Case Name: STATE ex rel. CHILDRESS v. SCHOOL TRUSTEES OF SHELBY COUNTY et al.
Court: Supreme Court of Texas
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1951-04-18
Citations: 239 S.W.2d 777
Docket Number: No. A-2936
Parties: STATE ex rel. CHILDRESS v. SCHOOL TRUSTEES OF SHELBY COUNTY et al.
Judges: BREWSTER, GARWOOD and GRIFFIN, JJ., dissenting.
Reporter: South Western Reporter Second Series
Volume: 239
Pages: 777–788

Head Matter:
STATE ex rel. CHILDRESS v. SCHOOL TRUSTEES OF SHELBY COUNTY et al.
No. A-2936.
Supreme Court of Texas.
April 18, 1951.
Rehearing Denied June 13, 1951.
Lane & Anderson and Emmett Wilburn, Dist. Atty. of Shelby 'County, Center, for petitioners.
Dudley Davis, Center, for respondent.

Opinion:
CALVERT; Justice.
This is an action in the nature o'f Quo Warranto in which it is sought to have adjudged illegal and void an order of the County School Trustees of S'helby County, State of Texas, passed on October 1, 1949, by which said Trustees undertook to form or create a rural high school district by annexing Jackson Common School District No. 77 of Shelby County, Fellowship Consolidated Common School District No. 74 of Shelby County, and Eagle Mill County Line Common School District No. 36 of Shelby and Panola Counties to Joaquin Independent School District No. 38 of S'helby County, Texas, and to name the district which they thus undertook to create, "Central Consolidated Rural High School District No. 36 of Shelby County, Texas." The action also seeks to have it adjudged that the persons appointed by the County School Trustees as trustees of the district which the aforesaid order undertook to create are acting without legal authority.
The case was submitted on an agreed statement of facts. Judgment was rendered by the trial court finding the defendants not guilty, denying all relief prayed for, and adjudging Central Consolidated Rural High School District No. 36 of Shelby County, Texas, to have been legally created, and the trustees thereof to be lawful officers. The judgment was affirmed by the Court of Civil Appeals. 233 S.W.2d 326.
The stipulations of fact are set out in full in the opinion of the Court of 'Civil Appeals. Only those facts bearing directly on the questions in controversy will' be noticed here.
Joaquin Independent School District with a scholastic population of more than 250, Fellowship Consolidated Common School District with a scholastic population of more than 250 and less than 400, and Jackson Common School District with a scholastic population of less than 250, were all situated wholly within Shelby County. Eagle Mill County Line Common School District with a scholastic population of less than 250 was situated partly in. Shelby County and partly in Panola County. The area of the four districts combined exceeded 100 square miles.
With the consent of the County School Trustees of Panola County, the County School Trustees of Shelby County ordered an election to be held on September 24, 1949, in each of the four school districts to determine whether the three common school districts "shall be annexed by said Shelby County Board of School Trustees to Joaquin Independent School District No. 38 of Shelby County, Texas, to form a county line rural high school district, under and Iby virtue of Articles 2922a, 2922c, and 2922d, Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, as amended [Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. arts. 2922a, 2922c, 2922d], for the purpose of establishing and operating rural high schools within said proposed county line rural high school district." A substantial majority of those voting at the election voted "For Annexation", whereupon the County School Trustees of Shelby County entered the order complained of. Since the order was entered the district thus created or attempted to be created has been recognized by all school authorities as a county line rural high school district and not as an independent school district.
Before this 'Court petitioners attack the validity of the order of the County School Trustees of Shelby County on three grounds as follows: (1) That Articles 2922a, 2922c and 2922d do not authorize the creation of rural high school districts by annexation of one or more districts to another district. (2) That in no event may a common school district with a scholastic population of more than 250 be annexed to .an -independent school district having a scholastic population of 250 or more. (3) That in any event, the County School Trustees were without authority to take from Joaquin Independent School District its status as an independent district, or to change its name, or to place the management of its affairs in the hands of trustees appointed by them.
Article 2922a reads in part as follows: "Art. 2922a. In each organized county in this state, and in any county which shall hereafter- be organized, the county school trustees shall have the authority to form one or more rural high school districts, by grouping contiguous common school districts having less than four hundred (400) scholastic population - and independent school districts having less than two hundred fifty (250) scholastic population, for t-he purpose of establishing and operating rural high schools; provided, also, that the county school trustees may annex one or more common school districts or one or more independent school districts having less than two hundred fifty (250) scholastic population to a common school district having four hundred (400) or more scholastic population, or to an independent district having two hundred fifty (250) or more scholastic population
The order here under attack cannot be upheld under the first part of Article 2922a as forming the'county line rural high school district by "grouping" because Joaquin Independent School District had a scholastic population in excess of 250. If the validity of the -order is to be sustained under Art. 2922a at all it must be sustained under that part of the article which authorizes the annexation of certain districts to certain other districts. The proceedings referred to above show that this fact was recognized by the school authorities.
That part of Art. 2922a dealing with1 the annexation of school districts has ibeen the subject of a number of opinions by the courts of civil appeals. In the following cases it was held that the article authorized, county boards -of school trustees to enlarge a nuclear school district with the required scholastic population by annexing to it other districts with the required scholastic population, though there appeared to be present no purpose or intent to create a rural high school district. County Board of School Trustees v. Gray, Tex.Civ.App., 142 S.W.2d 697, writ refused; Terrell v. Clifton Independent School Dist., Tex.Civ.App., 5 S.W.2d 808, writ refused; Henderson v. Miller, Tex.Civ.App., 286 S.W. 501, writ refused; Board of Dist. Trustees of Lanier Common School Dist. No. 49, Cass County v. Board of County School Trustees of Cass County, Tex.Civ.App., 232 S.W.2d 100, writ ref. n. r. e.
In the following cases it was held or inferred that the latter part of Art. 2922a authorized the creation of rural high school districts through the annexation process. County Board of School Trustees of Limestone County v. Wilson, Tex.Civ.App, 15 S.W.2d 144, writ dism.; County School Board of Angelina County v. Homer Common School District, Tex.Civ.App., 291 S. W. 268, no writ history; Elliott Common School Dist. No. 48 v. County Board of School Trustees, Tex.Civ.App., 76 S.W.2d 786, writ dism.; State ex rel. Lowe v. Cadenhead, Tex.Civ.App., 129 S.W.2d 743, writ refused; County Board of School Trustees of Hale County v. Mayfield Common School Dist. No. 22, Tex.Civ.App., 140 S.W.2d 956, writ dism. correct judgm.; Live Oak County Board of School Trustees v. Whitsett Common School Dist., Tex.Civ. App., 181 S.W.2d 846, writ refused; Dawn Common School Dist. No. 2 v. County School Board of School Trustees of Deaf Smith County, Tex.Civ.App., 205 S.W.2d 826, writ refused; Weaver v. Board of Trustees of Wilson Independent School Dist., Tex.Civ.App., 184 S.W.2d 864, writ refused want of merit, 143 Tex. 530, 187 S.W.2d 221; Fairfield Independent School Dist. v. Streetman Independent School Dist., Tex.Civ.App., 222 S.W.2d 651.
The confusion is made manifest by a reading of the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals in the case of Trinity Independent School Dist. v. District Trustees, Dist. 24, Trinity County, 135 S.W.2d 1021, 1023, in which this Court refused a writ of error, thereby placing its stamp of approval on what was said. At one place in the opinion it was said: "Art. 2922a provides that the county school trustees shall have the authority to formrural high school districts by grouping contiguous common school districts or by annexing an independent school district to a common school district, or by annexing one or more common school districts to an independent school district Later in the opinion it is said: "While the record shows that there have been consolidations , and annexations of school districts with Trinity Independent School District, under the express terms of Art. 2922b those annexations and consolidations have not changed the status of the Trinity Independent School District from an independent school district to a rural high school district
Adverting now to petitioners' first point. So far as we have been able to discover this is the first case in which the precise question here raised has been squarely presented. As a matter of fact it was not squarely presented ,by petitioners to the Court of Civil Appeals, which accounts, no doubt, for the failure of that court to discuss or pass on it. We have no doubt, however, of petitioners' right to raise it here and that right is not questioned by respondents. It appears obvious to us that it oould not have been intended by the legislature that the latter part of Art. 2922a dealing with the power to annex should have the double purpose of authorizing the enlargement of nuclear districts by the annexation thereto of other districts as held in the group of cases first above cited, and of authorizing the creation of rural high school districts by the annexation of districts of certain classification to other districts of certain classification, as held in the group of cases last above cited. It becomes necessary, therefore, to determine which of these purposes was intended by the legislature.
It seems clear to us from a careful analysis of Chapter 19A of Title 49 of our statutes, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. art. 2922a et seq. that by the latter part of Art. 2922a the legislature did not intend to provide a second method of forming rural high school districts but intended only to provide a second method of providing for better and stronger rural schools.
Even a' casual reading of Article 2922a will show that the legislature did not expressly provide for the creation of rural high school districts by annexation. The first part of the article confers authority on county boards of school trustees "to form one or more rural high school districts, by grouping " certain districts of certain classifications. Then the article continues: "Provided, also, that the county board may annex " districts of certain classifications to other districts of certain classification. If the legislature had intended that the authority given to annex school districts should carry also the power to create a rural high school district by annexation it would have been a simple matter to have said so. It would have been a simple matter to have written the proviso in this fashion: "Provided, also, that the comity board may form a rural high school district by annexing etc." This it did not do and we can find no authority for reading the language into the article when the legislature may have refused, with good reason, to write it therein.
Articles 2922a through 29221, with minor amendments added, were all sections of House Bill 38 enacted by the 39th Legislature in 1925 and all should be read and interpreted so as present a harmonious whole. Lacy v. State Banking Board, 118 Tex. 91, 11 S.W.2d 496, 502; 39 Tex.Jur. 209, sec. 113. Throughout the various sections of the Act a distinction is recognized between a rural high school district and an independent or common school district enlarged through the annexation of other districts.
Article 2922b reads in part as follows : "Rural high school districts as provided for in the preceding article shall be classed as common school districts ; provided that all independent school districts enlarged by the annexation thereto of one or more common school districts, as provided for in Article 2922a shall retain its status and name as an independent school district, and shall continue to operate as an independent school district If the legislature had intended that independent districts enlarged by the annexation of other districts should become rural high school districts we can perceive of no good reason why the legislature by Article 2922b was careful to recognize their status as something other than a rural high school district. The first part of Article 2922f makes provision for the discontinuance of elementary schools in rural high school districts and the last paragraph of the same article makes provision for the discontinuance of elementary schools in a common school district or an independent school district enlarged by annexation. If the legislature intended that the latter type of school district —that enlarged by annexation — should be a rural high school district, then it did a foolish and futile thing when it added the last paragraph of the article. We should not interpret the series of articles so as to convict the legislature of foolish and futile action.
Article 2922h reads, in part, as follows: "In the event any of the elementary di.ST tricts included within a rural high school district or the common school districts annexed to a common or independent district, or the common school or independent district to which one or more common school districts are annexed, as herein provided for, have outstanding bonded or other valid indebtedness, then at an election for that purpose, at a date, to be designated by the proper authorities, as provided by General Law, the question as to whether or not the said rural high school district, common school district, or independent school' district as the case may be, shall assume and pay off such outstanding bonds or other indebtedness and whether a tax shall be levied therefor may be submitted to the qualified taxpaying voters of such high school, common or independent district. If a majority of the votes cast at such an election favor the assumption of such indebtedness then such indebtedness shall become valid and subsisting obligations of the said rural high school district, common school district, or independent district;
Here again the legislature clearly recognized a distinction between a rural high school district and a common or independent school district enlarged through annexations.
As further evidence of the distinction made by the legislature, we call attention to the language of Article 29221. After making provision for the levying of taxes in rural high school districts the article continues : "provided that the local taxes previously authorized by a district or districts included in a rural high school district or annexed to a common or independent school district, as provided for herein, shall be continued in force until such time as a uniform tax may be provided for the benefit of the rural high school district or said common or independent district as enlarged by the annexation of the said common school districts thereto."
It follows from what has been said that the authority of county boards to create rural high school districts by annexation not only fails to find support in the express wording of Article 2922a but it is directly contrary also to the legislature's own, construction of the article as evidenced by its express recognition through-. out the succeeding articles of the chapter that a common or independent school district enlarged by annexation is not in fact a rural high school district.
In many of the later cases decided by the Courts of Civil Appeals in which authority of a county hoard to form rural high school districts by annexation is either assumed or inferentially recognized, reliance is had on the court's opinion in the case of State ex rel. Lowe v. Cadenhead, 129 S.W.2d 743, 744, writ. ref. It is true that in that case the court makes the direct and positive statement that a rural high school district may be formed under Article 2922a by annexation but the statement is pure obiter dictum. The opinion of the court does not show whether the effort to create the rural high school district was by "grouping" or by "annexation". The opinion simply says that it was by the one method or by the other. Be that as it may, the authority of the county board to create the rural high school district by annexation was not questioned or decided in the Cadenhead case. The opinion of the court reflects that it was agreed by the parties "that the sole and only question to be determined by the court" was whether the enactment of Article 2806a, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St, in 1935 had the effect of repealing Article 2922c, V.A.C.S. This was the only question before the court and the only one decided. When the courts have a question presented to them for decision for the first time they have never regarded themselves as bound by obiter dictum. Boswell v. Pannell, 107 Tex. 433, 180 S.W. 593, 597; Wells v. Lumbermen's Reciprocal Ass'n, Tex.Com.App., 6 S.W.2d 346.
The fallacy which underlies a great many of the Court of Civil Appeals' opinions is' the failure to distinguish between school districts and schools, and, more particularly, the failure to distinguish between rural high school districts and rural high schools. Many of the opinions use the terms interchangeably and as though they were synonymous. School districts and schools, or rural high school districts and rural high schools, are not at all the same thing. Rural high school districts like other common school districts and independent school districts are quasi-municipal corporations; rural high schools like high schools in other common and independent school districts are but one of the instruments or agencies used by the school district to accomplish the purpose of its corporate existence. Other instruments or agencies used by the school district are the elementary schools it operates and maintains. While high schools in rural high school districts will almost certainly be rural high schools, high schools in common and independent school districts lying in rural areas will just as certainly be rural high schools. Article 2922a does not deal alone with rural high school districts. The purpose of the article was to make "provision for a better system of schools in the various counties of this State" Arts 1925, c. 59, and to remedy a situation whereby the legislature considered "our rural school and rural high school system is wholly inadequate". Section 14. In other words, it was not the purpose of the article to deal alone with the creation of rural high school districts, but on the contrary it was its purpose to strengthen and improve rural schools generally. Through the language of Article 2922a the legislature provided two methods of accomplishing this purpose: (1) by the creation of rural high school districts through "grouping" and (2) by strengthening existing common and independent districts through "annexation" of other districts thereto.
Respondents contend that even if Article 2922a does not authorize the creation of rural high school districts through the annexation process, such authority may be found in Articles 2922c and 2922d. With this contention we do not agree.
Article 2922c reads as follows: "No rural high school district, as provided for herein, shall contain a greater area than one hundred square miles, or more than ten elementary school districts, except that the county school board of school trustees may form rural high school districts, as provided in Article 2922a, containing more than one hundred square miles, upon a vote of a majority of the qualified electors in the said proposed rural high school district voting at an election called for such purpose; and provided further, that the said board of county school trustees may form a rural high school district containing more than ten elementary districts upon a vote of a majority of the qualified voters in each of the elementary districts within such proposed rural high .school district."
This article does not purport to confer on boards of county school trustees the power to create rural high school districts. It is but a limitation on the power conferred under the first part of Article 2922a, with exceptions to the limitation. Bell v. Ditmore, Tex.Civ.App., 38 S.W.2d 397.
Article 2922d reads as follows: "The county board of trustees of two or more adjoining counties shall have the authority, upon the written order of a majority of the members of each county board concerned, to establish a county line rural high school district, and to designate the county which shall have supervision of said county line rural high school'district. Said county line rural high school district shall be governed as other rural high school districts herein provided for."
This article like all the others referred to herein was a part of H.B. 38, appearing as Section 4 thereof. It must be read and interpreted in the light of and s'o far as is possible in harmony with the other sections of the bill. In'Article 2922a the legislature was careful to define the types or classes of school districts that might be grouped to form a rural high school district. No district can be included in such a district unless it is contiguous to the other districts with which it is to be grouped. No common school district can be included in such a district unless it has a scholastic population of less than 400 and no independent school district can be included therein unless it has less than 250 scholastic population. By the terms of Article 2922c even the power granted in Article 2922a is limited so that a rural high school district cannot be created with an area of more than one hundred square miles except by the consent of a majority of the voters of the proposed district given at an election held for that purpose and so that such a district cannot be created with more than ten elementary districts except upon a favorable vote of a majority of the qualified voters in each of the elementary districts of the proposed rural high school district. As is pointed out by petitioners, to give Article 2922d the construction contended for by respondents would place in the hands of county boards of school trustees such unlimited power that they could, even without the consent of the voters, combine all the school districts of whatever character and scholastic population of two counties into one gigantic county line rural high school district. It is unthinkable that by separate sections of the same Act the legislature intended to limit so drastically the power of county boards of school trustees to create rural high school districts in one county and to confer such unlimited and unrestricted power to create county line rural high school districts on the county board of trustees of adjoining counties. It is obvious from a reading of the Act as a whole that the legislature did not intend to confer on county boards of school trustees unlimited and unrestricted power to create rural high school districts. In order to harmonize Article 2922d with the remainder of the Act so that the same will not lead to an unreasonable result and thwart the obvious legislative intent, ,we hold that the power of county boards of school trustees to create county line rural high school districts is limited by the provisions of Articles 2922a and 2922c.
We do' not agree with petitioners' second proposition. To restate it, it is that a county board of school trustees has no power under the latter part of Article 2922a to annex a common school district with a scholastic population in excess of 250 to a common school district with a scholastic population of 400 or more or to an independent district with a scholastic population of 2'50 or more; that the limiting phrase "having less than two hundred fifty (250) scholastic population" modifies both "one or more common school districts" and "one or more independent school districts". This contention was fully exam ined and answered from a strictly grammatical standpoint by the Court of Civil Appeals. The history of the Act clearly supports the result reached by the Court of Civil Appeals. As originally enacted that part of Article 2922a read as follows: "Provided, also, that the county board may annex one or more common school districts to a common school district having four hundred or more scholastic population or to an independent district having one hundred and fifty or more scholastic population There was no limit on the size of common school districts that might be annexed. By the passage of House Bill 89 the First Called Session of the 40th Legislature, 1927, amended Article 2922a so that the part under examination was changed to read as follows: "provided, also, that the county school trustees may annex one or more common school districts or one or more independent school districts having less than two hundred fifty (2S0) scholastic population to a common school district having four hundred (400) or more scholastic population, or to an independent district having tivo hundred fifty (250) or more scholastic population The language. shown in italics was added by the amendment. There is nothing in the amendment to indicate that the added phraseology was intended' to alter, change or limit the power then existing to annex common school districts.
What has been said on the first question disposes of the third question. Under the express provisions of Article 2922b an independent school district enlarged by the annexation to it of common school districts retains "its status and name as an independent school district" and continues "to operate as an independent school district". Any action of a county board of trustees changing the name of such an enlarged district and taking the management and control of the school affairs of the district out of the hands of the duly elected trustees thereof, contrary to the express terms of the statute, is void.
The order of the County School Trustees of Shelby County passed on October 1, 1949, purporting to create "Central , Consolidated Rural High School District No. 36 of Shelby County, Texas", is void, and those appointed trustees of said district by said order are acting as such without legal authority. It follows that the judgments of the Court of Civil Appeals and the district court are reversed and judgment is here rendered as above indicated.
BREWSTER, GARWOOD and GRIFFIN, JJ., dissenting.