In Re Petition of Minneapolis Area Development Corp.

131 N.W.2d 29, 269 Minn. 157, 1964 Minn. LEXIS 764
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedAugust 21, 1964
Docket39,033
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 131 N.W.2d 29 (In Re Petition of Minneapolis Area Development Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Petition of Minneapolis Area Development Corp., 131 N.W.2d 29, 269 Minn. 157, 1964 Minn. LEXIS 764 (Mich. 1964).

Opinion

Nelson, Justice.

On November 15, 1960, the Board of County Commissioners of Scott County entered orders detaching certain lands from Common School Districts Nos. 1870, 1897, and 1871, and annexing such lands to Independent School District No. 720 (hereinafter referred to as the Shak-opee district).

Appeals were taken to the District Court of Scott County from the orders by the common school districts 1 and appellants John Clark, Sylvester N. Gerold, and Harold A. Snyder, who are landowners in Districts Nos. 1871 and 1897. Intervention was granted to the Shakopee district and to the petitioners, Minneapolis Area Development Corporation, American-Wheaton Glass Corporation, Owens-Illinois Glass Company, Minnesota Valley Natural Gas Company, F. H. Peavey & Company, Forest Products Corporation, and Air Products of Minnesota, Inc.

After consolidation and trial of the appeals, the district court entered its order affirming the orders of the county board. This appeal, pursuant to Minn. St. 127.25, is from that order and from the subsequent *160 order of the district court denying appellants’ motion for amended findings or a new trial.

The primary questions involved on this appeal are (1) whether the county board must hear and determine petitions for dissolution and attachment before it hears and determines petitions for detachment and annexation when the several petitions are filed nearly simultaneously and are all presented to the board at approximately the same time; (2) whether the county board is required to make findings of fact before it makes an order for detachment and annexation under § 122.21, subd. 4; (3) whether the evidence reasonably supports the findings of the trial court and its conclusion that the county commissioners did not rely on any erroneous theory of law in entering their orders for detachment and annexation; (4) whether the action of the county board in granting the petitions was arbitrary or in unreasonable disregard of the interests of the territory affected; and (5) whether county commissioners were adverse witnesses.

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the intervenors as the prevailing parties below, the facts are as follows: Intervenor Minneapolis Area Development Corporation (hereinafter referred to as MADC) is the owner of a tract of land in Scott County, which it had purchased for industrial development under the name Valley Industrial Park. This tract originally consisted of some 2,275 acres but MADC, in addition to dedicating small tracts for public easements and utilities, sold parcels to Owens-Illinois Glass Company, F. H. Peavey & Company, American-Wheaton Glass Corporation, and, after the commencement of the proceedings here in question, to Air Products, Inc., for business development. When these proceedings were commenced Owens-Illinois had built a box board plant, American-Wheaton had started construction of a plant to make glass containers, and the Peavey company had under consideration the construction of a grain terminal on the Minnesota River. The balance of the land held by MADC is about 2,125 acres, all of which was rented to tenant farmers.

Valley Industrial Park is located immediately east of the city of Shak-opee and is east of and adjoins the Shakopee school district. The tenant-farmed tract constituted a part of Common School Districts Nos. *161 1870, 1871, and 1897. The lands acquired by Owens-Illinois, American-Wheaton, Peavey, and Minnesota Valley Natural Gas were all located within District No. 1897.

Districts Nos. 1870, 1871, and 1897, as well as other common school districts to which they sought attachment, were closed rural districts from which children of school age had been sent to the Shakopee school district on a tuition basis over a period of years. These school districts lie east, south, and west around the Shakopee district.

On February 8, 1960, the Shakopee school board resolved that it would continue to accept tuition students from the rural districts during the 1960-1961 school year but not thereafter. On February 16, 1960, a copy of the resolution and a letter was sent to each of the rural districts. On August 30, 1960, the rural districts asked for an extension of the cut-off date. Meetings were held between representatives from the boards of the rural districts and the Shakopee district to discuss the request and to ascertain whether the rural districts were taking steps to build an elementary school.

Representatives from the Shakopee district in July 1960 had requested owners of property in Valley Industrial Park to consider having their properties attached to the district. Pursuant to § 122.21, on September 15, 1960, MADC made, and on September 16 filed with the county auditor, a petition to have its land detached from Common School Districts Nos. 1870, 1871, and 1897, and annexed to the Shakopee district. This petition was received by the county auditor in the morning mail on September 16 but before this mail had been opened, Mr. Michael E. McGuire, counsel for appellants, in person filed petitions pursuant to § 122.22 for the dissolution of Districts Nos. 1871, 1876, 1891, and 1897, and for their attachment ultimately to Common School District No. 1872. He later filed a petition for dissolution of Common School District No. 1873 and its attachment to District No. 1872. On September 20, 1960, petitions for detachment and annexation of lands under § 122.21 were filed by American-Wheaton, the Peavey company, and Minnesota Valley Natural Gas, and on November 3, 1960, by Owens-Illinois with the county auditor, all in substantially the same form as the MADC petition.

*162 After a hearing on November 15, 1960, the petitions of MADC, American-Wheaton, the Peavey company, Minnesota Valley Natural Gas, and Owens-Illinois were granted by order of the county board on the same date. Pursuant to § 127.25 appeals were then taken to the district court from the orders of the county board by appellants. On December 6, 1960, the county board also granted the several petitions of the common school districts for dissolution and attachment, and no appeals were taken from this action.

At the pretrial conference the court ordered appellants to specify the grounds for the assertions in their notices of appeal that the county board did not have jurisdiction and had exceeded its jurisdiction in granting the petitions. After further investigation appellants waived questions of jurisdiction. The questions whether the action of the county board had proceeded according to. an erroneous theory of law and whether its action was arbitrary were preserved.

The trial court made findings as to all jurisdictional facts. It also found that the county board heard and received the evidence offered for and against the several petitions, including a statement of one Mr. Hendrickson, a representative of the State Department of Education, whom the board had asked to attend and to advise it; that the petitioners and objectors were represented by counsel and that the hearing was fairly and fully conducted; and that the hearing and the county board meeting held thereafter, at which the petitions were approved, were open to the public.

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Related

State Ex Rel. Archabal v. County of Hennepin
495 N.W.2d 416 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1993)
County of Hennepin v. Civil Rights Commission of City of Minneapolis
355 N.W.2d 458 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1984)
Independent School District No. 697 v. County Board of Commissioners
198 N.W.2d 526 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1972)
Common School District No. 899 v. Independent School District No. 784
177 N.W.2d 775 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1970)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
131 N.W.2d 29, 269 Minn. 157, 1964 Minn. LEXIS 764, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-petition-of-minneapolis-area-development-corp-minn-1964.