June 14, 1918, “that said Consolidated School District No. 3 of Pike County, be and the same is hereby dissolved and i-ts charter, rights and franchises in all respects forfeited and held for naught,” and further, that its directors named in the present proceeding be ousted from their positions and shorn of all authority as such directors. The learned trial judge further ordered and decreed that the several school districts out of whose territory said consolidated district was formed be restored to all the rights they had prior to the establishment of said consolidated district, with
In addition to the admissipns in the pleadings, the evidence showed that for three years prior to the judgment of the circuit court the respondents had maintained an organization and disbursed the moneys received by them in the maintenance of two common schools for two years during eight months of each year, and for the third year the maintenance of said schools for seven months; that they had expended for these purposes all of the sixty per cent levy of taxation for their, benefit, except what was used in defraying attorneys fees in the litigation attacking the validity of the incorporation of said consolidated school district; that they had not taken a vote for a bond issue to construct a high school, for the reason that such securities would not be marketable pending an appeal from the former judgment in their favor establishing the validity of the incorporation of the consolidated school district.
It is suggested in this case that our records show that the appeal taken from the former judgment in their favor in the former suit was dismissed by the appellants therein after the obtention by them of the judgment from which the present appeal is taken.
The evidence showed that respondents have been seeking to accomplish the ends for which the consolidated district represented-by them was formed, to the extent that the revenue derived by them from taxation and other purposes, except what was paid to their counsel, has been devoted to the maintenance of schools for the benefit of the inhabitants of the district.
“ Those cases were bottomed upon the proposition that the title to an. office under this State was involved, although the person was not a State officer within the meaning of the Constitution. Since the rendition of those decisions this court has entertained jurisdiction in cases seeking to oust school directors from their office on the ground that the case involved the title to an office under this State, although the person was not a State officer, and this, too, notwithstanding it has also been held that a school district is not a political subdivision of this State so as to confer appellate jurisdiction upon this court in cases where a school district is a party.” [State ex rel. v. Harter, 188 Mo. l. c. 527.]
It is apparent from this ruling that the Kansas City Court of Appeals had no jurisdiction whatever of the subject-matter of the action as far as it sought to oust the school directors from the tenure of their offices as such, and that its judgment affirming that of the circuit court on that point was void.
The undisputed facts in this case bring it clearly within the doctrine announced by this court in banc in State ex inf. McAllister v. Con. School Dist. No. 2, 275 Mo. 522. In that case it will be noted that the quo warranto was brought by the Attorney-General of the State, solely in his official capacity, to forfeit the charter of a consolidated school district and oust its directors, for the alleged failure on their part to
It is not denied in the present case that all the revenue obtainable by the respondent Consolidated School District has been honestly and faithfully applied to the purposes of its organization. The pith of the contention of the learned counsel for relator is that the Consolidated District has not up to the present time erected a high school building. A complete answer to that suggestion is furnished by the record facts disclosing that until the rendition of the judgment of the lower court in this case, there was pending on appeal in this court a quo ivarrcmto filed for the purpose of dissolving the respondent corporation. It was a simple matter of prudence and in consonance with the advice of their counsel, that the respondent directors did not hold an election for the purpose of authorizing an issue of bonds while the question of the validity of their incorporation was before the court and undetermined. It is common knowledge that it would have been impossible to market or sell such bonds at anything like their fair value, while a suit was undisposed of
Under the pleadings and evidence the judgment of the trial court was erroneous: it is therefore reversed and the cause remanded with directions -to dismiss the petition. It is so ordered.