Tisdale v. Eldorado Independent School Dist.

287 S.W. 147, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 1191
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 9, 1926
DocketNo. 7044. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 287 S.W. 147 (Tisdale v. Eldorado Independent School Dist.) 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
Tisdale v. Eldorado Independent School Dist., 287 S.W. 147, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 1191 (Tex. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

BLAIR, J.

The appellants applied for a temporary injunction to restrain the school board of Eldorado independent school district, the tax assessor, and collector of Schleicher county' from exacting certain school taxes levied and assessed against their property, alleging that it constituted no part of the school district, and was not subject to its jurisdiction for taxation. The appeal is from the order denying the injunction.

The Eldorado independent school district was created April 3, 1907, by a special act of the Legislature. It voted and sold, August 1, 1909, schoolhouse bonds aggregating $20,000, of which some $9,000 remain outstanding and unpaid. Additional schoolhouse bonds, aggregating $45,000, were voted February 19, 1925, and sold February 23, 1925. Thereafter, March 6, 1925, by special legislative enactment, the district was redefined so as to exclude about 150 sections of land owned by the three appellants and probably 25 others, most of whom reside on their land so segregated from the old district. The 150 sections are sparsely settled,, and consist in the main of ranch lands, and only one child from the segregated portion attends the Eldorado school. The county school board and commissioner’s court of Schleicher county created three separate common school districts out of the 150 sections after its segregation from the old district, and each of them has voted a local tax with which to maintain schools. The segregation act is silent with reference to the bond indebtedness, or with reference to any adjustment or settlement of property rights or debts as between the segregated portion and the old district, but merely redefines the district so as to excludé from its territory the 150 sections of land. The buildings and all improvements for which the bonds were issued are situated in the Eldorado independent school district as redefined by the segregating act. April 4, 1925, the trustees of the Eldorado independent school district met and levied a tax of 40 cents on the $100 valuation for school maintenance, a tax of 10 cents to pay interest and provide a sinking fund for the 1909 bond issue, and a tax of 25 cents to pay interest and provide a sinking fund for the 1925 bond issue, and appointed the county tax assessor and collector, respectively, and ordered them to assess and collect these taxes against the 150 sections of land and personal property located thereon which had been segregated and excluded from the old district by the special apt of March 6, 1925. The assessor made the assessments on a supplemental roll, which the commissioner’s court approved, and the collector is collecting and demanding of appellants and the others similarly situated payment of these taxes.

The main question presented, under these facts is whether the Legislature has the power to reduce by special act the territorial boundaries of an independent school district having an outstanding bond indebtedness so as to relieve the portion segregated from the’ debt as between it and the old district, and to place it all upon the remaining portion in which the improvements for which the bonds were issued are located, without its consent, and without providing for an election whereby the voters of the remaining district or territory may determine whether they will assume the additional burden. We have concluded that the Legislature does have that *148 power. The authority 35 Cyc. 850, lays down the following as the general rule with reference to this question:

“In the absence of some statutory provision to the contrary, the general rule is that, when a part of the territory of a school district is separated from it by annexation to another district, or by the creation of a new district, the old district retaining its organization, such old district retains all its property, powers, rights, and privileges, and continues to be responsible for all its debts and liabilities.”

See, also, cases cited in notes 95 and 96, which support the text quoted.

In the case of Johnson v. City of San Diego, it was held that—

“When the act of segregation is silent as to the common property, and common debts, the old corporation retains all the property within its new boundaries, and is chai'ged with the payment of all of the debts.” 109 Cal. 475, 42 P. 250, 30 L. R. A. 180, and notes and cases there cited.

This rule has the universal approval of all courts, and, while it relates to municipalities by analogy, it is applicable here, since the dominion of the Legislature over the creation, alteration, or existence of school districts and municipalities is derived from the same source, sovereignty, and its general power with reference to these matters .is the same. 35 Cyc. 832, 833. This authority holds that—

“The power to organize, establish, or lay off new school districts, or to divide, change the boundaries, or otherwise alter existing districts is vested primarily in the Legislature, which may act without the assent of the inhabitants of the affected territory.” State v. Norwood, 24 Tex. Civ. App. 24, 57 S. W. 875; Swenson v. McLaren, 2 Tex. Civ. App. 331, 21 S. W. 300; State v. Buchanan, 37 Tex. Civ. App. 325, 83 S. W. 723.

Our state Constitution (article 7, § 3) pro-, vides:

“And the Legislature may also provide for the formation of school districts by general or special law, without the local notice.”

The law, as announced by all authorities, that the Legislature may create, divide, or extend the territorial boundaries of school ¡districts or municipalities arises from the very nature of the creation of these corporations or quasi corporations, and is established under the well-settled doctrine that such corporations have no vested rights in the powers conferred for the purposes for which they came into existence; or, as Dillon on Mun. Oorp (4th Ed.) § 63, says:

“Legislative acts respecting the political and governmental powers of municipal corporations not ’being in the nature of contracts, the provisions thereof may be changed at pleasure where the constitutional rights of creditors and others are not invaded.”

If it can be said that appellees have any concern in the question, their contention that the special act is unconstitutional because it impairs the obligation of the district’s contracts with reference to its outstanding bond indebtedness is without merit. The act could have impaired the contracts only by detaching from the district against which the bonds existed such an amount of territory, as to leave 'insufficient property liable for the payment of the debts within the district’s taxing limitations; and by further forgiving and relieving the segregated portion of its pro rata of the indebtedness as against the creditors. The act does not attempt to relieve the segregated portion of its liability for the bond debt, but simply provides by presumption that as between the segregated portion and the old district as redefined the old district which received all the benefits of the bonds should pay them. It is undisputed that sufficient property was left in the Eldorado independent school district as redefined by the act to more than pay the bond indebtedness within its taxing limitations.

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Related

Lee v. Leonard Independent School Dist.
24 S.W.2d 449 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1930)
Ferguson v. Academy Consol. Independent School Dist.
14 S.W.2d 1051 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1929)
El Dorado Independent School Dist. v. Tisdale
3 S.W.2d 420 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1928)

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287 S.W. 147, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 1191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tisdale-v-eldorado-independent-school-dist-texapp-1926.