Shutt v. Dallas County Board of School Trustees

237 S.W.2d 760, 1950 Tex. App. LEXIS 1832
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 4, 1950
DocketNo. 6093
StatusPublished

This text of 237 S.W.2d 760 (Shutt v. Dallas County Board of School Trustees) 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
Shutt v. Dallas County Board of School Trustees, 237 S.W.2d 760, 1950 Tex. App. LEXIS 1832 (Tex. Ct. App. 1950).

Opinion

PITTS, Chief Justice.

This appeal is .from an order of dismissal entered by the .trial court after sustaining one of defendants’ special exceptions to plaintiff’s alleged cause of action and plaintiff refused to amend. Appellant, R. E. Shutt, acting for himself and all other similarly situated, sought to compel the Dallas County Board of School Trustees, by a mandatory injunction to transfer a small tract of improved land owned and occupied by appellant and others similarly-situated from the Dallas Independent School District to the Highland Park Independent School District, the said tract of land then being a part of the first named District and adjacent to the last named District. Prior to the hearing had the-trial court had sustained a plea of non-joinder filed by Dallas County Board of School Trustees and thus made the Board of School Trustees of Dallas Independent School District a party defendant. The [761]*761latter defendant answered and adopted the material parts of its codefendants’ pleadings to be here considered and the two named school body corporates will be hereafter referred to as appellees.

The City of Dallas completely surrounds two municipalities, namely, the Cities of Highland Park and University Park. Highland Park Independent School District embraces all of the City of University Park and all of the City of Highland Park except the strip of land here involved, which is a strip of improved land owned and occupied by appellant, and those similarly situated. The said strip of land is one block wide and eleven blocks long, situated west of the Cottonbest Railroad in the City of Highland Park but also in the Dallas Independent School District which District is adjacent to Highland Park Independent School District along the full length of the strip of land in question.

Appellant and other residents of the strip of land in question sought by means of a petition with a requisite number of names thereon to get the Dallas County Board of School Trustees to transfer by a proper order the strip of land in question from the Dallas District to the Highland Park District under the provisions of Article 2742f, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes. The said Board refused to grant the request made in the petition because the petitioners liad failed to secure the consent of the Board of Trustees of the Dallas Independent School District, to which District the strip of land in question then belonged. Such a refusal resulted in the filing of this suit for a mandatory injunction to compel the County Board of Trustees to make the transfer of the said strip of land from the Dallas Independent School District to the Highland Park Independent School District without first securing the consent of the Dallas District to make such a transfer.

Appellant pleaded a full compliance with the provisions of Article 2742f. This Article was enacted by the 41st Legislature in 1929. Section 1 of this Article authorizes a county board of school trustees upon a proper . showing having been made to detach land from one school district and annex it to an adjoining district with the consent and approval of a majority of the board of trustees of the district to which the same is to be attached. Section 1 of the said Article further provides that if the territory to be detached exceeds ten per cent of the entire district from which it is to ’be detached the petition for such detachment must be signed by a majority of the trustees of the district from which the territory is to be detached together with a majority of the qualified voters of the territory to be detached, but in the case at-bar'the proposed territory to be detached is not more- than ten per cent of the Dallas District and that provision last mentioned of the Article does not apply. Neither will such a transfer reduce the area of the Dallas District to less than nine square miles as is provided for in Section 1-a of the said Article which Section was added thereto by an amendment of the 42nd Legislature in 1931.

Appellees answered the complaints pleaded by appellant. Among other matters pleaded they specially excepted to appellant’s pleadings on the grounds that he had not shown that he had secured the consent of the Board of Trustees of the Dallas Independent School District to have the strip of land in question transferred from its District to the Highland Park District as is required by Article 2815a, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, which Article they allege applies in this case. Article 2815a was enacted by the 40th Legislature in 1927. This Article makes it the duty of a county board of school trustees of every county having 210,000 population or more according to the last preceding federal census to conveniently provide for and arrange school districts of the county and to rearrange them from time to time by treating new districts or consolidating districts if needed or by increasing or reducing the area of districts by revising or rearranging the boundaries, attaching territory to a district or detaching territory therefrom if necessary for the best interest of the school children, “provided that the territory of no independent school district having more than five hundred ('500) scholastics shall be changed without the consent of its board of Trustees * * [762]*762In the case at bar it is conceded that the County of Dallas had more than 210,000 population according to the last preceding federal census and that the Dallas Independent School District had more than 500' scholastics.

After a hearing and due consideration the trial court sustained appellees’ special exception hereinabove set out, holding, in effect, that appellant must as a matter of law allege consent of the Board of Trustees of the Dallas Independent School District as a part of his alleged cause of action. Appellant refused to so amend his pleading and the case was dismissed. From the order of dismissal appellant perfected his appeal to the Dallas Court of Civil Appeals and the same has been transferred to this court by order of the Supreme Court.

Appellant predicates his appeal upon several points of error seeking to establish that the issues here presented are controlled by the provisions of Article 2742f. He contends that Article 2742f passed in 1929 repealed Article 2815a passed in 1927 in case the two Articles are conflicting. He further contends that the two Articles provide for alternative methods for changing the boundary lines in Dallas County by the County School Board if the provisions of the said Articles, are not conflicting. Appellees resist appellant’s contentions and insist that appellant must plead and prove consent of the School Board of the Dallas District as required by Article 2815a before the strip of land in question can be detached as urged by appellant.

Both Article 2742f and Article 2815a have been amended by acts of the Legislature but a careful examination of both reveals to us that the provisions of each Article hereinabove discussed have not been repealed or affected by such amendments. Therefore such provisions of each Article are now in full force and effect and we believe they control the issues here presented. It may be presumed that the Legislature in passing the original Act as set forth in Article 2815a deemed it wise to do so in order to see that areas and boundaries in school districts of the large counties should be kept very stable and remain fixed and not subject to changes unless such met with the approval of the controlling body of the district affected.

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

Related

Smith v. City of Dallas
36 S.W.2d 547 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1931)
Wintermann v. McDonald
102 S.W.2d 167 (Texas Supreme Court, 1937)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
237 S.W.2d 760, 1950 Tex. App. LEXIS 1832, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shutt-v-dallas-county-board-of-school-trustees-texapp-1950.