Validation of $250,000 School Bonds v. Board of Supervisors

150 So. 2d 412, 246 Miss. 470, 1963 Miss. LEXIS 467
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 4, 1963
DocketNo. 42623
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 150 So. 2d 412 (Validation of $250,000 School Bonds v. Board of Supervisors) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Validation of $250,000 School Bonds v. Board of Supervisors, 150 So. 2d 412, 246 Miss. 470, 1963 Miss. LEXIS 467 (Mich. 1963).

Opinion

McGehee, C. J.

During the early part of the year. 1962 the whole of Greene County, Mississippi, was organized, consolidated and reconstituted into the Greene .County School District.

[476]*476On February 1, 1962, the Greene Connty School District through its County Board of Education adopted a resolution, and submitted a certified copy of the same to the Board of Supervisors of Greene County, Mississippi, as provided by Section 6532-04, Code of 1942 Rec., wherein it is recited, as provided by Section 6532-04, Code of 1942 Rec.:

“Be it Resolved by the Greene County School Board, acting as such, and as Trustees of the Greene County School District, that the Board of Supervisors of Greene County, Mississippi, be, and it is, hereby requested to proceed, under the provisions of * * * Sections 6532-01, et seq., of the Mississippi Code of 1942, Annotated, to call and have an election to authorize, and to issue thereafter, in whole or in part, bonds of the said Greene County School Districts, which includes the entire of Greepe County Mississippi, in an amount not to exceed Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000.00), for the following purposes:
“(a) Erecting, repairing, equipping, remodeling and enlarging school buildings and related facilities, including gymnasiums, auditoriums, lunch rooms, vocational training buildings, libraries, teacher’s homes, school barnes, garages for transportation vehicles, and purchasing land therefor;
“(b) Establishing and equipping school athletic fields and necessary facilities connected therewith, and purchasing land therefor;
“(c) Providing necessary water, light, heating and sewerage facilities for school buildings, and purchasing land therefor.”

Thereafter on February 5, 1962, the Board of Supervisors of Greene County took note of the said resolution and request of the Greene County School Board, and found that school bonds in an amount not to exceed $250,000 should be issued for the purposes set forth in the said resolution of the County School Board. And [477]*477on that same day the Board of Supervisors called an election in accordance with a notice from the Chancery Clerk of Greene County to the Election Commissioners, to be held on March 13, 1962, to determine the question of whether or not school bonds not to exceed $250,000 should he issued for the purposes set forth in the resolution adopted by the County School Board on February 1, 1962, as specifically required by Section 6532-04, Code of 1942 Rec.

The Election Commissioners reported that the said election had been duly held, and had carried in favor of the bond issue by a vote of 1190 to 789, the required three-fifths vote necessary in such an election and which majority vote was thereafter duly determined and adjudicated by the Board of Supervisors. The amount of the proposed bond issue did not exceed any limitation prescribed by law for such a bond issue.

We have duly and carefully examined all of the proceedings had and done by the County School Board of Education, the Board of Supervisors, the County Election Commissioners, and the Chancery Clerk, and we find that all of the said proceedings are regular and in full compliance with the applicable statutes as to form and substance; that the returns of the election have been duly and legally certified to and show that the required three-fifths vote was in favor of the issuance of said bonds and that 789 votes were cast against the issuance thereof; and that said report of the Election Commissioners was signed and filed with the clerk of the proper court on March 14, 1962, and shows that the notice to the qualified electors of the holding of said election fully set forth the purposes for which the bonds were issued, in accordance with Sections 6532-01 and 6532-04, Code of 1942, Rec.

After the date was set for the hearing before the Chancellor of the petition for a validation of the bond issue, the objectors Hardy Mills, Charlie Byrd, Woodie [478]*478McLeod and Willie Kittrell submitted their objections to the validation of the said, bonds, stating, among other things, that the order of the Board of Supervisors ■ calling for said election and. the notice thereof as published are (1) “too general in their-terms and are not specific as to the exact plans and purposes for which said bonds are to be issued and as to what construction*. .repairs and improvements were- to be made, with the money, derived from the proceeds of the said bonds’’; (2), that the objectors have been informed and they charge sthe truth to be that there had been certain failures to comply with the law in the matter of holding the election, namely, that a number of ballots in each of the voting .precincts were not initialed; that persons who were.¡not qualified electors were permitted to vote in each of-the voting precincts of the school -district; that at the Maples and State Line precincts voters were openly instructed by certain of the election officials at said precincts as to how to vote; and that at the Leakesville, State Line and Yernon precincts certain voters marked their ballots and voted outside of the booths provided as voting places for such precincts. (Hn 1) Under the decisions of this Court in the cases-of In Re Savannah Special Consolidated School District of Pearl River County, 208 Miss. 460, 44 So. 2d 545; and Tedder, et al v. Board of Supervisors of Bolivar County, 214 Miss. 717, 59 So. 2d 329, no plans and specifications were required to be adopted prior to the issuance and sale of the bonds.

Some of the alleged failures to comply with the election laws are governed by the Corrupt Practices Act pertaining to primary elections for the selection of nominees of a party, (Hn 2) But we are of the opinion that permitting persons to vote in the election who were not qualified, electors, would constitute a valid objection to any kind of an election under the laws of this State. Ás above shown, it is alleged as one of .the objections [479]*479that persons were permitted to vote in the election who were not qualified electors.

(Hn 3) At the validation hearing on August 27, 1962, the chancellor sustained a motion to strike “that part of the objections contained in the petition contesting the bond issue insofar as same related to the objections that had been heretofore presented to and determined by the board of supervisors”. This action was taken by the chancellor in view of the fact that there had been no appeal from a previous order of the board of supervisors wherein the objections had been overruled. This action by the chancellor was error since Section 1195, Code of 1942 Rec., provides that “all objections to any matters relating to the issuance and sale of bonds shall be adjudicated and determined by the chancery court, in accordance with the provisions of Sections 4314-4318, both inclusive, of the Mississippi Code of 1942. And all rights of the parties shall be preserved, and not foreclosed, for the hearing before the chancery court, or the chancellor in vacation.

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150 So. 2d 412, 246 Miss. 470, 1963 Miss. LEXIS 467, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/validation-of-250000-school-bonds-v-board-of-supervisors-miss-1963.