State ex rel. Russell v. Bacon

Citations

• 31 S.C. 120
• 9 S.E. 765
• 1889 S.C. LEXIS 11

Syllabus

<p>1. Where a school district is created and declared to be a corporation, for ■ the purpose of promoting the educational interests of the people therein, to be under the management and control of a board of trustees, who “shall provide suitable school houses in their district and make the same comfortable,” the board of trustees are the corporate authorities of the corporation, and a tax to pay a debt contracted for the erection of a school house is a corporate purpose.</p> <p>2. This school district, which can act only through its corporate authorities, being authorized to issue bonds for the erection of school buildings, the board of trustees are thereby authorized to assess and collect taxes to pay the bonds so issued, according to their terms; and a provision in the statute making it the duty of the county auditor “to compute annually the amount necessary to be raised and to levy the same upon all the property in said school district,” imposes upon that officer only the duty of charging to every taxpayer his proportion of the tax ' assessed by the trustees. And so long as only a given rate of interest on a fixed sum is to be raised, a formal demand by the trustees upon the auditor to levy the tax is a sufficient assessment by the board of trustees.</p>