Court Opinion

ID: 9531462
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:11:41.489473+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:28.603286
License: Public Domain

*455KEETON, Justice.
Prior to the reorganization proceedings hereinafter referred to, Joint Class A School District No. 370 encompassed parts of Owyhee and Canyon Counties, and Common School District No. 61 was located wholly within Canyon County, contiguous to School District No. 370. The reorganization proceedings, initiated and submitted to the voters, carried by a majority of the votes cast in each school district, with S3 votes cast in favor and 42 against in District No. 61.
The plan for reorganization contained a proposal that the real and personal property and debts and liabilities of the two districts be “absorbed and assumed by the proposed new school district.” Joint Class A School District No. 370, as it existed prior to and at the time of the reorganization, owed a bonded indebtedness of $179,000; whereas, District No. 61 owed none.
The Board of County Commissioners of Owyhee and Canyon Counties each made an order for the reorganization which provide ed inter alia that the debts of the .two districts, as formerly organized, be assumed by the new school district. The effect thereof made the taxpayers of former School District No. 61 liable for their proportionate part of the bonded indebtedness of former School District No. 370. Certain taxpayers of former District No. 61 appealed to the district courts of Owyhee County and Canyon County from each such order, asserting that it subjected the property of appellants and others to the bonded indebtedness of former School District No. 370 without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors of former District No. 61, in contravention of Art. VIII, Sec. 3, Idaho Constitution and Sec. 33-909, I.C., as amended. The newly formed Joint Class A School District No. 370 of Owyhee and Canyon Counties intervened in the appeals.
The matters at issue on appeal were submitted to District Courts on stipulated facts. The trial court ruled and adjudged in the proceedings in both counties that the order establishing the new Joint Class A School District No. 370 of Owyhee and Canyon Counties be affirmed; that the part of the order providing for the assumption of the proportional part of the bonded indebtedness of the former School District No. 370 by appellants and other resident taxpayers within the area of former School District No. 61, be reversed; and directed that the portion of the order purporting to subject the lands and other taxable property within *456the former School District No. 61, to the bonded indebtedness of the former School District-No. 370 be deleted. Joint Class A School District No. 370 of Owyhee and Canyon Counties (the consolidated district) perfected appeals from the judgments which were consolidated for hearing in this Court.
That part of the judgment of the trial court affirming the order creating the new school district is not here challenged. The only issue presented for determination is whether the bonded indebtedness of former School District No. 370 by the reorganization proceedings can be spread over the territory of former Common School District No. 61, as well as former School District No. 370, and the taxpayers of former Common School 'District No. 61 be compelled to assume and pay a proportionate share thereof without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors of the- former School District No. 61 voting at an election held for that purpose.
Persons who voted on the reorganization proposal, including the proposal of assuming the indebtedness, were not limited to those possessing the qualification to vote at a bond election as provided by Sec. 33-909, I.C. They possessed only the qualifications provided by Sec. 33-408, I.C. Moreover, had the persons in former District No. 61, voting for the reorganization, possessed the qualifications of persons qualified to vote in bond elections, Sec. 33-909,1.C., the proposal did not carry by a two-thirds vote.
Art. VIII, Sec. 3, Idaho Constitution, provides as follows:
“No county, city, town, township, board of education, or school district, or other subdivision of the state, shall incur any indebtedness, or liability, in any manner, or for any purpose, exceeding in that year, the income and revenue provided for it for such year, without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors thereof voting at an election to he held for that purpose, nor unless, before or at the time of incurring such indebtedness, provision shall be made for the collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on such indebtedness as it falls due, and also to constitute a sinking fund for the payment of the principal thereof, within twenty years from the time of contracting the same. Any indebtedness or liability incurred contrary to this provision shall be void: provided, that this section shall not be construed to apply to the ordinary and necessary expenses authorized by the general laws of the state.”
Sec. 33-909, I.C., provides that a qualified elector to vote in a school district bond election must be a resident taxpayer or the husband or wife of a taxpayer of the district.
Respondents (taxpayers in former Common School District No. 61) contend that before the territory and the taxable prop*457erty in former Common School District No. 61 can be made to assume and pay a proportionate share of the bonds of former School District No. 370, the requirements of the constitution must be observed, i. e., such proposal must be submitted to the resident taxpayers of the district affected and assented to by a two-thirds majority vote thereof.
Appellant School District contends that Art. VIII, Sec. 3, Idaho Constitution, and Sec. 33-909, I.C., have no application to the situation; that the Legislature may provide the method of determining the disposition of the assets, and assumption of the indebtedness of each of the districts involved in the reorganization proceedings.
Appellant cites numerous cases tending to sustain its position of which State ex rel. Consolidated School Dist. No. 8 of Pemiscot County v. Smith, 343 Mo. 288, 121 S.W.2d 160; Peterson v. Swan, 231 Iowa 745, 2 N.W.2d 70; Independent School District No. 1 v. Williamson, Okl., 262 P.2d 701; Linke v. Board of County Commissioners, 129 Colo. 165, 268 P.2d 416; Southern Pacific Co. v. Maricopa County, 59 Ariz. 369, 129 P.2d 312, are illustrative.
Contrary views tending to support respondents’ contention have beein expressed in Bruce v. Catahoula Parish School Board, 174 La. 451, 141 So. 25; Needham v. School District No. 6, 62 Vt. 176, 20 A. 198; Barber v. P. S. Cummings and Sons, 167 Ga. 289, 145 S.E. 443; Missouri-Kansas-Texas R. Co. v. Excise Board of Bryan County, 181 Okl. 229, 73 P.2d 173; Love v. Rockwall Independent School District, Tex.Civ. App., 194 S.W. 659; People v. Hanford Union High School Dist., 148 Cal. 705, 84 P. 193; Terrell v. Clifton Independent School Dist., Tex.Civ.App., 5 S.W.2d 808.
The case of Missouri-Kansas-Texas R. Co. v. Excise Board of Bryan County, supra, was overruled in Independent School District No. 1 v. Williamson, Okl., 262 P. 2d 701, and the case of People v. Hanford Union High School District, supra, was distinguished or overruled in People ex rel. Thompson v. San Bernardino High School Dist., 62 Cal.App. 67, 216 P. 959.
A similar situation as is now presented was involved in Common School Dist. No. 2 of Nez Perce County v. District No. 1 of Nez Perce County, reported 71 Idaho 192, 227 P.2d 947. That case involved the application of a special enactment which provided that territory of an annexed school district should be subject to all the benefits, obligations and burdens of the annexing school district. This Court specifically held that if the Legislature thereby intended to burden the absorbed district with the existing bonded indebtedness of the annexing district, the act would be unconstitutional.
Art. VIII, Sec. 3, Idaho Constitution, is all inclusive; it specifically provides that no school district “shall incur any indebted*458ness, or liability, in any manner, or for any purpose” except as therein specifically provided.
The taxpayers of former Common School District No. 61, by the plan of reorganization proposed, would become liable for payment of a debt not incurred in accordance with such section of the constitution. Such section, Art. VIII, Sec. 3, Idaho Constitution, is a limitation upon the power of the Legislature; and the Legislature cannot authorize a school district to incur an indebtedness in violation thereof.
We therefore conclude that bonded indebtedness or a proportional part of the bonded indebtedness of former Joint Class A School District No. 370 cannot be involuntarily imposed upon the taxpayers of former Common School District No. 61 in the manner attempted. Judgment affirmed. Costs to respondents.
. TAYLOR, C. J., SMITH, J., and BECKWITH, D. J., concur.