Howard v. Independent School District No. 1

106 P. 692, 17 Idaho 537, 1910 Ida. LEXIS 111
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 13, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 106 P. 692 (Howard v. Independent School District No. 1) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Howard v. Independent School District No. 1, 106 P. 692, 17 Idaho 537, 1910 Ida. LEXIS 111 (Idaho 1910).

Opinion

AILSHIE, J.

— This action was instituted in the lower court by the plaintiff, as a taxpayer of Independent School. District No. 1 of Nez Perce county, to restrain the officers of the school district from issuing and selling bonds of the district in the sum of $55,000, for the purpose of purchasing three tracts of land in different sections of the school district for school grounds, and for the purpose of erecting and furnishing three school buildings thereon. The court sustained a demurrer to the complaint and dismissed the action and the plaintiff has appealed.

The Independent School District, comprising the city of Lewiston, was created by an act of the territorial legislature approved December 30, 1880 (11 Terr. Sess. Laws, p. 408). This act was successively amended as follows: February 7, 1883 (12 Terr. Sess. Laws, p. 154) ; January 22, 1885 (13 Terr. Sess. Laws, p. 195); February 5, 1885 (13 Terr. Sess. Laws, p. 196); and March 6, 1909 (1909 Sess. Laws, p. 43). The proceedings taken by the trustees of the school district are under the amendment of 1909. The board called an election for the purpose of voting on the proposition to issue the bonds of the district in the sum of $55,000. The notice of election recites, among other things, that the election is called for the following purposes:

“For the purpose of submitting to the qualified electors of said district, who are resident taxpayers therein, the question and proposition of authorizing the board of directors of said independent district to issue the negotiable coupon bonds of said district in the sum of fifty-five thousand ($55,000) dollars, payable in gold coin of the present standard of weight and fineness.
“That the proceeds from the sale of such bonds shall be devoted exclusively for the purpose of providing said district [540]*540with additional sehoolhouse grounds and erecting a schoolhouse thereon near the site of the present high school building in the city of Lewiston at an estimated cost of $40,000; and for the purpose of providing said district with additional sehoolhouse grounds and erecting a four-room sehoolhouse thereon near Ninth avenue and Twenty-sixth street, in the city of Lewiston, at an estimated cost of $12,000 (said schoolhouse to be erected in such a manner that additional rooms may be added thereto whenever the necessities therefor may require without materially damaging such building), and for the purpose of providing said district with additional school, house grounds and erecting a two-room sehoolhouse thereon, in one of the Lewiston Orchard Tracts, at an estimated cost of $3,000; and for the purpose of furnishing each of said school buildings with proper and necessary furniture, apparatus and fixtures.”

The vote on the proposition submitted was favorable to the issuance of the bonds, and all proceedings have been taken necessary for the issuance and sale of the bonds, and it appears that the district is now about to deliver the bonds to the purchaser.

It is first contended by the appellant that the act of December 30, 1880, incorporating the Independent School District, comprising the city of Lewiston, became unconstitutional and void upon the admission of the state into the Union, for the reason that it was in violation of the provisions of see. 1 of art. 9 of the state constitution, and for the further reason that it was in violation of the provisions of sec. 19 of art. 3. The above-mentioned provisions of the constitution are as follows:

Sec. 1, art. 9: “The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislature of Idaho to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.”
See. 19,'art. 3: “The legislature shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say: ....
[541]*541“Providing for tbe management of common schools.
“Creating offices or prescribing the powers and duties of officers in counties, cities, townships, election districts or school districts, except as in this constitution otherwise provided. 99

It was unquestionably within the power of the territorial legislature to grant a special charter to Independent School District No. 1 of Nez Perce county. “Under the organic act of the territory, the enactment of special laws was not prohibited.” (Butler v. City of Lewiston, 11 Ida. 396, 83 Pac. 234; Wiggin v. Lewiston, 8 Ida. 527, 69 Pac. 286.) The only question to be considered here is: Did the constitution have the effect of repealing or abrogating the special charter granted by the territorial legislature to the respondent corporation? In answering this inquiry, we turn to sec. 2, art. 21, of the constitution and find that it provides as follows: “All laws now in force in the territory of Idaho which are not repugnant to this constitution shall remain in force until they expire by their own limitation or be altered or repealed by the legislature.” Preceding the foregoing provision of the constitution the framers of that instrument had provided by sec. 2 of art. 11 as follows: “No charter of incorporation shall be granted, extended, changed dr amended by special law, except for such municipal, charitable, educational, penal or reformatory corporations as are or may be, under the control of the stateIt will be noticed that by the provision of sec. 2 of art. 11 of the constitution above quoted, the constitution recognizes the right of the legislature to extend, change, and amend by special law the charter of educational corporations that were in existence at the time of the adoption of the constitution. This evidently had in view all the educational corporations that existed under special charter at the time of the adoption of the constitution, such as the state university, normal schools, and such independent school districts as were then operating under special charter. An independent school district organized and existing under a special charter at the time of the adoption of the constitution was as much an “educational corporation” as [542]*542any other educational institution that had been incorporated under special charter. There is nothing in the organization and existence of an independent school district chartered for the purpose of maintaining and conducting “public, free common schools” that is in conflict with either the letter or spirit of the constitution. The mere fact of its existence is not obnoxious to the uniformity requirement of the constitution.

The second contention made by appellant is that the board of trustees violated the provisions of the constitution (sec. 3 of art. 8)' in submitting the question of issuing these bonds as one proposition instead of submitting it as three separate and independent propositions. It is the contention of the appellant that since the notice of election specified that the money received from the sale of the bonds was to be used in the purchase of three school sites and the erection of three separate school buildings in different sections of the school district, there were necessarily three propositions, and that the voter was entitled to an opportunity to vote for any one and against the others, or against any one and for the other propositions.

Sec. 3 of art.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Board of Education of State of Colorado v. Spurlin
349 P.2d 357 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1960)
Green v. Independent Consolidated School District No. 1
68 N.W.2d 493 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1955)
COMMON SCHOOL DIST. NO. 2 v. District No. 1
227 P.2d 947 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1951)
Hovenden v. Class a School Dist. No. 411
224 P.2d 1080 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1950)
Hubbard v. Board of Com'rs of Bannock County
190 P.2d 685 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1948)
C.M. St. P.R.R. v. Shoshone Co.
116 P.2d 225 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1941)
Hoffer v. City of Lewiston
85 P.2d 238 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1938)
White v. Board of Education of Silver City
75 P.2d 712 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1938)
Independ. S. Dists., Etc. v. Common S. Dist. 1
55 P.2d 144 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1936)
King v. Independent School District
272 P. 507 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1928)
Parks v. School District No. 1
193 P. 838 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1920)
Public Schools v. Laan
178 N.W. 424 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1920)
Baker v. Gooding County
138 P. 342 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1914)
Independent Highway District No. 2 v. Ada County
134 P. 542 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1913)
Corker v. Village of Mountainhome
116 P. 108 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1911)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
106 P. 692, 17 Idaho 537, 1910 Ida. LEXIS 111, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howard-v-independent-school-district-no-1-idaho-1910.