El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-06-02
THE CITY WINS.
A Very Large Amount Of Back Tax.
es Can Now Be Lawfully Col

es Can Now Be Lawfully COL
lected.
Some months ago the ctty's At.
torneys, Wyndham Kemp and M1llard
Patterson, filed in the district court
suit under the title City Of FL Paso vs.
Mrs. Frank Ruck man. The suit was
for the recovery of back taxes due the
city. and while no considerable amount
Vas involved il this particular case 1t
was brought to test the legality OF the
city's collections OF tax arr GARAGES.
All the arrears for the years from 1857
20 1896, ARgregatinx nearly S2O,OOo,
were involved 10 the outcome OF tn1s
case. Toe city schools especially were
Interested in toe result of the test
The supreme court on May 30 rem
dered its decision in favor Of the city,
- follows:
This case comes to Us upon q certi-
6cate from the court of civil appeals
for the fourth supreme Judicial dis
riot. The statement and Questions are
follows:
In April, 1882 and in November, 1882.
eleciio 9 were held in tee city OF Ell
Paso in reference to the cootrol OF It's
ublic schools, but 10 neither case was
the election such as to legally cons'1-
tute the city q school district. The
city, however, began to act 81 an To-
dependent school district 10 the spring
of 1882 and has ever since exercised
such control in the manner and under
he circumstances hereinafter set
forth.
SIT was admitted that ever since the
year 1882 the ci y of Ell Paso has been
acting as 40 Independent school dis
.rict, organized with 3 board OF trus-
tees such as ia provided In Chapter 81
OF the Acts of 1879; that soon after
aid election 10 November. 1882, to-wit,
in December, 1882, an election wa
acid at which q board of Trustees wa
elected to take charge Of, manage and
control the public free schools of the
ci' " of Ell Paso, and ever s1oce the
year 1882 all the pubic schools Of the
city have been in the hands OF, and un-
Ter the management aud control Of
UGH board of trustees; that regular
elections have been held ever since
he year 1882 in the city of Ell
Psso for the election of trustees as
mem bers of said board.
"By q charter granted the city in
1889 the legislature recognized Ell Pa
80 as q school district by providing
| main tain It's public schools, and after
his the city issued said school
bond.
'Question No. l. Neither of the cleo
tion- of April, 1882, aud Nov. 1882 being
sufficient to legally Gre ate the City an in-
dependent scnool dist let, under the
state of facts shown above relative to the
long continued exercise by it of the
powers of q school district, can its
the time it so commenced to act, be n
quired into q suit by the city to recover
| taxes levied for school purposes for the
| years 1894 and 1895.
"No. 2. The elections of March 81,
1883, At which the tax payers voted
the tax for schools, being sufficient, 10
It conclusive y presumed from the long
continued exercise by the city (since
the spring of 1882 OF the functions of
school district as shown in the above
statement, that when said election OF
March 81, 1883, was had. it was legally
| In existence a. q school distric,?'
The Law which authorizes incorpor-
at towns and c ties in this state to
assume control of their public schools
confers upon such es may exercise the
rig ht . grant of additional m"nic pa
power aud stands upon the same footing
as IN original e. ant of the municipal
franchise. Under our statutes. any
town or city not incorporated may, by
quire q corporate existence for the sole
purpose of managing the free schools
within their limits and in such q case
the rule clearly applie.: and ther efOre
We think the rule should ALTO ap-
ply to 40 existing municipality WI ich
has sought to acquire the additional
auth GRITTY of the mauaRement of it,
schools. In the Ia ter case, the powers
OF two corporations, either Of which
might legally exist in the same terri
tory ss . sep srate corpor alton. are
n n od IN mn
+ reason IL seen why the same effect
should not be given to an irreRular
proceeding to obtain control Of the
Q ho0ls, where An existing corpOr-
ion attempts to avail itself Of the
benefit of the law, as is given in case of
q community where no corporation ex-
lists.
1t is not strange. therefore, that
when the citizens of FL Paso sought to
avail themselves OF the benefit Of the
statute, they should have been mis!ed
as to the method of proce dure. But
under the rule previously announced
il the election was held under the
Articles 1881 aud 1882 of the r vised
Statutes upon q petition of twenty prop
erty tax paw ers, instead of Icing held
und.r section OF the act above nam
ed, which required the written sppli-
cation Of fifty qualified voters and q
maj 'rity vote of the qualified electors
Of the city, this was an attempt to in
corp rate by virtue of the law, and
the mistake as to the statute which
controlled the procedure did not render
the ass imp tion of the control of the
free schools by the city wholly VOID {.
The election was irreQulsr. and for
that reason might have b-en set aide
by q proper proceeding instituted for
that purpose.
1t follows from what has been said
that, although the control of its schools
by the city of Ell Paso may have been
irregularly acquired, and although
such control may have been subj CT to
be taken away by proper proceeding
brought for that purpose, until so tax
On away it was . lawful control; and
that the city was for the time q separ-
ate school district and entitled upon q
compliance with the constitution and
laws levy q tax for the support Of its
schools.
We have not found it necessary to
4 - A.