Barnhart Independent School District v. Mertzon Independent School District

464 S.W.2d 197, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2748
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 10, 1971
DocketNo. 11792
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 464 S.W.2d 197 (Barnhart Independent School District v. Mertzon Independent School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barnhart Independent School District v. Mertzon Independent School District, 464 S.W.2d 197, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2748 (Tex. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

PHILLIPS, Chief Justice.

This case was brought by the First State Bank of Rankin against Mertzon Independent School District. Irion County Independent School District and Barnhart Independent School District, all located in Irion County, Texas, to ascertain which school district is entitled to the funds held by the bank as depository of the Barnhart Independent School District.

The Mertzon Independent School District alleged that it was entitled to receive the funds because the Barnhart Independent School District had been annexed to the Mertzon Independent School District and renamed Irion County Independent School District by action of the County Board of School Trustees in a meeting held on the llth-13th day of August, 1969.

Barnhart Independent School District answered and alleged that it had presented a petition to the County Judge asking that the Barnhart District be consolidated with the Reagan District and that the latter proceeding preempted the question from the jurisdiction of the Mertzon Board.

After a hearing on the merits, the trial court ruled that the order of the County School Trustees of Irion County annexing the Barnhart Independent School District to the Mertzon Independent School District and renaming the district Irion County Independent School District was a valid order. The First State Bank of Rankin was directed to deliver the funds held by it to the Irion County Independent School District. It is from this judgment that Barnhart Independent School District and J. B. Westfall, a member of the Board of County School Trustees of Irion County, Texas have perfected this appeal.

We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Appellants are before us with five points of error, the first being that of the trial court in holding that the Special Meeting of the Board of County School Trustees of Irion County held August llth-13th, was without authority of law and without effect because such meeting was not called by the President of such Board, Street Whitley, as required by Vernon’s Ann. Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat. then Article 2687, and because a member of said Board, Street Whitley, was not notified of a recess of such purported meeting of said Board from August 11, 1969, to August 13, 1969, at 3 o’clock P.M., did not attend and was, therefore, given no opportunity to participate in the discussion and purported action of such Board.

We overrule this point.

The evidence discloses that the question of merging the two districts had been under discussion for some time. Several days before the questioned meeting on the 11th, the County Judge of Irion County went out to the Whitley ranch and discussed the problem with Street Whitley in the latter’s capacity as President of the County School Board. Whitley decided that a meeting of the Board should be held and authorized the County Judge to return and notify the school trustees of the proposed meeting. Due to the fact that one [199]*199of the trustees received his mail through San Angelo, notices were mailed out three or four days prior to the proposed meeting so that there would be time for these notices to be delivered to all of the trustees. All of the trustees were apprised of the meeting and all were in attendance with the exception of Whitley, the President of the Board, who had had a heart attack the day before the meeting and was in a hospital in San Angelo at that time. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the proposed merger. A meeting was held on the 11th. The minutes of the Board reveal that a long discussion was had over how to solve the problem of the Barnhart School and that annexation was apparently the answer. At this point one of the trustees, Mr. Westfall from Barnhart, requested a continuation of the meeting so that he could check with his Barnhart constituents before any further action was taken and the meeting was continued until August 13.

On the morning of August 13, while the meeting of the Mertzon Board was in recess, the President of the Barnhart Independent School District presented the County Judge with a Petition to Consolidate the Barnhart Independent School District with the Reagan County Independent School District. The County Judge refused to consider the petition because, as the Judge testified: "* * * we were still in session on the other. I told him as soon as this other piece of business was tended to, if we didn’t annex it, why then I would consider his petition.”

Appellant’s position here is that Article 2687, by specific and mandatory language states “The County School Trustees shall hold meetings once each quarter on the first Monday in August, February, May and November;” (Emphasis added) and at other times when called by the President of the County School Trustees or at the instance of any (2) members of the County School Trustees and the County Superintendent; and that President Whitley did not call the meeting by giving notice to the other members of the Board as provided by the first method, nor was a special meeting called at the instance of any two members of the County School Trustees and the County Superintendent as provided by the second method set out in the statute.

We do not agree with this contention. Nowhere in the statute is there a provision requiring the attendance of the President of the County School Trustees at any special meeting. In any event, the President, Street Whitley, testified by way of deposition that he called the meeting. The method of calling meetings as prescribed by Article 2687 is not mandatory, provided notices are given to all members and no objection is lodged. District Trustees of Campbellton Consolidated Common School District No. 16 v. Pleasanton Independent School District, 362 S.W.2d 122 (Tex.Civ.App.1962, error ref. n. r. e.). In the case at bar, all members received notice of the meeting and all except the President (who was in the hospital but who had called the meeting) were in attendance. No protest was raised by any member as to the manner in which the meeting was called. Therefore, notice was given such as would comply with Article 2687.

The only case cited by Appellants which relate to school districts is Palmer, et al. v. District Trustees of District No. 21, in Upshur County, 289 S.W.2d 344 (Tex.Civ.App.1956, error ref. n. r. e.) where the Board’s action was held to be void where one of the school trustees received no notice. This was not the case here.

Nor is the contention of Appellants correct that even if the meeting of the Board of Trustees of Irion County held on August 11, 1969 was valid, the continuance from August 11 to August 13 was invalid because Street Whitley was not given notice of such action. Article 2687, V.A.C.S. states the procedure for meetings; however, it does not specify the duration of the meetings. Such duration is left to the discretion of the trustees. Thus the meeting of August 13, was a continuation of the meeting properly called and begun on [200]*200August 11, 1969, and the absence of notice to Street Whitley of the continuance was not necessary. South Taylor County Independent School District v. Winters Independent School District, 245 S.W.2d 526 (Tex.Civ.App.1952, reversed on other grounds), 151 Tex.

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Barnhart Ind. Sch. Dist. v. Mertzon Ind. Sch. Dist.
464 S.W.2d 197 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1971)

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464 S.W.2d 197, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2748, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barnhart-independent-school-district-v-mertzon-independent-school-district-texapp-1971.