Plott v. Board of Commissioners
Plott v. Board of Commissioners
Opinion of the Court
For the purpose of providing better school advantages in Waynesville Township, the General Assembly, at the session of 1923, passed a public-local act which was to become effective when ratified by a majority of the qualified voters of the township (P.-L. L. 1923, ch. 350) ; but the appellants say that the act has not been approved and is not in force, and that the election which they attack was held under the provisions of the codified laws relating to public schools. Public Laws 1923, ch. 136. The appeal will be treated upon this assumption.
The action was brought to contest the validity of an election held in Waynesville Township on 28 July, 1923, to determine whether a special tax should be levied to supplement the school fund and whether bonds should be issued for the purpose of acquiring sites and improving and erecting school buildings. The plaintiffs obtained an order restraining the levy of the tax and the issuance of the bonds and appealed from his Honor’s refusal to continue the temporary order to the final hearing.
The' first and second exceptions are so clearly -untenable as to require no discussion, and the third relates to the legal effect of the first finding of facts and may be considered in connection with exceptions taken to the several conclusions of law. Exceptions 4-9 concern the facts as found or the failure to find additional facts. On appeal from an order refusing or continuing an injunction to the hearing, the facts as found by the lower court, while not conclusive, are entitled to just arid adequate consideration. In Hyatt v. DeHart, 140 N. C., 270, the Court
The appellants excepted to the second and third conclusions of law which involve the regularity and legality of the election. They insist that the law prescribing the way in which electors may register was not followed; that several persons whose names were registered were not allowed to vote; that names were registered when the required oath was not administered; that the age of the elector was frequently omitted from the registration, and that these and other irregularities vitiated the election. On the other hand there was evidence tending to show that no voter was registered to whom the oath had not been administered unless the registrar was satisfied that he was entitled to vote; that of those who were not sworn .some did not vote while others voted against the bond issue and the tax, and that the oath was administered in all cases in which there was any reasonable doubt of the applicant’s eligibility. On these questions the affidavits were apparently conflicting, but the judge below concluded that the irregularities were committed by the registrars, not by the voters.; that there was no evidence to indicate that any one who voted was not entitled to registration or whether those alleged to have been improperly registered or denied registration voted or would have voted for or against the proposed measures, or whether the result of the election would probably have been reversed had the law been consistently observed. In other words, his Honor held that the appellants had failed to show that the result of the election would have been otherwise if the alleged irregularities had not occurred. We approve this conclusion.
In Davis v. Board of Education, 186 N. C., 233, holding that a mere irregularity in registration will not vitiate an election, the Court said.: “The mere irregularity of an election-officer who has neither rejected a
No complaint having been filed, the motion to continue the restraining order was heard on affidavits and record evidence. To entitle them to an injunction it was incumbent upon the appellants not only to set out specific allegations as a basis of relief, but to produce evidence which if accepted would show at least an apparent right to the relief' demanded. Even where injunctive relief is not merely ancillary to the relief sought but is itself the principal relief a prima facie case must be shown. Craycroff v. Morehead, 67 N. C., 422; Riggsbee v. Durham, 98 N. C., 81; Jones v. Comrs., 107 N. C., 248, 265; Porter v. Armstrong, 132 N. C., 66; Jones v. Lassiter, 169 N. C., 750; Woodall v. Highway Com., 176 N. C., 388; Peters v. Highway Com., supra, 32.
Herein the appellants have failed. They have produced no evidence as to the sentiment of the electors on the questions proposed except in remote and general terms and no evidence from which we can reasonably infer that the irregularities complained of turned the election. True, there is evidence that a majority of the voters residing outside the original taxing districts voted against the proposed bonds and tax, but there is no suggestion that their ballots were not included in those returned by the judges of election in opposition to both measures. The exceptions relating -to the irregularities in the election and those taken to the second and third conclusions of law must therefore be overruled.
The exception to the first conclusion of law is based on the contention that the resolution adopted by the board of education on 17 May, 1923, did not create a special-taxing district, but in legal effect merely combined two taxing districts with territory in which no tax had been voted, and that such consolidation was unlawful. The Court has decided, it is true, that where a school-taxing district has been established its boundaries may not be enlarged or extended so as to include
The provision concerning the repeal of all school taxes previously voted is similar to that of section 4 in the act which was considered in Coble v. Comrs., 184 N. C., 342. There it is said: “When" the boundaries are thus prescribed, a majority of the qualified voters residing in the taxing territory may determine the question of levying a tax and issuing bonds, even when the tax, as in this case, is not, in the constitutional sense, a necessary expense. The principle is analogous to that of an extension of the boundaries of a municipal corporation in which the annexed territory must share the burdens of the entire municipality (Dillon on Municipal Corporations, vol. I, sec. 106), or to the extension of the boundaries of a county, by means of which the inhabitants of the new territory may be taxed, not only to pay their proportionate part of the existing indebtedness of the county from which the new territory is taken, when such liability is retained by legislative action, but the indebtedness likewise of the county to which it is annexed,
While the alleged irregularities do not vitiate the election they fairly illustrate the spirit of indifference which characterizes the methods often adopted in the registration of voters. These lax methods, sometimes annoying, are always to be regretted and discouraged. We again refer to them for the purpose of emphasizing the importance of respecting the various statutes defining the qualification of voters, the prerequisites of registration, and the duty of registrars.
No error appearing, the judgment of the lower court is
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- JOHN A. PLOTT v. BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF HAYWOOD COUNTY and BOARD OF EDUCATION OF HAYWOOD COUNTY
- Cited By
- 10 cases
- Status
- Published