67 Mo. 706 | Mo. | 1878
— The plaintiff'presented a petition to the circuit court of Jasper county stating that the local directors of the said school district, on the third Saturday in April, 1873, made and forwarded to the township clerk an estimate of the amount necessary to sustain a school in said district not less than four nor more than six months, and also to pay the expense of erecting a school-house, and that thé share of the estimate to be paid by the portion of the district lying in Jasper county was by the township cleric duly forwarded to the county clerk of Jasper county, who extended the same upon the school tax-book; that the county court of Jasper county, on the 22d day of January, 1874, without warrant or authority of law, ordered the tax to be stricken off of the tax-book, and that the collector should cease collecting the tax, and refund any already collected to the persons from whom it had been collected, which was done; that on the third Tuesday of April, 1874, the qualified voters of the district, at an election held for that purpose, determined the length of time school should be kept in the district, and the estimate therefor, and also ordered a tax to be levied for the purpose of paying existing indebtedness incurred in erecting and furnishing a school-house;’ that .the directors thereupon forwarded to the county clerk an estimate of the amount necessary for the purposes aforesaid ; and that the county clerk of Jasper county, acting under and in obedience to the orders of the county court, neglected and refused to assess the amount against the taxable property of said dis
The defendants, for a return to the writ of mandamus, stated that the district was organized in 1868, composed of territory lying in Jasper and Lawrence counties; that the school district and also the township in which it lies were divided by the county line between Jasper and Lawrence counties; that the school-house was built in Lawrence county, butthat the district had beenlawfully divided, and that part of the district lying in Jasper county detached from the original district before the assessment set out in the petition; and that the county court,' on petition of the residents of that portion of the origiual district lying in •Jasper county, had stricken off the taxes, from which order mo appeal had been taken. To which return the relator ■demurred upon the ground that the facts set up in the return were not sufficient to constitute a defense, and were insufficient in law, which demurrer was sustained, and a peremptory writ ordered, requiring the county court to set
Defendants rely on section 1 of the act of March 19th, 1870, (Sess. Acts, p. 139,) which isas follows :
“ Sec. 1. Hereafter each and every Congressional township in this State shall compose but one school district for all purposes connected with the general interests of education in such township, except townships divided by county lines or large water-courses, the portions of which may be attached to adjoining townships if such portions can be so attached to townships in the same county; otherwise, they shall constitute separate districts, and shall be confided to the management and control of a board of education, as hereinafter provided; and the several school districts, or fractional parts thereof, which now are or may hereafter be established in the several organized townships of this State shall be regarded as subdistricts, and be confided to'the management and control of local directors, as hereinafter provided. But nothing contained in this act shall be so construed as to give the township board of education, or the local directors in sub-districts, jurisdiction over any territory in the township included within the limits of any city, town or village, with the territory annexed thereto for school purposes, which shall elect or appoint a board of education, and which now is or may be hereafter governed, as to schools, by any special or other act.”
“ Whenever any school district or districts shall be divided by county lines, and a majority of the qualified voters residing in either fractional part thereof may desire to attach themselves to an adjoining district within their own county, or form a separate district, they shall hold an election for that purpose, first giving twenty days’ notice by posting up printed or written hand-bills in three of the most public places in such fractional district, stating the time, place and object of the election, and, if a majority of the votes cast at such election be in favor of uniting themselves to an adjoining district in their own county, or forming a separate district, they shall notify the district clei'k of the district interested of the result of the election ; and if it is desired by such fractional district and a portion of the adjoining district to form a new district,” &c., proceeding to state how that shall be done.
It would seem from this that the General Assembly did not understand section 1 of the act of 1870 as effect.iug the separation, but wisely provided a mode of effecting the separation contemplated by that act. Equities were to be adjusted in the event of a separation, and no means of adjusting those equities were provided by that act. It is not alleged that the method of separation prescribed by the act of 1874 was adopted by that portion of the district lying in Jasper county, nor, indeed, is it alleged that any steps whatever were taken to accomplish the separation, but defendants rely solely upon the act of 1870 as having accomplished it.
Eor the error in the judgment, commanding the county court to rescind its order, the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
Eeversed.