Opinion
Nos. 27287, 27289, 27412 and 27413
Decided May 10, 1939.
Schools — Transfer of territory — Mandatory duty of county board of education, when — Section 4696, General Code — Duty to transfer unaffected by inhibition in School Foundation Law — Section 7600-7, General Code.
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals of Hancock county.
APPEALS from the Court of Appeals of Henry county.
The above entitled causes present the same legal question and therefore will be disposed of with one opinion.
In cause No. 27287 the relators, F.O. Misamore and others, sought a writ of mandamus to require the respondent, the Board of Education of Hancock County School District, to make a transfer of certain territory for school purposes from the Vanlue Rural School District to the City School District of Findlay in the same county, all pursuant to a petition for such transfer signed by more than seventy-five per cent of the electors residing in the territory sought to be transferred, and filed with the respondent board on February 1, 1938. There was also filed with the board a copy of a resolution adopted by the Board of Education of Findlay City School District accepting the territory sought to be transferred to that district as and when the transfer is approved by the County Board of Education of Hancock County School District.
On June 18, 1937, under the School Foundation Law, the Board of Education of Hancock County School District adopted its organization plan for the school year of 1937-1938. A regular advertised meeting of the board was called and held on March 19, 1938, for the purpose of considering and acting upon its county organization plan for the school year of 1938-1939, pursuant to Section 7600-3, General Code, at which time and meeting relators' petition for transfer was considered and rejected.
On April 13, 1938, the relators brought suit in the Court of Appeals of Hancock county to compel the transfer of such territory under favor of Section 4696, General Code. On August 8, 1938, the court, after full hearing, entered judgment against the relators and refused to grant the writ, finding that while relators' petition for transfer had the signatures of more than seventy-five per cent of the qualified electors of the described territory, yet since the organization plan in the Hancock County School District for the school year 1937-1938 had become effective on June 18, 1937, had not been changed or modified, and did not prescribe the transfer of the territory in question, such transfer was inhibited by the provisions of Section 7600-7, General Code. The relators appealed to this court and the cause is now here for review.
In cause No. 27289, the relator, Andrew J. Rohrbaugh, appellant herein, sought a writ of mandamus to require respondent, the County Board of Education of Henry County School District, appellee herein, to make a transfer for school purposes of certain territory from Harrison Township Rural School District in Henry county to the Napoleon Exempted Village School District in the same county, to which such territory is contiguous, pursuant to a petition for such transfer signed and filed on February 23, 1938, by seventy-five per cent of the electors residing in the territory sought to be transferred. Following the filing of the petition with the Henry County Board of Education, the Board of Education of Harrison Township Rural School District passed a resolution approving the petition and consenting to the transfer, while the Board of Education of Napoleon Exempted Village School District passed a resolution approving the petition of the resident electors and consenting that the territory be transferred to the last named district, copies of which resolutions were filed with the respondent board.
On March 7, 1938, at a regular meeting of the respondent board, a resolution was adopted reciting that the petition for transfer had been filed and that a poll of the territory was being taken, but that the boundary lines of the territory petitioned to be transferred do not conform to the boundary lines of the reorganization plan now adopted by the board and approved by the State Director of Education which is now in effect in the school districts of Henry county; that the county board is now in the midst of another organization program for the coming year; that it is the right and duty of the board to consider the sufficiency and effect of the petition, and that action thereon be postponed to give the board a reasonable time in which to obtain necessary information as to the sufficiency of the petition.
On March 4, 1938, a meeting of the board was held, pursuant to published notice, to consider the reorganization plan for the school year 1938-1939. No action was taken on the petition for transfer. On April 4, 1938, another meeting of the county board was held but again no action was taken on the petition, after which, on April 6, 1938, the relator brought suit in the Court of Appeals.
At a special meeting of the county board held February 18, 1938, five days before the electors' petition for transfer was filed, a resolution was adopted creating Liberty Center Village School District, consisting of what had formerly been Liberty Center Village School District and a part of Harrison Township Rural School District, which part was included in the petition for transfer. At the same meeting a resolution was adopted creating a district to be known as Malinta Grelton Union Rural School District consisting of what had formerly been Malinta Grelton Union Rural School District and another part of Harrison Township Rural School District, which part was also included in the petition for transfer. The county board also appointed directors for each of the newly created school districts.
The county board had adopted a plan of organization for the Henry County School District in the spring of 1936, but because of failure to follow legal requirements in an attempt to adopt a plan for the school year 1937-1938, the Court of Appeals found that no plan had been adopted for the school year 1937-1938 and that the plan of the preceding year held over and was in effect during the school year 1937-1938.
The respondent filed an answer to relator's petition and hearing was had in the Court of Appeals, which court found that the petition for transfer did at all times, pertinent to the sufficiency thereof, contain the signatures of more than seventy-five per cent of the resident electors in the territory described in the petition; that the resolutions adopted and proceedings had by the respondent board of education for the creation of new school districts and the transfer of territory thereto, which included the territory sought to be transferred to the Napoleon district, were void by reason of the fact that the creation of such new school districts and the transfer of territory thereto were not prescribed in the plan of reorganization of the Henry County School District adopted by the board and then in effect, and were inhibited by the provisions of Sections 7600-1 to 7600-8, General Code; and likewise found that the transfer of territory, provided for in the petition for transfer as described in relator's petition, is not prescribed in or in conformity with the plan of reorganization of the Henry County School District adopted by the respondent board and in effect at all times mentioned in the pleadings in this case, and is for that reason inhibited by the provisions of the above named sections of the General Code. For this reason the court denied the writ of mandamus and dismissed relator's petition herein. The case is now in this court on an appeal by the relator.
In causes Nos. 27413 and 27412, the Court of Appeals found that the questions involved in the Sonnenberg case, No 27413, were the same as those involved in the Rosebrock case, No. 27412, and this court ordered that the printing of the record and briefs be dispensed with in the Sonnenberg case and that both causes be heard on the record of the Rosebrock case.
In the latter case, the relator, Henry G. Rosebrock, sought a writ of mandamus to require the respondent, the Board of Education of Henry County School District, to make a transfer of certain territory for school purposes from the Napoleon Township Rural School District to the Napoleon Exempted Village School District in Henry county, Ohio, all pursuant to a petition for such transfer signed by more than seventy-five per cent of the electors residing in the territory sought to be transferred and filed with the respondent board on March 26, 1938. There was also filed with the board, on May 2, 1938, a copy of a resolution adopted by the Board of Education of Napoleon Exempted Village School District accepting the territory sought to be transferred to that district, as and when the transfer is approved by the County Board of Education of Henry County School District.
On or about May 31, 1938, the Board of Education of Henry County School District adopted its plan of organization for the school year 1938-1939, without allowing the petition of the resident electors of the territory sought to be transferred, for the reason that the petition for transfer did not conform to the plan of organization as adopted.
On May 27, 1938, the relator, Rosebrock, filed his petition in the Court of Appeals of Henry county to compel the transfer of the territory in question under favor of Section 4696, General Code. An amended answer was filed by the respondent, whereupon the relator filed a motion to strike and to make such amended answer definite and certain. The court did not consider this motion for the reason that in its opinion the petition did not state a cause of action, and sua sponte dismissed it. The relator, not desiring to amend his petition or plead further, allowed judgment to be entered against him, perfected his appeal to this court and the cause is now here on review.
Mr. A.G. Fuller, for appellants, F.O. Misamore et al.
Mr. James Donovan, Jr., Mr. P.C. Prentiss and Mr. Otto W. Hess, for appellant, Andrew J. Rohrbaugh.
Mr. Theodore Daman and Mr. P.C. Prentiss, for appellants, Henry G. Rosebrock and Edward Sonnenberg.
Messrs. Knepper, White Dempsey and Messrs. Blackford Blackford, for appellee, Hancock County Board of Education.
Mr. A.P. Stalter, Mr. Franklin J. Stalter and Messrs. Knepper, White Dempsey, for appellee, County Board of Education of Henry County School District.
These causes involve the construction of Section 4696, General Code, as related to Section 7600-7, General Code. On authority of the case of State, ex rel. Adsmond, v. Board of Education of Williams County, ante, 383, this day decided, this court holds that since the petitions of the electors, residing in the territory sought to be transferred, were filed with the county boards of education in time for consideration at the annual meeting of the boards to consider matters relating to the organization plan for the school year 1938-1939, the petitions being otherwise valid, it was the duty of the county boards of education to consider and allow the petitions and approve the transfers.
The judgments of the Court of Appeals are reversed and these causes are remanded to that court for further proceedings in conformity with the decision of this court.
Judgments reversed.
WEYGANDT, C.J., DAY, ZIMMERMAN, WILLIAMS, MYERS, MATTHIAS and HART, JJ., concur.