120 Wis. 15 | Wis. | 1903
“All acts and proceedings of tbe said Joint School District No. 4, of tbe towns of Red River and Luxemberg, in Ke-waunee county, and of tbe electors and officers thereof are hereby legalized to tbe same extent and effect as if said school district bad been legally organized in tbe first instance.”
Tbe important question in tbe case is whether tbe act is valid and effectual according to its terms. There can be no question but that it is a “local bill,” within tbe meaning of tbe section of tbe constitution wbicb declares that “no private or local bill which may be passed by tbe legislature shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in tbe title.” Sec. 18, art. IV. Milwaukee Co. v. Isenring, 109 Wis. 9, 85 N. W. 131; Wagner v. Milwaukee Co. 112 Wis. 601, 88 N. W. 577; Diana Shooting Club v. Lamoreux, 114 Wis. 44, 89 N. W. 880; Verges v. Milwaukee Co. 116 Wis. 191, 93 N. W. 44. Does tbe act “embrace more than one subject?” If not, is that subject “expressed in tbe title ?” In tbe last two cases it was expressly held that “tbe constitution does not require the title of a private or local legislative act to go further than to express tbe subject covered by tbe body of tbe law. It leaves tbe method of expressing such subject to legislative discretion, within all reasonable boundaries. The statement of a primary purpose in general terms in a constitutional sense reasonably includes all the means designed to facilitate the accomplishment thereof.” Tbe act recognizes tbe organization of tbe district so formed in tbe latter part of 1899 or tbe fore part of 1900, and nearly all of tbe territory over wbicb it assumed jurisdiction, and thereby expressly purported to legalize tbe same in all things, including “all acts and proceedings” of
3. It is contended that the act in question is void because it retroacts upon a past controversy, and is an attempt to reverse the decision of the trial court made in the exercise of undoubted authority. The past controversy thus referred to, as indicated by some of the decisions cited in support of the contention, relate to controversies which had terminated in-judgment before the curative act. Charles Baumback Co. v. Singer, 86 Wis. 329, 56 N. W. 873. To that case may be added Wis. Tel. Co. v. Krueger, 115 Wis. 150, 153, 154, 90 N. W. 458, and numerous cases there cited. Others reláte-lo curative acts interfering with vested rights, or imposing-some new obligation. In the case at bar no judgment was-ever entered. No vested rights are involved, and no new obligation is imposed. In the case of Rood v. C., M. & St. P.
“In quo warranto brought to oust the defendants from certain village offices, and to obtain judgment declaring the attempted incorporation of the village to be invalid, the village itself should have been joined as a party defendant.” State ex rel. Weinsheim v. Leischer, 117 Wis. 475, 94 N. W. 299.
By the Gourt. — The order of the circuit court is reversed,, and the cause is remanded, with direction to sustain the demurrer to the complaint on the two grounds mentioned.