School Directors of District No. 5 v. School Directors of District No. 1, 36 Ill. 140 (1864)

April 1864 · Illinois Supreme Court

36 Ill. 140

School Directors of District No. 5, in Town 24, Range 10, in Ogle County, v. School Directors of District No. 1, in the same Township.

1. School Trustees — their powers in respect to the money collected for school purposes. The school trustees of a township are public officers, vested with the power to determine to what district money collected for school purposes shall belong.

2. Parties — action — money claimed to he paid to the wrong school district. Where money collected for school purposes has been ordered, by the school trustees of the township, to be paid over by the treasurer of the township to the school directors of a particular district, such directors cannot refuse to receive it; nor by receiving it do they become liable to an' action by another district claiming it.

3. If the district claiming the money to have been improperly paid over, have any right of action, it must be against the trustees of the township who directed the money to be paid.

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Ogle county; the Hon. W. W. Heaton, Judge, presiding.

This was an action of assumpsit instituted in the court below by the school directors of district one, in township twenty-four, range ten, in Ogle country, against the school directors of district five, in the same town, to recover certain moneys which had been paid to the defendants by the treasurer of the township, upon tl^e order of the board of trustees thereof

It appears the money sued for had been collected as a district tax levied for school purposes, upon persons and lands residing and lying, as the plaintiffs allege, in district one, and not in'district five, and therefore was improperly paid over to the directors of district five by the treasurer, the controversy arising upon a disputed boundary between the two districts.

A trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiffs, from which the defendants took this appeal. The question really presented is, whether the plaintiffs, if they have any cause of action, should not have sued the trustees of the township who directed the money to be paid over.

Mr. H. A. Mix, and Messrs. Leland & Blanchard, for the Appellants.

Messrs. Glover, Cook & Campbell, for the Appellees.

Mr. Justice Breese

delivered the opinion of the Court:

The money sued for in this case by district one against district five, was paid to district five, by order of the board of trustees of the township in which those districts are.

The trustees were public officers vested with the power to determine to what district money collected for school purposes shall belong. The school directors of five could not refuse to receive the money thus ordered by the trustees to be paid to them; by receiving it, they did not become liable to an action by another district claiming it.

If district one has any action, .it must be against the trustees of the township.

The judgment is reversed. Judgment reversed.