District Trustees of Midway Common School Dist. No. 7 v. County School Trustees of Leon County

203 S.W.2d 860, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1135
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 19, 1947
DocketNo. 2738
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 203 S.W.2d 860 (District Trustees of Midway Common School Dist. No. 7 v. County School Trustees of Leon County) 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
District Trustees of Midway Common School Dist. No. 7 v. County School Trustees of Leon County, 203 S.W.2d 860, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1135 (Tex. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinion

LESTER, Chief Justice.

The Board of County School Trustees of Leon County, on October 4, 1946, passed an order by which the Lone Star Rural High School District No. 1 was formed by grouping the Midway Common School District No. 7 and the Lone Star Consolidated Common School District No. 1. The appellant objected to such action on the part of the county board and filed in the district court of said county their petition seeking to have the appellees restrained from carrying out the order of said board pending the outcome of its appeal to the State Superintendent and the State Board of Education.

The Board of County School Trustees met on October 4, 1946, to act upon the petition filed by the patrons of the two common school districts requesting that said districts be grouped to form a rural high school district to be known and designated as Lone Star Rural High School District No. 1. Both of the common school districts were located in Leon County and were contiguous to each other. At said meeting the board granted the petition and ordered that the two common school districts be grouped, and by its action created the Lone Star Rural High School District No. 1 of said county.

On February 21, 1947, the Board of County Trustees met in the district courtroom of said county and attempted to rescind and cancel its order of date October 4, 1946, by which said high school district was created, and passed a resolution to that effect.

On February 28, 1947, said trustees met in the County Superintendent’s office and entered an order whereby it rescinded and set aside its action of February 21st, attempting to abolish said high school district. At this meeting the trustees ordered the County Superintendent to consolidate the school census rolls of the two common school districts, and provided that when so consolidated said rolls should be the census of the high school district. The County Board of Trustees, at their February 28th meeting, also appointed trustees for the newly created high school district, and the County Superintendent, in carrying out the orders of the County Board, appointed a census taker, who proceeded to take the census of the two common school districts.

The trial court filed findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Appellant says that the order of the school board is void because said order was not made in the office of the County Superintendent. The court found that the [862]*862trustees first met in the County Superintendent’s office, but in order to accommodate the expected large attendance, they went upon the next floor to1 the district courtroom, where the order was finally passed.

In support of this proposition appellant cites Article 2687, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.Stats., as amended, which provides that the meeting place of the county school trustees and the county superintendent to be at the county seat and in the office of the county superintendent. Appellant also relies upon the case of County School Trustees of Callahan County v. District Trustees of Dist. No. 15 (Hart) Common School Dist. of Callahan Co. et al., Tex.Civ.App., 192 S.W.2d 891 (writ of error ref. NRE), point 1. The order involved in that case was passed in a meeting held at Cross Plains and not in the County Superintendent’s office, nor in the city of Baird, the county seat of Callahan County, and the court held that the order was void, and quotes Art. 2687, supra.

In the case of County Board of School Trustees of Hale Co. v. Mayfield Common School Dist. #22, Tex.Civ.App., 140 S.W.2d 956, points 1-3, which involved an order of the Board of County Trustees of Hale County pertaining to the annexation of certain common school districts in the county to Hale County Independent School District to form a high school district, the orders for the annexation and for the election were made and entered in the county courtroom and not in the county superintendent’s office, and the court held that just because the orders were made in the county courtroom did not justify the issuance of a restraining order.

In this case the board first met in the county superintendent’s office in the courthouse at Centerville, the county seat of Leon County, but on acount of the large attendance expected to be present, they went to the next floor of the courthouse to the district courtroom, where said order was passed. The evidence showed that it was the custom of the board to hold most of its meetings in the district courtroom for the reason the county superintendent’s office did not have room sufficient to accommodate a large crowd. There was no showing that any injury resulted to the appellant from the fact that the order was made in the district courtroom instead of the county superintendent’s office, so the failure of the board to enter said order in the county superintendent’s office, under the facts of this case, did not invalidate the action of said board.

Appellant’s second proposition is that the order of October 4th was void for the failure to give a description of the proposed rural high school district by metes and bounds. Art. 2681, Vernon’s Ann.Civ. Stats., authorizes the county school trustees to exercise the authority that was previously vested in the commissioners’ court with respect to subdividing the county into school districts, etc.

Article 2742, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.Stats., applies to common school districts and is as follows:

“Said courts shall give the metes and bounds of each district, and shall designate the same carefully by giving the whole surveys and parts of surveys with acreage of whole surveys and approximate acreage o-f parts of surveys in each district, and the county clerk shall carefully record the same; * *

Article 2922a, Vernon’s Ann.Civ. Stats., does not provide that the area of a high school district shall be described by metes and bounds, but if Article 2742, supra, can be construed to apply to rural high school districts, or some other provision of the school law should require that the .boundaries of said district should be described by metes and bounds, and that the same should be recorded in the county clerk’s office, we think that appellees sufficiently complied with said provision. It was stipulated by the parties that the two common school districts here in question were common school districts prior to and. at the time the order of October 4th was entered. The order provided that Midway Common School Dist. No. 7 and Lone Star Consolidated Common School Dist. No. 1 should be grouped for the purpose of forming said high school. The entire area [863]*863of both districts is located in Leon County, and the districts were contiguous to each other. There being no proof to the contrary, the presumption is that Article 2742, supra, had been complied with and that the boundaries of the two common school districts were properly described and recorded in the county clerk’s office of Leon County. We also think it safe to indulge in that maxim, which is: “That is certain which is susceptible of being made certain.” The metes and bounds of the newly created high school district could be ascertained. by reference to the records in the county clerk’s office, where the boundaries of the two common school districts are presumed to be of record.

Appellant cites the case of Hill County Board of School Trustees v. Bruton, Tex.

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Bluebook (online)
203 S.W.2d 860, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1135, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/district-trustees-of-midway-common-school-dist-no-7-v-county-school-texapp-1947.