Van Brunt v. Joint School District No. 3

201 N.W. 755, 185 Wis. 493, 1925 Wisc. LEXIS 109
Wisconsin Supreme Court·Decided January 13, 1925·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

Owen, J.

This action was brought to restrain the defendant school district from issuing its bonds to the amount of $70,000 for the purpose of building an addition to the schoolhouse and equipping the same. From an adverse judgment the plaintiffs appeal.

The issuance of the bonds was authorized at a special school district meeting. That this meeting was regularly called is not challenged. At this meeting a resolution, complying in all respects with the requirements of sec. 67.05, Stats., was read. A vote on this resolution was taken by ballot, which ballot was as follows:

“If you desire to vote for any question, make a cross (X) or other mark in the square after the word ‘Yes’ underneath such question: If you desire to vote against any question, make a cross (X) or other mark in the square after the word 'No’ underneath such question.
“Shall Joint School District No. 3 of the Town and Village of Colfax, Wisconsin, issue its negotiable coup'on bonds in the amount of $70,000 for the purpos? of building and equipping an addition to the present school and levy a tax [495] and shall the initial resolution be as read at this meeting approved? Yes. No.”

The resolution was adopted by a vote of 201 to 148. The resolution so adopted contained a provision that “there hereby is levied on all the taxable property of said school district a direct annual irrepealable tax sufficient to pay the various instalments of principal and interest on said bonds as they severally mature.” Immediately after the adoption of this resolution the school district board held a meeting at which all the members were present and to the holding of which all members consented without prior notice. The board adopted the following resolution:

“Whereas, at a special meeting of said joint school district duly called and held on March 17, 1924, and an initial resolution was duly adopted providing for an issue of $70,000 of bonds for the purpose of providing funds for the building of an addition to the present schoolhouse and equipping the same and levying a tax for the purpose of paying the principal and interest on said bonds:
“Therefore, be it resolved that said resolution be and the same hereby is adopted as and for the resolution of this board, and that said bonds be further prepared and executed in the manner provided by said resolution.”

It is claimed that these proceedings are insufficient to authorize the issuance of the bonds of the school district because the statutes require the resubmission of the question voted upon at the special meeting of March 17th to a subsequent election or meeting of the electors of the school district. This contention is based upon the provisions of sec. 67.05, Stats. That section of the statutes introduces a new term into our statutory law relating to the issuance of bonds by municipalities, that term being “initial resolution.” Briefly stated, that section requires the governing body of a municipality (which includes the school board of a school district), when such municipality contemplates the issuance of bonds, to adopt an initial resolution, after the form pro[496] vided therein, “except where initial action has already been taken by electors under subsection (2).” The section then provides that in certain cases the resolution shall be submitted to the electors of the municipality at a special election called for that purpose, and provides how such election shall be noticed, held, and conducted as well as the form of ballot that shall be used thereat. Sub. (2) of said section reads as follows:

“The electors of any . . . common school district . . . may at any annual meeting, or at a special meeting of such electors called for the purpose, adopt the initial resolution prescribed by subsection (1) without any prior adoption thereof by the governing body of such municipality.”

Sub. (6) of said section provides:

“Whenever an initial resolution shall have been so adopted by the governing body of any municipality whatsoever other than a county, a town, a city, a village, or a board of park commissioners, the clerk of such municipality shall immediately record the same and call a special meeting for the purpose of submitting the resolution to the electors of the municipality for ratification or rejection.”

The question we are to determine is whether it was necessary for the defendant school district to call the election provided for in sub. (6) just quoted. By its terms it provides for the calling of that election when the resolution shall have been adopted by the governing body. In this case the initial resolution was not adopted by the governing body. It was adopted by the electors at a regularly called special meeting of the school district electors, and we can discover no provision of the statutes which requires the electors of the district to come together, at á special meeting, adopt a resolution providing for the issuance of bonds, and then meet again at a later meeting to again adopt the resolution. This proposition is absurd, and we can discover no legislative intent to incumber or harass the issuance of bonds by a school district by calling two special meetings and twice [497] adopting the identical proposition. That is exactly what it amounts to if it is to be held that sub. (6) is to be construed as requiring the calling of another meeting, because the terms of that section provide that the question submitted shall be “Whether the resolution shall be approved.”

It will be noticed that in this instance the school district followed the procedure laid down in sub. (4) of sec. 40.11, which was the law prior to the enactment by the legislature of 1921 of ch. 576, which is to be found in the Statutes as ch. 67, relating to municipal borrowing. Ch. 67 was a revision of the laws relating to municipal borrowing which were found scattered all through the statutes. The revisor of statutes brought all such provisions together, and we now have them all included in said ch. 67. Being the work of the revisor, it may be assumed that there was no intention to work any radical changes in the manner of the procedure relating to the issuance of municipal bonds.

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Van Brunt v. Joint School District No. 3, 201 N.W. 755, 185 Wis. 493, 1925 Wisc. LEXIS 109 (Wis. 1925).

201 N.W. 755 (Van Brunt v. Joint School District No. 3) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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