Consolidated School Dist. No. 8 v. Wilder

1931 OK 103, 297 P. 280, 148 Okla. 91, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 814
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 31, 1931
Docket20320
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1931 OK 103 (Consolidated School Dist. No. 8 v. Wilder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Consolidated School Dist. No. 8 v. Wilder, 1931 OK 103, 297 P. 280, 148 Okla. 91, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 814 (Okla. 1931).

Opinion

SWINDALL, J.

This action was commenced in the district court of Cimarron county, Okla., on the 13th day of June, 1928, by the plaintiff in error, as plaintiff, against the defendant in error, M. E. Wilder, county superintendent of public instruction of Cimarron county, Okla., as defendant, for writ of certiorari, alleging that certain orders were made by said county superintendent of public instruction, purporting to detach from said consolidated school district certain tracts of its territory and attaching the same to consolidated school district No. 2 of said county, and that said orders were null and void; said consolidated school district No. 2, intervened in the action and was permitted to defend because of its direct interest in the subject-matter of the action. The parties will hereafter be referred to as they appeared in the trial court.

The defendant and intervener have filed á motion in this .court, to dismiss the appeal for the reason that said appeal is null and void in that the case-made filed in the Supreme Court was never filed in the office of the court clerk of Cimarron county, Okla. This motion was denied by this court, September 24, 1929; however, counsel for defendant and intervener in their brief insist that the motion is well taken and should be sustained, and that the order entered September 24, 1929, should be vacated.

We agree with counsel for defendant and intervener that the rule of law announced in their brief in support of their motion is a well-established rule of this court. However, the facts as disclosed by the record do not sustain their contention, as the original case-made attached to the petition in error shows at page 3 thereof that the same was filed in the office of the court clerk of Cimar-ron county, Okla., on March 28, 1929, the date that the same was signed by the trial judge and attested by the court clerk. We therefore hold that the ruling entered September 24, 1929, is correct and adhere to that ruling.

Plaintiff complains of three orders made by the defendant county superintendent of public instruction of Cimarron county, detaching certain territory from its district and attaching same to consolidated school district No. 2, and is seeking by certiorari proceeding to have said orders declared null and void and of no force and effect for the reason that the county superintendent of public instruction did not post written notices as required by section 10321, C. O. S. 1921.

The orders complained of by plaintiff are as follows:

An order dated May 10, 1927, detaching certain territory from consolidated school district No. 8 and attaching same to consolidated district No. 2.

Also;

An order dated May 12, 1927, detaching certain territory from consolidated school district No. 8 and attaching same to consolidated district No. 2.

And':

An order dated July 25, 1927, detaching certain territory from consolidated school district No. 8 and attaching same to consolidated district No. 2.

On July 21, 1927, following the same procedure complained of by plaintiff in error as to the above orders, the county superintendent made an order detaching certain territory from consolidated district No. 2 and attaching the same to district No. 8.

After the orders complained of by plaintiff in error were made, both consolidated *92 district No. 8 and consolidated district No. 2 voted bonds. The boundaries of consolidated district No. 8 as certified for bonding purposes did not include the territory in the first three mentioned orders, and the boundaries of consolidated district No. 2 as certified for bonding purposes did include said territory, and the children in said territory thereafter continued to attend school in consolidated district No. 2, and said territory was bonded for the purpose of erecting a building in consolidated district No. 2.

Intervener claims that consolidated district No. 8 was never legally organized for the reason that district 27 was never lawfully detached from said consolidated district No. 2 and the proceedings consolidating common school districts Nos. 27 and 10, which were not adjacent districts, together with a portion of consolidated district No. 2, were, unlawful for the reason that there is no law authorizing the consolidation of common school districts and territory already consolidated; the procedure authorized by law being merely for the annexation of unconsolidated territory to consolidated territory. Said intervener also requested the court in the event it held said orders to be void to likewise hold the orders void in which territory had been detached from consolidated district No. 2 and attached to plaintiff district, and that it likewise hold all of the orders consolidating district No. 8 null and void, and also contended that plaintiff district was estopped to question the legality of said orders for the reason that it did not certify said territory within its boundaries at the time of bonding, and for the further reason that at different times the voters of said district petitioned the county superintendent to detach part, or all of the same territory from consolidated district No. 2, and reattach same to consolidated district No. 8, and'( for the further reason that said consolidated district No. 8, pr the voters thereof, failed to take any appeal from the action of the county superintendent in making said orders.

The petition for writ of certiorari was not filed in the district court of Cimarrón county, Okla., until June- 13, 1928.

The cause was tried on November 2, 1928, and judgment rendered by the district court of Cimarron county, and prayer of plaintiff’s petition for writ of certiorari was denied, and the plaintiff excepted; filed its motion for new trial, which was considered and overruled on the 11th day of January, 1929; plaintiff in open court gave notice of its intention to appeal to this court, and the record is now here for review.

The record shows conclusively that the county superintendent failed to post notice as required hy section 10321, C. O. S. 1921. The trial judge does not state his reason for denying the prayer of the petition for writ of certiorari; however, this being a matter in which the public has an interest and the general welfare of the public school system of the state is involved, we assume that the trial court denied the writ for the reason that consolidated district No. 8 and consolidated district No. 2 had each recognized the boundaries of their respective districts, and had voted bonds and erected school houses in their respective districts, had employed .teachers in said districts, held school meetings, made estimates of their needs to the county excise board, and'raised revenue hy taxation to run the schools in said districts.

Certiorari is not a writ of right, but. is (o be granted or not in the discretion of the court, and the writ will issue only \s here no appeal or proceeding in error lies, and ordinarily where the error cannot otherwise be corrected. School district No. 6 of McClain County et al. v. Board of County Commissioners of McClain County, 108 Okla. 254, 236 Pac. 21; Oliver v. State ex rel. State Board of Medical Examiners, 122 Okla. 66, 251 Pac. 31.

Under the holdings of this court, where the trial court exercised a judicial discretion, this court will not reverse the judgment of the trial court unless the trial court clearly abused its discretion. Trimmer v. State ex rel.

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Bluebook (online)
1931 OK 103, 297 P. 280, 148 Okla. 91, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 814, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/consolidated-school-dist-no-8-v-wilder-okla-1931.