Coler v. Rhoda School Township

Citations

• 6 S.D. 640
• 63 N.W. 158
• 1895 S.D. LEXIS 164

Syllabus

<p>1. In construing section 10, c. 14, Laws 1879, which provides that “it shall be the duty of the county superintendent of schools, in-addition to other duties required of Mm, to divide his county into school districts and subdivide and re-arrange the boundaries of the same, when petitioned by a majority of the citizens residing in the district or districts to be affected by said change, if he believes such change to be for the good of the public schools, and to furnish the county commissioners of such county with a written description of the boundaries of such district, which description must be filed in the register of deeds’ office, before such district thall be entitled to proceed with its organization, by the election of school district officers,” it is held that no petition is contemplated or required in order to authorize a county superintendent in the first instance to divide his 'county into school districts.</p> <p>2. Further, that the production at the trial, by the legal custodian of the files and records of the board of county commissioners, of a written description of a district thus created, containing no file mark thereon, but which \\vas found by the witness in a file box, together with other papers relating to said school district, in the office of the register of deeds, is sufficient, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to sustain the presumption that the county superintendent complied with the law by furnishing said description to the county commissioners, and that the same was filed in the office of the register of deeds before the election of school district officers.</p> <p>3. Where a majority of the electors of a legally organized school district present and voting at a special meeting held by the defacto or dejure officers of said district for the purpose of voting bonds with which to build and furnish a school house are in favor of the bonds, which are afterwards issued, in accordance with the vote then taken, and sold for full val