Cox Chapel School District No. 4 v. Atchison County Superintendent of Schools

426 S.W.2d 913, 1967 Mo. LEXIS 714
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 11, 1967
DocketNo. 52597
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 426 S.W.2d 913 (Cox Chapel School District No. 4 v. Atchison County Superintendent of Schools) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cox Chapel School District No. 4 v. Atchison County Superintendent of Schools, 426 S.W.2d 913, 1967 Mo. LEXIS 714 (Mo. 1967).

Opinion

WELBORN, Commissioner.

This is an appeal from a judgment of dismissal of an action seeking to enjoin the submission and effectuation of a proposed public school reorganization plan. The appellants assert that this court has jurisdiction of the appeal on the grounds that construction of the federal and state constitutions is involved within the meaning of § 3 of Article V, Constitution of Missouri, 1945, V.A.M.S.

The Atchison County Board of Education prepared a plan of reorganization of the un-reorganized school districts of the county. The plan combined Common School Dis[914]*914tricts 4 (Cox Chapel), 5 (Union), 14 (Highland), IS (Star) and C-2 (Watson) with R-II District (Rock Port). The State Department of Education approved the plan. On January 31, 1966, the county hoard set an election on the proposal for February 18, 1966. The election was held on that date and the proposal approved by a vote of 660 for and 349 against the proposal. (The vote at Cox Chapel School House was against the proposal, by 37 to 1, at Star School House, against by 75 to 1, at Watson School House, against by 96 to 46, hut favorable at Rock Port by 609 to 135.)

The county board met in the evening of February 18, canvassed the results of the election and declared that the election creating the newly formed School District R-II had been legally held. The board fixed March 11 as the date for the election of members to the board of education of the new district.

On March 10, 1966, the action which is the subject of this appeal was filed in the Atchison County Circuit Court by Cox Chapel School District No. 4 and approximately fifty individuals who described themselves as taxpayers of Cox Chapel District and parents of children of school age within the district. The defendants are the Atchison County Superintendent of Schools and the members of the County Board of Education.

The petition alleged that the action of the County Board of Education in including the Cox Chapel District within the proposed reorganized district was an abuse of discretion for the reason that the Cox Chapel District was separated from the remainder of the proposed reorganized district by the Nishnabotna River, across which there are no roads or bridges; that the “only outlet” for school children in the area is into the State of Iowa and children presently residing in the district are being educated in the Hamburg, Iowa Community School District; that the proposed district could serve the Cox Chapel District only by transporting the children 23 to 30 miles, immediately past the Hamburg school.

The petition alleged that the County Board of Education “planned and carried out the plan of reorganization, including the said Cox Chapel School District No. 4 and as such, are depriving the taxpayers of the Cox Chapel School District, the plaintiffs herein, without due process of law in the following: (a) No hearing was held with proper notice to these taxpayers in which they could present their objections and be heard, (b) Property is being taken into the proposed enlarged Rock Port School District and subjected to school taxes in a greatly increased amount while said district is completely unable to serve the school children in this area.”

The petition alleged that the planning and proceedings for reorganization were deficient in numerous respects relating to the conduct of the election.

The prayer of the petition was for “a review of the administrative procedures and decisions and for a review of the legality and constitutionality of (the defendants’) acts”; for a restraining order “from further acts of reorganization procedure including the election of directors,” for a temporary injunction and a permanent injunction against further proceedings for reorganization and for a judgment that the “reorganization procedure be declared null and void.”

On the date that the petition was filed, the court issued a temporary restraining order against further acts of reorganization procedure, including the election of directors, and set a hearing on the request for a temporary injunction on March 28.

On March 16, the court amended its restraining order to allow steps to be taken for an election of directors to be held after March 28. On March 28, hearing on the continuation of the restraining order and on the request for a temporary injunction was held. The court, on March 31, dissolved the [915]*915restraining order and refused to issue a temporary injunction.

The election of directors for the new RII District was held on April 5 and the results canvassed and six directors declared elected at a meeting of the County Board of Education on the evening of April 5.

On May 28, the defendants in this case filed a motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ petition on the grounds that the petition struck at the organization of a school district and its corporate existence, and that quo warranto was the sole method of raising such questions. On September 19, 1966, the circuit court entered an order sustaining the motion to dismiss. Plaintiffs appealed by special order of this court.

Although respondents have not directly questioned our jurisdiction of this appeal, they do, in their brief, suggest that there are no constitutional questions properly presented. The appellants, in their brief, cite constitutional provisions in support of their first two assignments of error. However, examination of those assignments shows that the points therein raised actually go to the question of whether or not their petition states a cause for relief. That was not the question decided by the trial court. The trial court decided that the appellants were not entitled to seek relief by way of this action because the only method of attacking the validity of the organization of the new district was by quo warranto.

A fundamental basis for this court’s jurisdiction on the grounds that a constitutional question is involved is that the trial court must have considered and passed upon a constitutional question. The situation here is akin to that presented in Harding v. City of Carthage, 171 Mo. 442, 71 S.W. 673. In that case, plaintiff had sought to enjoin a proposed election to authorize the establishment of an electric light plant for the city. The petition “alleged that the acts done and threatened to be done by the city were unlawful for the reason that they were in violation of the constitution of the state.” On defendant’s motion, the plaintiff’s petition was dismissed for failure to prosecute. Plaintiff appealed to the Kansas City Court of Appeals, which transferred the case to the Supreme Court on the grounds that a constitutional question was involved. In holding that the case presented no constitutional question, the Supreme Court stated (71 S.W. 673-674):

“It is said that this appears from the petition, in which it is alleged that the acts done and threatened to be done by the city were unlawful for the reason that they were in violation of the constitution of the state. It seems to us that the sole and only questions presented by this appeal are with respect to the action of the court below in setting the case for trial at the December term of the court during which the summons was issued, when the summons was made returnable to the June term of said court next thereafter, when there was a regular March term which intervened, and in dismissing the suit for want of prosecution.

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Bluebook (online)
426 S.W.2d 913, 1967 Mo. LEXIS 714, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cox-chapel-school-district-no-4-v-atchison-county-superintendent-of-mo-1967.