109 Kan. 206 | Kan. | 1921
The opinion of the court was delivered by
A. T. Stewart, a taxpayer having an interest as such in the matters referred to, brought an action against the officers of a rural high-school district to enjoin the issuance of bonds for the erection of a high-school building and against them and the officers of a school district to enjoin the erection of a single school building to be used by both organizations. He was denied relief by the district court, and appeals.
“The rural high-school district board shall have authority to issue the bonds of the rural high-school district for the purchase of a site and for the construction of a building or buildings for school purposes; provided, that no bonds shall be issued unless authorized by an election held in accordance with section 2 of this act [which authorizes a proposition to issue bonds to be voted upon at the election called to vote on the question of establishing the district] or by an election held in accordance with sections 9177 and 9178 of the General Statutes of 1915 [which relate*208 to the issuance of bonds by ordinary school districts] ; provided, that notice of all such elections in rural high-school districts shall be given as provided in section 2 of this act. Except as herein provided, the laws relating to the issuing of school-district bonds shall apply to rural high-school districts formed in accordance with this act.” (Laws of 1917, ch. 284, § 5.)
The defendants’ position is that this statute gives an option as to the manner in which the election may be ordered, authorizing it to be called either by the county conynissioners upon the petition of two-fifths of the electors, or by the school board upon the petition of one-third of them. The plaintiff on the other hand contends, as we think correctly, that the meaning of the statute quoted is that the bonds may be issued only where authorized by a vote cast at an election called by. the county board if to be held at the same time the proposal to create the district is voted upon, and called by the board of the district if petitioned for after the district has been created. An election to decide whether a rural high school shall issue bonds, if held in connection with an election to decide whether the district shall be created, would necessarily have to be conducted by somebody already in existence, and the board of county commissioners was selected by the legislature as the natural agent for the purpose. But after the district has been brought into being there is no occasion whatever for its invoking the services in that regard of any officers other than its own. The language above quoted relating to section two of the act is fully accounted for by the fact that the statute, in defining the conditions under which bonds may be issued, had necessarily to mention the contingency of authority for their issuance having been granted before the organization of the district. The suggestion is made that unless the statute does offer a choice of methods of calling the election the amendment of 1917 made no change in the law as it already existed. If this were the case the new enactment might have been justified as a mere clarification of the existing law by substituting express provisions for mere implicatiqns — no judicial construction having then been given it. However, a material alteration was made in this respect: Under the original law only a ten days’ notice of the bond election was required, that being the period named in the statute relating to ordinary
The validity of the election is also challenged on the ground that the notice was defective. This objection is probably not well taken, but the conclusion already announced makes it unnecessary to consider that matter.
Inasmuch as the rural high-school district and the ordinary school district are separate organizations we think that without express legislative authority they have no power to join
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded with directions to grant the injunction prayed for.