City of Eagle Lake v. Lakeside Sugar Refining Co.
City of Eagle Lake v. Lakeside Sugar Refining Co.
Opinion of the Court
This case comes to this court by appeal from a judgment sustaining a general demurrer to an amended original petition of the city of Eagle Lake, which sought to recover of appellee certain school taxes for the years 1908 and 1909 on a tract of land lying outside of the corporate limits of said city, but inside of the limits as extended for school purposes only.
The allegations of the petition are, in substance, as follows: That the city of Eagle Lake is incorporated under the general laws of the state, relating to cities of 1,000 inhabitants or more; that defendant owns the 50 acres against which the taxes are claimed; that the city, by a vote of its citizens, had duly taken charge of its public schools within its limits several years prior to September 3, 1907, and by vote of its citizens authorized and voted a tax, not exceeding 50 cents, on the $100 valuation, to be levied by the city council for the purpose of maintaining its public schools within its corporate limits; that on said date (September 3, 1907) the city council, with due formalities of law, and by ordinances, extended the city’s corporate limits for free school purposes only, in pursuance of a petition signed by a majority of the resident qualified voters of the territory which was so taken into the city for school purposes only, and recommendation by a majority of the trustees of its public schools, which change did not have the effect of depriving the scholastic children of any school district, or any part thereof, of the opportunity to attend school; that said petition, recommendation, and ordinance were filed with the county clerk for record on February 5, 1908, and duly recorded; and that the 50 acres in question lie in the territory covered by said extension. The remainder of the petition relates to the proceedings by which the city levied a tax on this added territory of 20 cents on the $100 valuation for the year 1908, and 38 cents on the $100 for 1909. The answer contained, besides a general demurrer, various special demurrers.
The judgment recites that the judge sustained the general demurrer for the following sole reason, which we quote: “The general demurrer is sustained upon the ground that the petition upon its face shows that the city of Eagle Lake extended its municipal territory for school purposes only, greatly more than one-half mile in each direction that the extension was made, and this court holds that upon that ground the attempt to take in any additional territory outside of the municipal limits of the city of Eagle Lake is void. The question of the constitutionality of the act of 1905, authorizing the extension of the territorial limits of municipal corporations for school purposes only, is not passed upon, for the reason that the court concludes that that act must be construed in harmony with the general law prohibiting such corporations from extending their limits more than a mile at any one *711 time; and if this construction be correct the attempt of the city of Eagle Lake to extend its territorial limits for nearly three miles in each of three of its boundaries is absolutely void for any purpose.”
Appellee advanees, in support of the judgment of the court, several propositions. One is: “If it be permissible for a city incorporated under the general law, which had, previous to the act of 1905, assumed control of its public schools, to be formed into an independent school district embracing outlying territory by an extension of its boundaries, as provided in section 148 of the act of 1905, without surrendering control of such public schools, then, notwithstanding this, a levy of more than 20 cents on the $100 valuation on property brought in by such extension is void.” This proposition cannot be sustained, for the reason that only 20 cents was levied for 1908, and, although the levy for the year 1909 was in excess of this, the constitutional amendment of 1908 (see Laws of 1907, p. 413) increased the authorized amount to 50 cents.
Another proposition is as follows: “The allegations of the amended petition being that the city of Eagle Lake was incorporated under the general law provided for cities of 1,000 inhabitants or over, and that since such incorporation it had legally assumed control of its public schools, and that thereafter its corporate limits were extended, * * * upon the petition of a majority of the qualified voters of such extension, by ordinance of the city, without showing that said city had abandoned control of its public schools theretofore assumed, and out of which action grows plaintiffs claim against defendant for taxes on property lying wholly within such extension, render such petition subject to general demurrer, for the reason that the ordinance and other acts done in bringing about such extension, as well as section 148 of the Laws' of 1905, by virtue of which said acts were done and *712 ordinance passed, are void, as being in contravention of article 7, § 3, and article 11, § 10, of the Constitution as it existed at the time of such extension.”
Section 3, art. 7, of the Constitution, as amended in 1883, authorized an additional ad valorem tax on property within a school district to the extent of 20 cents on the $100, provided two-thirds of the qualified property tax paying voters, voting at an election held for that purpose, shall vote such tax. This was a clear prohibition of any of such tax not so voted. As amended in 1908, a majority vote became sufficient, and the authorized amount was raised to 50 cents.
It appears from the petition that the vote, upon which the tax levied in this case rests, is a vote had by the citizens of Eagle Lake several years before September, 1907, which was a vote confined to the corporate limits of the city, and did not concern this outlying territory. We are of opinion that nq property could be annexed to the city for school purposes and subjected to the additional tax, without compliance with said condition prescribed by the Oonstitution in respect to the added territory. The vote taken in the city several years before this annexation was made was not such compliance, and it is apparent from the record and the papers filed in this case that no election or vote has been had on the subject of this outlying territory.
Appellant meets this difficulty in a filed argument by stating “that the people in the outlying territory petitioned the city to take them in for school purposes; they were not forced in. An election had been held prior to this time, and a tax, not to exceed SO cents on the $100 valuation had been authorized for school purposes. The petitioners were charged with notice of this when they asked that the outlying territory be taken in, and they came in, subject to all school ordinances and laws then in force; like an intervener coming into a suit, they took matters as they found them.” How this satisfied the requirement then in force for a vote of two-thirds at an election held for the purpose, we fail to comprehend. The application was by a majority only, and the vote referred to was a vote taken years before, and only within .the corporate limits of the city. The application was sufficient, under the terms of section 148 of the act of 1905, to warrant the creation of the municipal school district to include this territory; but it could not answer as a substitute for the vote necessary to be taken in order to authorize the additional tax. If appellant’s argument is sound, a large part of the territory of the state may be subjected to such taxes without observance of the constitutional provision as to a vote, which provision we think cannot be disregarded nor evaded. As it appears there has been no observance of it with respect to the added territory in which the property in question is situated, the "tax sued for cannot be enforced.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- City of Eagle Lake v. Lakeside Sugar Refining Co. [Fn&8224]
- Cited By
- 20 cases
- Status
- Published