Board of Education of School District No. 42 v. Davis
Board of Education of School District No. 42 v. Davis
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The action is one of mandamus to require the state auditor to register bonds issued by the board of education of the city of Horton, a city of the second class, pursuant to permission of the school-fund commissioners granted under chapter 257 of the Laws of 1911. Registration is resisted on the ground that the act of 1911 is repealed by implication by chapter 270 of the Laws of 1918, and that the bond issue exceeds the limit prescribed by the latter act.
“Section 1. The limitations placed by the statutes' upon the voting of bonds in cities and school districts for the purpose of erecting school buildings may be modified as in this act provided.
“Sec. 2. The Board of School-fund Commissioners of the state of Kansas is hereby authorized and empowered to make an order authorizing any city or school district to vote bonds for the purpose of erecting school buildings to an amount of not more than fifty per cent in excess of, and in addition to, the amount of bonds that may be voted under laws now in force.” (Laws 1911, ch. 257, §§ 1, 2.)
A method of procedure to obtain the order was prescribed, and it was provided that after an order should be obtained a bond election should be held as in other cases. Subsequently, but at the same session of the legislature, section 7614 of the General Statutes of 1909 was amended by chapter 260 of the Laws of 1911, whereby the limitation of one and one-half per cent of the value of the property affected was raised to two per cent. By chapter 270 of the Laws of 1913 this limitation was raised to two and one-fourth per cent by an amendment of section 1 of chapter 260 of the Laws of 1911, which, as already noted, had amended section 7614 of the General Statutes of 1909.
The act of 1913 is not a new enactment. The act of 1909 was itself merely amendatory of chapter 398 of
It is said that the act of 1913 constitutes a revision of the law relating to limits upon bonded indebtedness and consequently repealed chapter 257 of the Laws of 1911. The limitation upon bonded indebtedness contained in the act of 1905, in the act of 1909, in chapter 260 of the Laws of 1911, and in the act of 1913, is in each instance a mere proviso attached to an elaborate grant of power to boards of education of cities of the second class to issue bonds. It is not an independent subject of legislation. Therefore the act of 1913 was simply amendatory of a particular feature of an act the real subject of which was bond issues by boards of educa
It is said that the expression used in chapter 257 of the Laws of 1911, “bonds that may be voted under laws now in force,” requires that the fifty per cent excess there provided for be computed upon the iy% per cent limitation expressed in section 7614 of the General Statutes of 1909, because that was the law then in force. It is plain, however, that what the legislature had in mind was to permit bond issues in emergencies in excess of the amount permitted by the general law governing the subject, and not the particular provisions of a general law in force at a particular date.
The result is that with the permission of the school-fund commissioners the board of education of a city of the second class may issue bonds for the purpose of erecting school buildings up to a maximum limitation of 3% per cent. The bonds presented for registration are well within that limit.
Therefore, the writ is allowed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.