State ex rel. School District v. Sams

99 N.W. 544, 71 Neb. 669, 1904 Neb. LEXIS 95
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedApril 21, 1904
DocketNo. 13,537
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 99 N.W. 544 (State ex rel. School District v. Sams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. School District v. Sams, 99 N.W. 544, 71 Neb. 669, 1904 Neb. LEXIS 95 (Neb. 1904).

Opinion

GrUANVIULE, C.

The relator brought mandamus to compel respondent to pay over to it one-half of the sum of $1,000 for saloon licenses in the village of Colon in Saunders county. The territory included in the corporate limits of such village is comprised within two school districts, the relator and one other. The respondent’s answer to the writ set up the defense that, by the last school census, the number of children of school age in the relator district is shown to be 23, and that of the other district 56, and that therefore, under the law, the relator was entitled to but $291.15 which the respondent was ready and willing to pay upon demand. The relator demurred to the answer and return. The. district court overruled the demurrer and gave judgment dismissing the action at relator’s cost. The relator brings the cause before us upon the following- assignments :

“1. The court erred in overruling demurrer to the defendant’s answer. 2. The court erred in rendering judgment for defendant, denying the writ of mandamus on the pleadings without testimony. 3. The judgment is not sustained by the evidence. 4. The judgment is contrary to [671]*671law. 5. The court erred in overruling plaintiff’s motion for a new trial.”

It is contended that the return is demurrable because section 28, chapter 80 of the Compiled Statutes of 1903, upon which the sufficiency of the answer depends, is not the law for two reasons: first, because it is directly contrary to certain provisions of the constitution; and, second, because this section having been a part of chapter 80 of the Compiled Statutes of 1897 at the time of the passage of the act of 1899, entitled “An act to provide for the registration, leasing, selling and general management of the educational lands of Nebraska, to provide for the collection of rental, interest and principal payments thereon, and for the distribution of the funds arising therefrom; and to repeal chajiter 80 of the (’ompiled Statutes of 1897,” was repealed by such act; and it is contended the reenactment of the section in question, as section 28 of the new act, was unconstitutional, the section not being germane; to the subject, nor within the title of the new act. The section is as follows:

“In cities and villages whose corporate limits form, in whole or in part, more than one school district, all money derived from fines, penalties and licenses, shall be; apportioned to the seeveral districts in proportion to the numbe;r of persons of school age residing in e-ach district, inclueled in whole, or in part in said corporate limits, according to the school census taken last before any such apportionment.” The; first reason urged for holding it invaliel is disposed of in the case of Kas v. State, 63 Neb. 581, where the identical question was raised. The decision in that case sustaining the statute is satisfacten-y, and we adhea*e to the ruling without further argumemt.

Chapter 80 of the Compiled Statute's of 1897 is divide;d into four article*s, anel is made up of e-hapten* 71 of the session laws of 1S97, the title being “An act to amemd chapter 80, of the Cemipile-el Statutes of 1895, relating to school lands and funds, to prewemt the furtheu sale; of school lands, and to repe;al said original chapter 80, Com[672]*672piled Statutes of 1895.” Article I contains provisions prohibiting the sale of school lands, providing for abstracts, appraisements, reappraisements, payment for and removal of improvements, payments of interest and principal on old contracts, and general provisions in regard to the leasing of school lands, collection of rentals, and the investment' of the funds. Article II, entitled “School Funds,” contains the provisions of an act of 1869, covering unclaimed fees and costs, and fines and penalties, into the school fund; an act passed in 1895 containing the section in controversy; an act contained in the general statute of 1873, providing for the payment of what is known as the 5 per cent, fund received from the United States into the school fund; an act of 1877, authorizing suits for the collection of securities held for investments belonging to the school fund; an act of 1879, providing for turning moneys-collected upon judgment in favor of the state into the school fund; and an act of 1887, providing for stamping bonds belonging to the permanent school funds so as to sIioav to what they belong. Article III contains the provisions of an act of 1879, providing for refunding taxes paid upon school land. Article IY contains laws enacted in 1875, 1877 and 1879 as amended in 1897, together with a clause repealing chapter 80 of the Compila! Statutes of 1895. The act of 1899 in its new provisions covers the entire subject contained in article I of the act of 1897; reenacts all the sections in article II; omits all of articles III and IV, and repeals chapter 80 of the Compiled Statutes of 1897, and all acts in conflict with the new act.

The- theory upon which we are asked to hold the law invalid is that its subject is not included within the title; that the act of 1899 was not an amendment to chapter 80, but was the enactment of a new and independent statute; covering a part only of the ground covered by the old chapter, and that all of the reenacted provisions that art; not within the title are wiped out by the repeal, notwithstanding the attempted reenactment. We think there are at least two theories, either of which would sustain the [673]*673statute in question. One is that the importance of the. laws that would he thus wiped out is so obvious and great as to indicate that their retention was a part of the inducement to the passage of the act as framed, and that, if they can not he sustained as a part thereof, the. entire act must fall with them, and the law stand as theretofore. The second is, that if the subject matter of these sections is so foreign to the title of the act as to render their reenactment void for this reason, then the act is in part had, because to repeal numerous acts of the legislature, the subjects of which are not germane to the main title of the act in question, makes the act cover more than one subject, that is, the object stated in the title, and the provision in the bill for the repeal of the entire chapter 80, covers a subject foreign to the main subject disclosed by the title. The result of this would be to allow the act, in so far as it enacted provisions covering the entire subject previously embraced in article I of chapter 80, to stand as a new, complete act, and, by implication, repeal the provisions of article I, in so far as they are in conflict therewith, and to hold the positive repealing clause of the entire chapter Amid, and yet not an inducement to the act, because the intention to preserve the provisions of article II by an attempted reenactment would show that their repeal was not an inducement to the other part of the act. Either of these theories, if adopted, defeats the contention of the relator, but they Avould have different effects upon other portions of tin law. The adoption of the first theory would reinstate the provisions of article 1, which were intended to be changed, and also the provisions of articles III and IY, which were intended to he wiped out by the act. The adoption of the second theory Avould substitute the ucav provisions for such article, continue article II, and reinstate articles III and IY. This second theory is practically the one adopted by this court in State v. Lancaster County, 17 Neb. 85, Avliere it is held: “A provision in an amendaiorv act repealing an act not connected with the subject of the amendment is Aroid.” The. case involved

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Bluebook (online)
99 N.W. 544, 71 Neb. 669, 1904 Neb. LEXIS 95, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-school-district-v-sams-neb-1904.