Title: Met. School Dist. of Sw Parke v. Vaught
Citation: 233 N.E.2d 155, 249 Ind. 412
Docket Number: 31,150
State: Indiana
Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court
Date: January 18, 1968

249 Ind. 412 (1968)
233 N.E.2d 155
METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT OF SOUTH WEST PARKE, INDIANA, ET AL.
v.
VAUGHT ET AL.
No. 31,150.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed January 18, 1968.
*413 Clelland Hanner, of Rockville, and Bowen, Myers, Northam &amp; Givan, of Indianapolis, for appellants.
Howard C. McFaddin, Warren Buchanan, and John G. McFaddin, of Rockville, for appellees.
HUNTER, J.
This case comes to this Court on appeal from the denial of plaintiffs-appellants' request for permanent injunction relief and a declaratory judgment. The requested injunction would enjoin the defendants-appellees, the Board of Election Commissioners of Parke County, Indiana, from holding a referendum election on the question of whether Wabash School Township, Raccoon School Township, and the Rockville Consolidated Schools, all located in Parke County, Indiana, should be formed into one metropolitan school district.
The facts surrounding this controversy are as follows:
Late in 1964, petitions were filed with the Board of School Trustees of the Rockville Consolidated Schools, with Eula Lewis, Trustee of Wabash School Township and with Arthur Thompson, Trustee of Raccoon School Township. The petitions were signed by 5% of the voters in the respective school corporation districts in which they were filed; and they contained a request to consolidate the Rockville Consolidated Schools and Wabash and Raccoon School Townships into a Metropolitan School District.
*414 On December 3, 1964, the Board of Trustees of Rockville Consolidated Schools disapproved this three-unit merger plan. On December 14, 1964, the Advisory Board and trustee of Wabash School Township met and disapproved the three-unit merger plan; and on Demember 17 the same three-unit proposal was disapproved by the Advisory Board and trustee of Raccoon School Township.
Thereafter, on December 22, 1964, the trustees of Wabash, Raccoon, Florida and Reserve Townships held a meeting at which there was proposed and unanimously agreed upon a merger of said four school townships subject to possible disapproval if a referendum election was forced by the filing of a petition of protest. This merger is hereafter referred to as the four-unit merger. These same trustees met again on February 2, 1965, and, upon determining that no such protest petition had been filed, proceeded to hold an organizational meeting at which officers were elected and the new corporation was named the Metropolitan School District of Southwest Parke, Indiana.
On February 8, 1965, after being assured that payment of all costs was forthcoming, the appellee, Board of Election Commissioners of Parke County issued notice that a special referendum election would be held on the question of the three-unit merger on March 16, 1965. It is this election that the appellant sought to enjoin by this action. The Parke Circuit Court issued a temporary restraining order on March 13, 1965, restraining appellees from holding such election pending the outcome of a hearing on the merits. Such hearing having been held, the Parke Circuit Court issued its decree on July 30, 1965, dissolving and vacating the temporary restraining order, refusing to permanently enjoin such election and found against appellants on their prayer for a declaratory judgment, infra.
The statute under which the two conflicting mergers were sought to be accomplished, and under which the election in *415 question was sought to be conducted is Ind. Anno. Stat. § 28-2442 (Supp. 1967) which reads as follows:
With specific reference to the injuctive relief requested by appellants, we think there can be no question that the Circuit Court was correct and that such relief was properly denied.
The record shows that on December 17, 1964, the last of the three (3) petitions to consolidate Raccoon School Township, *417 and Wabash School Township with the Rockville Consolidated Schools was disapproved. At that point in time, the appellee election board was required, by § 28-2442, supra, to conduct the election which is here sought to be enjoined. Franklin County Election Board v. State ex rel. Metropolitan School District of Brookville (1967), 248 Ind. 768, 230 N.E.2d 527. As quoted above, the next to last sentence of subsection (b) of § 28-2442, supra, reads:
Since appellee-Board was under an unavoidable duty to hold the referendum election, and sought to do so in accordance with the laws of this State, neither the Parke Circuit Court nor any court of equity has the power to enjoin the carrying out of that duty. Sweigart v. State (1938), 213 Ind. 157, 12 N.E.2d 134, 114 A.L.R. 1117.
Equity has the power, where necessary, to pierce rigid statutory rules to prevent injustice. Wabash Valley Coach Co. v. Turner (1943), 221 Ind. 52, 46 N.E.2d 212, certiorari denied, 319 U.S. 754. But where substantial justice can be accomplished by following the law, and where the parties' actions are clearly governed by rules of law, equity follows the law. In this case the rights of the parties are clearly governed by the statute; and no injustice will result from following such statute. Therefore, equity in this case, must follow the law, there being no equitable reason for not doing so. See 2 Pomeroy's Equity Jurisprudence, §§ 425-27 (1941 edition).
Furthermore, while we do not purport to make any decision as to the validity of the appellant's status as a lawful body corporate, assuming arguendo that the four unit merger was properly accomplished, two (2) of the four (4) units included therein, Raccoon and Wabash Townships, were under a prior duty at the time of such merger to submit *418 to an election on the question of the three unit merger with Rockville Consolidated Schools. Raccoon and Wabash townships could not avoid that prior obligation by joining in the four unit merger before the election was held.
Ind. Anno. Stat. § 28-2451 (Supp. 1967) provides, in its fourth paragraph as follows:
Clearly then, if Wabash and Raccoon Townships did become integral parts of a proper metropolitan school district before the election here sought to be enjoined, to-wit: The Metropolitan School District of Southwest Parke, Indiana, the governing board of such district had inherited the obligations of Wabash and Raccoon Townships. One of these obligations was to submit those two territories to the referendum election on the three unit merger plan and to comply with its outcome. The end result then is, that if the appellant was properly and validly incorporated, two of its units, Wabash and Raccoon Townships, could only have joined in the new corporation on the condition that the pending referendum election would not require them to merge with the Rockville Consolidated Schools.
Appellant's prayer for a declaratory judgment reads as follows:
Under the view hereinabove taken regarding the status and obligations of Wabash Township and Raccoon Township at the time of the purported creation of the Metropolitan School District of Southwest Parke, Indiana, the prayer of appellants for a declaratory judgment must be denied since all points contended for by appellant in such prayer have been decided in favor of appellees.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the court below is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Lewis, C.J., Arterburn and Jackson, JJ. concur. Mote, J. concurs in result.
NOTE.  Reported in 233 N.E.2d 155.