Trustees of Cranfills Gap Consol. School Dist. No. 6 of Bosque & Hamilton Counties v. Board of County School Trustees of Bosque County

178 S.W.2d 537, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 600
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 10, 1944
DocketNo. 2555.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 178 S.W.2d 537 (Trustees of Cranfills Gap Consol. School Dist. No. 6 of Bosque & Hamilton Counties v. Board of County School Trustees of Bosque County) 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
Trustees of Cranfills Gap Consol. School Dist. No. 6 of Bosque & Hamilton Counties v. Board of County School Trustees of Bosque County, 178 S.W.2d 537, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 600 (Tex. Ct. App. 1944).

Opinion

RICE, Chief Justice.

Cranfills Gap Consolidated School District No. 6 of Bosque and Hamilton Counties, Texas, is a county line school district comprised of territory within the two counties above mentioned. Acting through its trustees, said School District brought this suit in the District Court of Bosque County against the Board of County School Trustees of Bosque County for the purpose of setting aside an order theretofore made and entered by said County School Board. Trial was had to the court without the intervention of a jury. From an adverse judgment plaintiff below has perfected this appeal.

For convenience, appellant will be referred to herein as the County Line District, and appellee will be referred to as the Board of County School Trustees.

The principal school of said district was situate in Bosque County; and the school authorities of said county exercised jurisdiction and control of the district. A majority of the qualified voters residing within an area described by fieldnotes and embraced within the limits of said County Line District, presented their petition to the Board of County School Trustees of Bos-que County, praying that the area in said petition described be detached from said County Line District and be annexed to and made a part of Clifton Independent School District, situate wholly within Bosque County. The Board of School Trustees acted on this petition by passing an order on November 27, 1942, detaching the territory described in the petition from the appellant District and annexed the same to the Clifton Independent School District. On the same date, this transfer of territory was assented to and accepted by the trustees of the Clifton Independent School District. On January 12, 1943, the Board of County School Trustees of Hamilton County assented to the transfer. At the time of the entry of the above mentioned orders there existed an unpaid bonded indebtedness against the County Line District which was not adjusted when the disputed territory was detached from the County Line District nor at the time of the trial of this cause.

It is the position of appellant that each and all of the foregoing proceedings and orders were void and ineffectual, because neither the County Board of School Trustees of Bosque County nor the County *538 Board of Trustees of Hamilton County had jurisdiction of the subject matter of said orders, for the reason that the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of said County Line District for the purposes above mentioned was vested in the Commissioners’ Courts of Bosque and Hamilton Counties.

As authority for its contention appellant cites Article 2744, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, relating- to county line school districts, which provides, in part: “Such district shall not be changed or abolished except by the consent of the commissioners court of each county having territory contained therein, and if such a district has outstanding bonds the same shall not be changed or abolished in any way until after such bonds are finally paid and discharged.”

In passing upon the questions raised by this appeal it becomes necessary for us to briefly review some of the enactments of our legislature found in that chaotic mass of legislation comprising the school law of the state.

In 1893, the Twenty-third Legislature of this state passed an act “to provide for a more efficient system of public free schools” as an emergency measure because of “the unharmonious and conflicting provisions of the present school law * * c. 122. Section 40 of said act made it the duty of the commissioners’ courts of the state to subdivide their respective counties into school districts. This section appears as Article 3938 of the Revised Civil Statutes of Texas of 1895.

Article 2744, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, was originally Article 2815b of Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, 1914, and was enacted in 1911. The above quoted provision of said article relied upon by appellant has remained in our statutes unchanged since its original enactment. The foregoing articles have never been repealed by legislative enactment making specific reference thereto.

In 1915, the legislature enacted, as a part of a comprehensive school law, Article 2681, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, which in part provides : “The county school trustees are authorized to exercise the authority heretofore vested in the commissioners court with respect to subdividing the county into school districts, and making changes in school district lines.” This language is broad and sweeping in its scope, and is free from ambiguity. Section 15 of this act, Acts 1915, c. 36, expressly repealed all conflicting laws.

In 1911, the Thirty-second Legislature (S.B. 178, Ch. 100, Gammel’s General Laws, 1911) amended Chapter 12 of the act of the Thirty-first Legislature (1909) by adding thereto a section designated as 50a pertaining to county line school districts and empowering the commissioners’ courts of each county having territory within the proposed district to create county line districts. In 1917, the Thirty-fifth Legislature (S.B. 250, Ch. 196, Gammel’s General Laws of Texas, 1917) expressly amended section 50a above referred to and thereby made it the express duty of the county school trustees to create a common school district to contain territory in two or more counties. This amendatory act expressly repealed all laws in conflict therewith.

Article 2743, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, vests in the boards of county school trustees in adjoining counties “full power and authority to create common school districts, to contain territories within two or more counties.” This article further provides that “no common county line school district shall be created with or changed to a less area than nine square miles * * * (italics ours).” . Acts 1909, Ch. 17; Acts 1911, p. 200; Acts 1917, p. 441.

Article 2742f, sec. 1-a (Acts of 1929, 41st Leg., 1st C.S., c. 47, p. 106, as amended by Acts 1931, 42nd Leg., p. 235, Ch. 140, sec. 1), authorizes the county board of school .trustees to detach territory from two or more districts and create a new district, and provides “that when the proposed new district will embrace territory lying in two or more counties, all orders affecting its establishment shall be concurred in by the County Board of Trustees of each county concerned.”

As originally enacted (Acts of 1929 above cited), this article vested in the county board of trustees the power, on petition, to detach from -and annex to any school district, territory contiguous to the common boundary line of the two districts. Section 3 of the act repealed all laws in conflict therewith. The emergency clause of the act is significant in that it states “there is an immediate and imperative need of a more practical method of providing for creation and change of school districts.”

Said article was amended by Acts 1931, 42nd Leg., p. 235, Ch. 140, sec. 1 (H.B. 386) whereby the following provision, *539 among others, was added: “provided that when the proposed new district will embrace territory lying in two or more counties, all orders affecting its establishment .shall be concurred in by the County Board •of Trustees of each county concerned.”

Article 2729a, Vernon’s Annotated Statutes, (Acts 1927, 40th Leg., 1st C.S., p. 17, Ch. 7, sec.

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178 S.W.2d 537, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 600, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trustees-of-cranfills-gap-consol-school-dist-no-6-of-bosque-hamilton-texapp-1944.