Fall River Joint Union High School District v. Shasta Union High School District
Fall River Joint Union High School District v. Shasta Union High School District
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff had judgment against the defendant in the sum of $8,213.84, together Avith interest thereon at the rate of seven per cent from the-date of entry of judgment, in an action for money had and received by the defendant for the uses and purposes of the plaintiff, based upon allegations that the defendant had collected and had the use and benefit of certain moneys raised by taxation which should have been had, obtained and enjoyed by the plaintiff. From this judgment the defendant appeals.
After alleging the existence of the two High School Districts named in the title to this action, the complaint sets forth that on the fourth day of February, 1925, a cer
It is further alleged in the complaint that in making the order of transfer, dated February 4, 1925, the board of supervisors did not comply with the requirements of the Political Code, and that thereafter, and in the month of November, 1928, after an action had been prosecuted in the Superior Court of Shasta County for that purpose, a judgment was entered declaring the purported transfer of property from the Bunker Hill Elementary School District to the Kosh Creek Elementary School District, null and void. The complaint then sets forth that during the years intervening between the purported transfer of the lands described in the complaint, and the entry of judgment adjudging the transfer null and void, Shasta Union High School District collected in taxes on the property involved in the transfer the following sums, to wit: For the year 1925, $3,834.57; for the year 1926, the sum of $1151.87; for the year 1927, the sum of $3,019.50; for the year 1928, the sum of $207.90; aggregating a total of $8,213.84. The complaint contains no allegations that the plaintiff did not receive, during said years, all of the money necessary to maintain its Union High School District, nor is there any allegation in the complaint that the plaintiff did not receive, during said period of time, all of the moneys that had been collected for the uses and purposes of the Fall River Joint
The appellant demurred to the plaintiff’s complaint on several grounds, one of which was that it did not state a cause of action. The demurrer being overruled, the appellant declined to amend, and judgment was entered in favor of the plaintiff for the amount sued for.
The respondent, in support of the judgment in its favor, makes the following contention: “That there is but one question involved in this appeal, and that is whether an action for money had and received will lie to recover from a high school district moneys which it has received from taxes for High School purposes, assessed and collected upon lands wholly outside of its boundaries, and wholly within the boundaries of plaintiff district.” This, however, is not a full or complete statement of the issues involved. The question really at issue is whether money received by one district, from, lands apparently but not legally within its exterior boundaries, levied and collected for its uses and purposes and devoted to its uses and purposes, can be recovered by a district within whose territory the lands actually lie, where no levy has been made or taxes collected for its uses and purposes, and where both districts involved obtained exactly the amount of moneys for which their budget called, and neither district obtained or had the use of money intended for the other.
During the time involved in this action sections 1756 and 1757 of the Political Code specified that the school board of every high school district should file with the board of supervisors annually, at the time specified in the section, an estimate of the amount of money required for maintaining the high school district for the current school year. Section 1756, supra, sets forth how the items shall be stated on the estimate, and the procedure that shall be taken preceding the actual levy of the taxes, and that after the esti
Before beginning a review of the authorities relied upon by the respondent, we may state that the complaint fails to show that the plaintiff suffered any deficit in its school funds, or that the defendant obtained any surplus in its school funds by reason of the levy and collection of taxes upon the properties mentioned in the complaint. The contention in this case appears to be based upon the theory that each high school district has an inherent right to all moneys collected by way of taxation upon lands lying within the exterior boundaries of its district, whether or not the levy and collection óf such moneys was intended for, or had for its uses and purposes, and whether it did or did not receive all the money set forth as necessary in its estimate, and irrespective of whether there was or was not a deficit in its funds, and whether there was or was not a surplus in the funds of the district for which the tax was levied and collected.
This is not a case where taxes were levied and collected for one district, and by mistake, turned over or paid to another district. So far as the complaint is concerned, each district in this action had and enjoyed all the money necessary for its uses and purposes, and no money was paid by mistake to the appellant, derived from taxes levied and collected for the uses and purposes of the plaintiff, as no such taxes were levied or collected.
"With these statements in view we will now consider the cases cited as supporting the ruling of the trial court. In the case of Independent School District of the Town of Kelley v. School Township of Washington, 162 Iowa, 42 [143 N. W. 837, 840], it was held that where the county treasurer, by mistake, paid school taxes levied upon property in one district for school purposes and for the contingent
In Independent School District No. 5 v. Solon Independent School District No. 8, 162 Iowa, 686 [144 N. W. 592], the question involved was whether sums paid by one district to another, for and on account of the tuition of pupils supposed, at the time of payment, to be residing in the defend
In the case of Board of Trustees of Graded Free Colored Common School of Mayfield v. Board of Trustees of Graded White Common School of Mayfield, 181 Ky. 303 [204 S. W. 86], the only question involved was one of a división of school moneys between schools maintained for' white and colored pupils, based upon statutes relating to the same .and not applicable to any issues involved herein.
In the case of School District No. 9, Town of Lake, v. School District No. 5, Town of Lake, 118 Wis. 233 [95 N. W. 148], the questions involved related to a division of tax moneys, where the districts had been divided after the levy of the tax. This statement, of course, shows it is inapplicable to the issues here presented.
In Center School Township v. State ex rel. Board of School Commrs., 150 Ind. 168 [49 N. E. 961], the questions involved had to do with the distribution of moneys received from a certain dog tax. The facts show that one district received a surplus portion "which should have been distributed to a different- district. It was really an action to require a division of funds, and not an action to recover funds which had been provided for the support of a defendant district.
In Jefferson School Township of Greene County v. School Town of Worthington, 5 Ind. App. 586 [32 N. E. 807], it is held that a proper remedy for a school town to recover taxes appropriated to it, but paid by the county treasurer to the trustees of a school township, and converted by such township, is an action against the township, and not by mandamus either against the county treasurer or trustee. With this statement of the law we readily agree, but the facts involved are clearly distinguishable from the case at bar. In the case at bar, as we have heretofore stated, the taxes were levied and the moneys collected for the uses and purposes of the appellant, and were not levied and collected
Finally, respondent urges upon our attention the cases of School District No. 127 v. School District No. 45 of Reno County, 80 Kan. 641 [103 Pac. 126], and the case of School District No. 8, Shawnee Township, v. Board of Education of Kansas City, 115 Kan. 806 [224 Pac. 892]. The latter case is based in part upon the decision in the former case, and upon a statute bearing upon the correction of errors in the apportionment of school funds to which we will refer. There is also a distinct difference between the opinion in the Reno County case and in the facts involved in the
In the case of School District No. 127 v. District No. 15, supra, it appears that both districts had levied a tax upon a disputed territory claimed to be within the exterior boundaries of each district. One had levied an assessment at the rate of thirteen mills, and the other at the rate of twenty-five mills on the dollar. District No. 127 collected the sum of $321.13. The court determined that the strip of land involved lay within the exterior boundaries of District No. 45, and held that District No. 127 should refund the sum of $321.13 collected by it. The record in that ease also shows that all the parties had full knowledge of the circumstances, which, of course, included the fact that District No. 127 had full knowledge that it was levying a tax upon land outside of its district. The record also shows that the county treasurer had knowledge of the circumstances involved, and that he had no right to pay the money over to the wrong district. Here, District No. 45 had made an estimate of the moneys necessary to maintain its educational facilities, had levied a tax upon the property within its territorial boundaries, and was entitled to the amount of revenue to be derived from taxation upon the territory in question, and unless it received the same, while it does not appear to be mentioned in the opinion, there would necessarily have been a deficit in its funds. District No. 45 was suing for something of which it had been deprived. In the case at bar such fact does not appear.
In the case of School District No. 8, Shawnee Township, v. Board of Education of Kansas City, supra, the facts show that the taxes were levied on property in one district, for the purposes of that district, and through mistake paid to the officers of another district. In the decision of this case we find that the court refers to the revised statutes of the state of Kansas, quoting a section which is too lengthy to be inserted here, but which statute provides that the county clerk, previous to a certain date of each year therein mentioned, is empowered to correct errors in the apportionment of taxes and in fixing the situs of both personal and real estate, and also providing for the refunding of money if errors are discovered and claims made for refund, or a transfer from one district to another, or rather,
In addition to setting forth the statute relative to the correction of errors, the court also relies upon the case of School District No. 127 v. School District No. 45, supra, mentioning the fact of the property being detached from one district and attached to another, and fails to point out the difference betiveen the facts of that case and the circumstances involved in the Shawnee case, to wit, that in the case of District No. 127 v. District No. 45, supra, the taxes were levied by and for the uses and purposes of the district claiming the same, and that in the Shawnee case, taxes levied for one district were collected and improperly paid over' to another district. Neither of these eases involves the question of whether money, where taxes have been levied and collected for the uses and purposes of a particular district, after the same have been devoted to the uses and purposes of the district for which they are collected, should be paid over to an adjoining district because the orders of the board of supervisors in making a transfer of territory from one district to the other, was subsequently adjudged void.
Respondent quotes at length from the opinion in the Shawnee case, but after an examination of the facts involved in the case, and also of the case of District No. 127 v. District No. 45, supra, relied upon, it will be found that the quotation is the language and not the law of the case, and so far as the language is concerned, its reasoning is very clearly answered by the dissenting opinion, which, however, we do not quote as authority, but as illustrating what we have said as to misapprehension of the facts involved in the two cases cited to us as authority.
We will next consider the authorities upon which appellant relies. In 35 Cyc. 1037, the rule of law which appeals to us as being the proper one applicable to this case is thus stated: “One school district may recover from another district taxes which have been levied by the former and unlawfully collected by the latter; but a school district does not become a trustee for one taxpayer of an excessive amount collected from another taxpayer, and one school district cannot recover from another district taxes which, through a mistake as to location, have been levied by, and volun
In 27 Ruling Case Law, 591, we find the following: “Where one school district collects by mistake, taxes on land lying in another district, the latter, if it can recover from the former at all, cannot recoxer more than the amount it would have received had there been no mistake. So, where the rate of taxation in the former district is greater than the rate in the latter, the excess collected cannot be recovered by the latter district, nor can it recover at all if the full amount of the levy made by it on the lands in question has been received.” It is then stated that the taxpayer cannot collect where the taxes have been voluntarily paid.
In the case of School City of Terre Haute v. Harrison School Township, 184 Ind. 742 [112 N. E. 514], the Supreme Court of Indiana held that “whore the auditor of a county, in distributing the county’s share of the tuition revenue of the state arising from the income on the common school fund, fails to take into consideration certain matters as required by statute, so that the trustees of some of the school corporations thereof receive more than their proportion, there is no liability on the part of such corporations, after expenditure of the fund, to the school corporations thereof which received less than their proper proportions.” That case is similar to the conditions here prevailing, in that, while not so alleged in the complaint, it is evident that the school funds involved have all been consumed and used by the appellant district for the purposes for which the tax was levied and collected.
In Arthur et al. v. School District of Pope Borough, 164 Pa. 410 [30 Atl. 299], the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that no recovery could be had where one school district unlawfully levies and collects taxes on lands lying in another district. We may state, however, in that case it is also
In the case of Walser v. Board of Education of School District No. 1, 160 Ill. 272 [31 L. R. A. 329, 43 N. E. 346], we have a case on all-fours with the questions presented upon this appeal. It was there held that “Where, by the mistake of the county clerk, real estate in fact located in School District No. 2 was entered upon the collector’s books for a certain year, as in School District No. 1, and the property was taxed, and taxes were voluntarily paid to No. 1, and there applied, No. 2 could not recover the amount thus collected.” To the same effect is the decision of the Supreme Court of Ohio in the case of Board of Education of Lyme Township v. Board of Education of Special School District No. 1, 44 Ohio, 278 [7 N. E. 12].
In Mabelvale Special School District v. Halstead Special School District, 169 Ark. 645 [276 S. W. 584], the Supreme Court of Arkansas held as follows: “A special school district, in a suit to recover taxes on disputed lands held not entitled to recover taxes which had been regularly, though erroneously distributed to another school district, and consumed in educational purposes, but to be entitled only to taxes in the hands of the treasurer at the time suit was commenced,” etc.
In Carter Special School District v. Hollis Special School District, 173 Ark. 781 [293 S. W. 722], it was again held by the Supreme Court of Arkansas, in the opinion rendered in 1927, that a school district rightfully entitled thereto, could not recover school funds erroneously distributed to, and consumed in educational purposes by the district to which the funds had been apportioned.
In the case of School District No. 153 v. School District No. 154, 232 Ill. 322 [83 N. E. 849], the Supreme Court held, upon facts identical with those here presented, that “where property'has been assessed for school purposes in
Somewhat to the same effect is the case of State ex rel. School Dist. v. Beale, 90 Mo. App. 341, where it was held that the judgment could only apply to taxes thereafter levied and collected, and that no refund of moneys already collected and used for school purposes, could be had.
If it be a fact, as contended by the respondent, that the taxpayers in the respondent district paid somewhat in excess of the moneys that should have paid, if the true situs of the territory involved had been known and assessed accordingly, the effective answer thereto is that so far as the record before us shows, all of the taxes were voluntarily paid, and the parties paying the taxes are not before us.
The appellant makes the further point that as each district has received the funds according to the estimate submitted by it, and that the contested funds have been used for educational purposes, the finances of the district ought not to be disturbed by any judgment ordering a refund, and that to do so would be inequitable, as all the parties herein acted in good faith. From what we have said, however, it is apparent that the judgment of the trial court must be reversed, and, therefore, we need not consider the question of a disarrangement of the funds of the respective districts. We agree with the appellant that the complaint does not state a cause of action, and in view of what we have said, it is evident that no cause of action can be stated.
It is therefore ordered that the judgment of the trial court be reversed, with directions to sustain the defendant’s demurrer to the plaintiff’s complaint, without leave to amend.
Thompson (E. L.), J., and Finch, P. J., concurred.
A petition for a rehearing of this cause was denied by the District Court of Appeal on April 10, 1930, and a petition by respondent to have the cause heard in the Supreme Court, after judgment in the District Court of Appeal, was denied by the Supreme Court on May 8, 1930.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- FALL RIVER JOINT UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT, (a Body Politic) v. SHASTA UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT (a Body Politic)
- Cited By
- 10 cases
- Status
- Published