109 Wash. 37 | Wash. | 1919
This is an original proceeding in this court, wherein relator school district seeks a writ of mandate directed to the defendant, state auditor, commanding him to accept negotiable bonds of the school district in the sum of $75,000, and. also to issue to the school district in payment therefor a warrant for that amount against the permanent school fund of the state, in pursuance of a bid for such bonds made by the officers of the state authorized to invest the permanent school fund, and the acceptance of such bid by the directors of the school district. The auditor has-refused to accept such bonds and issue a warrant in payment therefor, contending that, at the time of the tendering and acceptance of the bid, and at all times since then, the district has not possessed any legal authority to issue such bonds.
The controlling facts are not in dispute, and may be summarized as follows: On May 24, 1919, there was regularly held in the school district a special election, at which it was decided, by the required vote of the electors of the district, that the district borrow the-sum of $75,000 and issue its negotiable interest-bearing bonds evidencing its indebtedness in that sum. To make certain just what the directors of the district proposed and submitted to the electors of the district, we quote from the complaint, as follows:
"On the 29th day of April, 1919, .the board of directors of plaintiff and relator did, by resolution, duly” resolve, among other things, that the sum of $75,000 be borrowed by said plaintiff and relator with which to provide more adequate facilities for said school district, by the erection of one or more school build*39 ings to be used for school purposes in conjunction with the' present school buildings upon the several sites owned by said school district, and to provide the school buildings of said district with necessary furniture, apparatus and equipment, and make betterments thereon, and to improve the school grounds surrounding said buildings, and to issue bonds therefor, such bonds to be payable in twenty years after the date of their issue, but the same to be payable and redeemable at the option of the said school district at any time after ten years from the date of their issue, and to draw a rate of interest not to exceed six per cent per annum, interest to be payable annually or semi-annually.”
"While this allegation of the complaint refers to the original resolution of the board of directors, other allegations of the complaint show that this was the proposition submitted to, and voted upon by, the electors. This proposition, and the adoption thereof by the electors, was in accord with the powers of the district as prescribed by § 4607, Rem. Code, as then in force, relating to the borrowing of money and issuance of bonds by school districts. The concluding language of that section, as then in force, and here to be particularly noticed, is as follows:
“the bonds so issued shall bear a rate of interest not to exceed six per cent per annum, interest payable annually or semi-annually, payable and redeemable at such time as may be designated in the bonds, but not to exceed twenty (20) years from date of issue.”
Soon after that election, one Lee, a resident and taxpayer of the school district, commenced an action in the superior court for Whatcom county, seeking to have the directors enjoined from issuing any bonds as proposed and voted for, contending that there were irregularities in the calling and holding of the election rendering it void and of no effect. Thereafter, on June 6, 1919, that action came regularly on for hearing on
“All school district bonds shall be payable within a period of not to exceed twenty-three years from date, except when issued by districts of the first class for the purpose of acquiring building or playground sites, or of erecting buildings of a permanent character, in which case they shall be made payable in semi-annual installments, beginning the third year, over any period not exceeding forty years from date.” Laws of 1919, page 216, § 12.
Relator is a school district of the first class; so it is plain that this quoted language of the amendatory act relates to the issuance of bonds by this district for the erection of buildings of a permanent character, which, we have seen, is the purpose for which at least a large portion of these bonds are proposed to be issued. Therefore the proposed bonds, if issued, will be materially different from bonds authorized to be issued by school districts of the first class for buildings of a permanent character under § 4607, as amended, in that such proposed bonds will not be “payable in semi-annual installments,” as the section, as amended, pro
It is contended in behalf of the auditor that his acceptance of the bonds proposed and voted to be issued, for which the officers of the state authorized to invest the permanent school fund bid for the purchase of, and his issuance of a warrant in payment thereof, would be an illegal act on his part, in that such act would be the acceptance of and paying for bonds which the school district, at the time of accepting the bid, July 12, 1919, and at all times since June 12, 1919, the date of going into force of the amendatory act of 1919 (Laws 1919, p. 216, §12), had no power to lawfully issue. We feel constrained to hold that this contention must be sustained.
It is elementary law that school districts, under our system of government, possess only such powers as may be conferred upon them by legislative enactment. Whether or not such districts shall possess the power to borrow money and issue negotiable bonds evidenc
“All school district bonds . . . when issued by districts of the first class for . . . erecting buildings of a permanent character, . . . shall be made payable in semi-annual, installments, beginning the third year, over any period not exceeding forty years from date.” Laws 1919, p. 216, § 12.
It. seems to us that citation of authority is hardly necessary to support the view that, since the going into effect of the amendatory act, on June 12, 1919, this school district has not possessed the power to' issue the bonds as proposed and voted, and that no
Counsel for the school district now contend that the judgment rendered in the case of Lee against the district became res judicata and binding upon all of the taxpayers of the district as to the validity of the bonds proposed to be issued, and that the state auditor has no different rights in that behalf than a, taxpayer of the district would have. Counsel invoke the general rule that, where a citizen and taxpayer brings an action in behalf of himself and all other taxpayers of the municipality, seeking the enjoining of the issuance of bonds of the municipality upon the grounds that the issuing of them would be illegal and void, and final judgment is rendered in such action, upon the merits, such judgment becomes final and binding upon all the taxpayers of the district as well as the district itself, citing Stallcup v. Tacoma, 13 Wash. 141, 42 Pac. 541, 52 Am. St. 25, and State ex rel. Forgues v. Superior Court, 70 Wash. 670, 127 Pac. 313. We may concede for present purposes, that the judgment in the Lee case became binding upon the district and all the tax-' payers therein, and even upon the auditor, in so far as the power to issue the proposed bonds at the time, or any time prior to June 12, 1919,. is concerned; but that, as we view it, will not aid the district in this case. That judgment was rendered in the superior court on June 6, 1919, and, as the law then existed, it was correct, as afterwards held by this court. Manifestly the question here- involved, that is, the question of the power possessed by the school district after the
The writ is denied.
All concur.