160 Iowa 398 | Iowa | 1913
I. On the 6th day of October, 1911, the plaintiff filed his petition stating that he was a resident of subdistrict No. 5 in the school township of Ellsworth in the county of Hamilton and state of Iowa; that the defendants were the officers and directors of said school township. He states: That in said subdistrict No. 5 there has been for many years a schoolhouse built and maintained at.public expense. That there are at least eighteen children of school age in said subdistrict and entitled to school privileges, and for a number of months last past the defendants have refused to maintain a school in said subdistrict and have denied to the plaintiff school privileges therein. That they refused to accord the plaintiff and other residents of said subdistrict school privileges during the fall and winter of 1911-12, and that no legal reasons exist for such refusal, and plaintiff is therefore deprived of his constitutional and statutory rights, and unless the school in said subdistrict is maintained he will be without school privileges. That the said board of directors have allowed the schoolhouse to become out of repair and for the purpose of defeating the plaintiff in his demand for school privileges have transferred a number of scholars living in said subdistrict to the school in Randall, Iowa, intending thereby to break up the school in said subdistrict. By amendment to his petition the plaintiff further pleads: That he demanded of the defendants that they provide him with school privileges in the schoolhouse provided for that purpose in said subdistriet No. 5, and the defendants refused to comply with the demand of the plaintiff and made no record of such refusal upon the proper records of said district. That
We have set out quite fully the petition of plaintiff as amended so that a full understanding of his claims may be had. To the petition as amended the defendants filed their demurrer that no relief could be had by plaintiff as demanded, as a writ of mandamus is not a proper remedy upon the facts stated; that it is wholly within the ’discretion of the board of directors of the school township as to what schools shall" be maintained, and such discretion cannot be controlled by any writ or order from this court; that the plaintiff has a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy at law by appeal to the county superintendent and from him to the
Taken as a'whole, the case upon the pleadings presents a showing of conditions not unusual in. many rural communities in the state where by removals and from other causes the school population in subdistricts is reduced to a number where economy and probable better results suggest that different arrangements be made. As plead, this was done by the defendant board of directors. They acted within their powers, and in the exercise of discretion. Plaintiff’s only right, if dissatisfied with their conclusion, was not by writ of mandamus to compel action, but by appeal to investigate and have corrected any wrong that may have been done to him. The ruling on the demurrer was right. — Affirmed.