Schulz v. Davis
Schulz v. Davis
Opinion of the Court
By this suit the supervisory control given the district court is invoked by M. Schulz, A. W. Streich, Adolph Lambrecht, O. J. Weller, and Albert Woess-ner to require the Bexar county school trustees to change th!e lines of school district No. *635 23 in Bexar county, Tex., in such manner as will create a new school district out of the northern end. An injunction is also sought to prevent an election for increasing the special school tax from 2 mills to 5 mills, and to prevent an election for the issuance of $15,000 of bonds with which to erect a rural high school within the district, at 'Elmendorf. The parties defendant, who are appellees herein, are J. R. Davis, county judge; Jacob Rubiola, O. X. Gutzeit, Jacob Klaus, and J. II. Covington, county commissioners; the Bexar county school board, a corporation; G. G. Carter, president of said county school board; T. B. Applewhite, August Liebe, T. P. Dashiell, and H. E. Beck, members of said Bexar county school board; P. F. Stewart, secretary of said county school board; K. J. Smith, Fred Gotari, and A. F. Jacobs, trustees of said school district No. 23; II. W. Ball, appointed by the county judge and commissioners’ court of Bexar county to hold an election for increased special school tax in said school district No. 23; and J. C. Schulz, appointed by said county judge and commissioners to hold election in said district No. 23, for issuance of high school bonds for the purpose of erecting a rural high school at Elmendorf in said school district No. 23; and John W. Tobin — all of Bexar county, Tex.
The trial court sustained eight special exceptions to the petition, and refusing to hear testimony in support of those allegations, exceptions to which had been overruled, dismissed the cause.
The petition alleges that on the 1st day of January, 1917, there existed a lawful and duly constituted and existing common school district known as “common school district No. 23” of Bexar county, Tex., containing an area of more than 24 square miles, in all things legal and valid. The petition alleges that two elementary schools are maintained in the district, one in the southern end of the district, at Elmendorf, the other in the northern end, known.as the Tablito school; and that there is ample valuation in the district to maintain the two schools; and that these two schools are convenient for school purposes of the district, though' the Tablito schoolhouse is in need of repair and ornamentation. It is alleged that one-fourth of the school children of the district attend the Tablito school and three-fourths the Elmen-dorf school, and that three-fifths of the maintenance taxes are paid by the Tablito neighborhood inhabitants and two-fifths by those near Elmendorf. It is alleged that the refusal of the board of county school trustees to divide district 23 was an arbitrary exercise of power and an abuse of discretion. The facts alleged in support of this conclusion of the pleader are that the district is about seven miles long and that the school children living in the northern end of the district are unable to travel to the southern end to attend school because of the distance, the mud, and swollen streams when it rains, the cold when it freezes, and the sand encountered after leaving the northern end of the district. The petition alleges no facts that require the children of th'e northern end to attend the school in the southern end, save that in the opinion of the pleader the elementary school in the Tablito school will be abolished. It is alleged that, if the district is bonded for a rural high school, no division can be had. There is an allegation that the construction of a building for and the maintenance of a rural high school, as is contemplated, will require such a proportion of the revenues that the Tablito elementary school cannot be maintained. Thle inconvenience and inadvisability of a rural high school is alleged. The expense and insufficiency of a possible system of transportation is alleged in considerable detail. It is also alleged that, of the $15,000 proposed to be obtained from high school bonds, $6,000 will come from property owners in the northern end. These are substantially the allegations relevant to wrongs of appellants and to the relief sought, culled from the voluminous petition.
If the petition alleged facts that tended to show that the refusal to divide the district was such an arbitrary, harsh action of the board of county school trustees as to amount to a willful abuse of the power, then in that event the allegation that official action was being taken to incumber the district with bonds would justify the granting of an injunction, because the division of a bonded school district is forbidden by the statute. But in the present action no facts are alleged that tend to show any abuse of discretion by the board in its refusal to divide the district, hence there is no ground for the ancillary relief by injunction.
The judgment is affirmed.
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Reference
- Full Case Name
- SCHULZ Et Al. v. DAVIS, County Judge, Et Al.
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published