Trenton Gr'd Sch. Dist. v. Bd. of Ed. of Todd County

129 S.W.2d 143, 278 Ky. 607, 1939 Ky. LEXIS 474
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976)
DecidedMay 23, 1939
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 129 S.W.2d 143 (Trenton Gr'd Sch. Dist. v. Bd. of Ed. of Todd County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976) primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Trenton Gr'd Sch. Dist. v. Bd. of Ed. of Todd County, 129 S.W.2d 143, 278 Ky. 607, 1939 Ky. LEXIS 474 (Ky. 1939).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge Rees

Sustaining motion and dissolving temporary injunction.

This case is before me on a motion to dissolve.a temporary injunction granted by the Judge of the Todd Circuit Court. The question presented involves the constitutionality of Chapter 40 of the Acts of the General Assembly, now Section 4399-4a, Kentucky Statutes Supp. 1938, passed at the First Extra 1938 Session. The act is entitled: “An Act authorizing independent school districts to annex county subdistricts or parts thereof,” and reads in part:

“Any independent school district may annex and unite as a part of the independent school district any county subdistrict or subdistricts, or parts thereof, lying adjacent to the independent school district, subject to the following provisions.”

Then follow provisions for submitting the question of annexation to a vote of the people residing in the territory to be annexed.

An independent graded school district, embracing the city of Trenton and adjacent territory in Todd County, has been maintained a great many years. The district contained fewer than 200 children of school *609 age. At the regular 1938 session of the General Assembly, Section 4399-3 of the Kentucky Statutes vas amended so as to provide that independent graded school districts having less than 200 pupils of school age should not continue to operate unless permitted to do so by the State Board of Education. The Act provided that the State Board of Education might permit an independent graded common school district, existing at the time of its passage, with a census enumeration of white children below 200, to operate as a temporary independent school district for one-year periods. Acts 1938, Chapter 147. During the summer of 1938, the Board of Education of Todd County and the Board of Education of the Trenton Graded School District, as authorized by the Act passed at the First 1938 Extra Session of the General Assembly, designated certain territory lying adjacent to the Trenton Graded School District and submitted the question of annexing the territory to the independent school district to a vote of the people residing in the territory proposed to he annexed. At an election held in accordance with an order entered by the two boards, the residents of the territory voted almost unanimously for annexation. In the annexed territorv there are 87 white children and 71 colored child? en of school age. Mrs. Sarah Carneal, attendance officer for common schools in Todd county and also for the Trenton Graded School District, declined to report these children as residents of the graded school district on the ground that Chapter 40 of the Acts of the General Assemblv passed at the First 1938 Extra Session was unconstitutional and the attempted annexation of the territory in question therefore was void. On April 26, 1939, the Board of Education of the Trenton Graded School District, and others, brought an action against the Board of Education of Todd County, Claude High-tower, superintendent of schools for Todd county, and Mrs. Sarah Carneal, attendance officer for the common schools of Todd county and for the TrentorL Graded School District, to have the names of the children of school age residing in the annexed territory included in the certification of names of children residing in the Trenton Graded School District. They asked for a mandatory injunction requiring the defendant Mrs. Sarah Carneal to certify before June 1, 1939, to Claude High-tower, superintendent of county^ schools for Todd county, and to the Boards of Education of Todd County and the Trenton Graded School District the names of all *610 children of school age in the annexed territory as resident pnpils and entitled to attend the schools in the Trenton Graded School District and to have their pro rata portion of the common school funds of the state turned over to the treasurer of the Trenton Graded School District, and requiring the defendants on or before July 1, 1939, to certify the names of said children as resident pupils of the Trenton Graded School District to the Superintendent of Public Instruction at Frankfort, Kentucky. The defendants demurred to the petition, and, without waiving the demurrer, filed an answer setting out facts which they alleged showed that Chapter 40 of the Acts of the First Extra Session of 1938, under which the annexation was had, was unconstitutional, since it was not embraced within the original proclamation of the Governor convening the Legislature in special session, and was not embraced in any amendment thereto. The circuit judge granted a temporary injunction as prayed for in the petition.

The propriety of the order granting the injunction turns on the validity of Chapter 40 of the Acts of the General Assembly passed at the First Extra Session of 1938, and in turn the validity of the Act must be determined by the answer to the question: Was it embraced in the Governor’s proclamation of March 2, 1938, convening the Extra Session, or the amended proclamation of March 17, 1938?

Section 80 of the Constitution of Kentucky expressly provides that, when convened in extraordinary session, the General Assembly shall consider no subject except that for which they were specially called together. Such a provision is mandatory, and limits the power of the General Assembly to the enactment of such laws as relate to subjects stated in the governor’s proclamation. In 25 R. C. L. page 806, it is said:

“Constitutional provisions limiting the scope of legislation at special sessions are mandatory, and any law enacted at a special session is void if it is not the subject or subjects designated by the executive’s call or message, even though it has been approved by the governor.”

Section 80 of the Constitution, after authorizing the Governor to convene the General Assembly on extraordinary occasions, provides:

“When he shall convene the general assembly it *611 shall he by proclamation, stating the subjects to be considered, and no other shall be considered. ’ ’

The Governor’s proclamation of March 2, 1938, named fifteen subjects to be considered by the General Assembly at the Extra Session. The eighth subject listed in the proclamation was the only one relating to education, and it reads:

“To pass an act making provision for teachers retirement benefits effective not earlier than June 3(f 1940.”

It is not contended that the subject-matter of the Act here in question was embraced in that item. On March 17, 1938, the Governor’s proclamation was amended by adding thirty-four subjects for consideration by the General Assembly. Items 18,19, and 32 pertain to schools. It is conceded that item 18 has no application to the question before me. Item 19 of the amended proclamation reads:

“To pass an Act repealing, amending and reenacting Sections 4257-59 through 4527-80, Carroll’s Kentucky Statutes, Baldwin’s 1936 Revision, and making provision for the establishment and maintenance of a Negro vocational school at Paducah, Kentucky, provided appropriations therefor for the biennium beginning July 1, 1938, shall not exceed a total of seventy-nine thousand dollars ($79,000.00.).”

And item 32 reads:

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Related

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600 S.W.2d 489 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1980)
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Bluebook (online)
129 S.W.2d 143, 278 Ky. 607, 1939 Ky. LEXIS 474, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trenton-grd-sch-dist-v-bd-of-ed-of-todd-county-kyctapphigh-1939.