ihat said township treasurer is entitled to the care and custody, on demand, of all moneys, bonds, mortgages, notes and securities, and all books, papers and property of every description belonging to said township.

§ 20. Upon the receipt of the amount due upon the Auditor's warrant, the county superintendent shall apportion said amount, also the interest on the county fund and the fines and forfeitures, to the several townships or parts of townships in his county, in which township or parts of townships schools have been kept in accordance with the provisions of this act, and with instructions of the State and county superintendents, according to the number of children, under twenty-one years of age, returned to him, and shall pay over the distributive share belonging to each township and fractional township, to the respective township treasurers, or other authorized persons annually: Provided, that no part of the State, county or other school fund shall be paid to any township treasurer or other person authorized by said treasurer, unless said township treasurer has filed his bond, as required by section 1 of article 4 of this act; nor in case said treasurer is reappointed by the trustees, unless he shall have renewed his bond and filed the same as aforesaid.

§ 21. The county superintendent may loan any money, not interest, belonging to the county fund, or to any township fund, before the same is called for, according to law, by the township treasurer, at the same rate of interest, upon the same security and for the same length of time as is provided by this act in relation to the township treasurers, and apportion the interest as provided in the preceding section; and notes and mortgages taken in the name of the "county superintendent" of the proper county are hereby declared to be as valid as if taken in the name of "trustees of schools" of the proper township, and suits may be brought in the name of "county superintendents" on all notes and mortgages heretofore or hereafter made payable to the county superintendents.

1. It is the duty of the county superintendent to secure all loans by first mortgage on realty situated in this State, which, at a fair and reasonable cash value is worth at least fifty per centum more than the amount of the loan, and he must resort to all accessible means of information, to satisfy himself that the title to the land is in the mortgagor, or mortgagors, and is unincumbered. The title must be such that a prudent and careful man would not hesitate to invest his own money upon it at a full price. He must act with as much care and circumspection in securing school money as a prudent and careful man would exercise in securing his own, relying alone upon the title. If the county superintendent neglects to do this, then the loan is not authorized by law, and he is, in legal contemplation, as much guilty of violating his official duty as if he had appropriated the money to his own private purposes. People v. Haines, 10-528; County of Greene v. Bledsoe, 12-270; People v. Core, 85-248; Board of Trustees v. Baker, 24A-231; Board of Trustees v. Baker, 34A-620.

2. Where a loan is made by a county superintendent in palpable violation of his official duty and a suit is brought on his bond, the measure of damages is not merely the interest due on the principal of such loan, but the full amount of the loan and accrued interest. If the county superintendent violates the law in lending the money and thus incurs liability, he cannot postpone that liability by the terms of such illegal loan. If he is liable at all, it is for the illegal loan, and necessarily the liability accrues as soon as the illegal act Ibid.

is done.

3. When the principal debtor to the county school fund dies, it is the duty of the county superintendent to present the note, if due, on the day appointed by the administrator for the adjustment of claims and have it allowed against his estate. If this resource be unavailing, it is the duty of such officer to institute suit, if necessary, against the two responsible sureties to recover the amount of the principal and interest due upon the note. For neglect or refusal to perform this duty, the county superintendent becomes liable therefor upon his official bond. McHaney v. Trustees of Schools, 68–140; House v. Trustees of Schools, 83-368; Curry v. Mack, 90–606.

§ 22. In all controversies arising under the school law, the opinion and advice of the county superintendent shall first be sought, whence appeal may be taken to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction upon a written statement of facts certified by the county superintendent.

§ 23. The county superintendent, upon his removal or resignation, or at the expiration of his term of office, (or in case of his death, his representatives,) shall deliver over to his successor in office, on demand, all moneys, books, papers and personal property belonging to the office or subject to the control or disposition of the county superintendent.

1. The money in the hands of the county superintendent, at the expiration of his term of office, is the property of the county, to be used for school purposes, and it is his duty, in going out of office, to deliver it over specifically, or in funds of equivalent value, to his successor in office. A different doctrine would operate most powerfully to diminish that fund, which the best interests of the community require to be husbanded with the greatest possible care. Hamilton v. Cook County, 5-519.

2. When a county superintendent has been removed from office, he has no right to accept from a debtor to the school fund, the amount of his indebtedness, and return to him the notes executed by the debtor and the mortgage given to secure the same. Jameson v. Conway, 10-227.

ARTICLE III.

TOWNSHIP TRUSTEES OF SCHOOLS.

SECTION 1. Each congressional township is hereby established a township for school purposes.

1. Each congressional township is established a township for school purposes. People v. Dupuyt, 71-651.

2. The references to school townships in the school law, mean the congressional townships, which are thereby declared to be established as townships for school purposes. Trustees of Schools v. The People, 61A-131; Trustees of Schools v. The People, 161-146.

3. When a city annexes part of a school township leaving the 16th section, such remainder constitutes a school township, and is entitled to the rents, issues and profits of said section, to be administered by the trustees of schools for its own uses and purposes. People v. Trustees, 86-613.

4. School townships were created and are continued for school purposes, and not for municipal purposes. They are intended to establish schools, lend and manage the school funds of the township, and pay the teachers of schools taught in their jurisdiction. This is the purpose of their organization. They were not created to exercise any of the functions of government, and are not

municipal in their nature or purpose, nor are they provided with the officers or the power to exercise the functions of government. People v. Trustees of Schools, 78-136.

§ 2. Whenever any fractional township contains less than two hundred (200) persons under 21 years of age, the trustees thereof, upon petition of a majority of the adult inhabitants of such fractional township, may, by written agreement entered into with the board of trustees of any adjacent township, consolidate the territory, school funds and other property of such fractional township with such adjacent township, and thereafter shall cease to exercise the functions of school trustees for such fractional township; and such territory, school funds and other property, aforesaid, shall thereafter be managed by the board of trustees of such adjacent and consolidated township in accordance with the terms of agreement aforesaid, in the same manner as is, or may be, provided by law, for the management of territory, funds and other property of school townships: Provided, that the said written agreement shall be duly signed by a majority of the said trustees, and filed for record by the said trustees in the office of the county clerk of the county in which such consolidated township, or the greater part thereof, is situated. (As amended June 21, 1895.)

1. The Legislature may unite or divide townships and their school funds, as it thinks best. Greenleaf v. Trustees, 22-236.

§ 3. The school business of the township shall be done by three trustees, to be elected by the legal voters of the township, as hereinafter provided for.

1. The business of the township shall be done by three trustees, to be elected by the legal voters of the township, who, upon their election, shall be a body politic and corporate, by the name and style of trustees of schools of the township. People v. Dupuyt, 71-651.

§ 4. Said trustees shall be a body politic and corporate, by the name, and style of "trustees of schools of township No.... range No.....," according to the number. The said corporation shall have perpetual existence, shall have power to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, in all courts and places where judicial proceedings are had.

1. In respect to quasi corporations, as exist only for public purposes, the Legislature has an unquestionable right to exercise a superintending control over their money and other property, securing, however, as a matter of good faith, the effects of the corporation, for the use of those for whom it was donated or purchased. Bush v. Shipman, 5–186.

2. Public corporations are but parts of the machinery employed in carrying on the affairs of the State, and they are subject to be changed or modified, as the exigencies of the public may demand. The State may exercise a general superintendence and control over them, and their rights and effects, so that their property is not divested from the uses and objects for which it was given or purchased. That the trustees of schools are corporations of this character, and subject to be regulated and controlled by the Legislature, is fully established. Trustees of Schools v. Tatman, 13-27.

3. The inhabitants of a township are, by the statute, transformed into a corporation, the head of which is the trustees of schools elected by them. The statute further directs, that the business of the township shall be transacted by such trustees, and empowers them to sue in their corporate name. Moore v. School Trustees, 19-83.

4. Trustees of schools are public officers, vested with the power to determine to what district money collected for school purposes shall belong. The school directors of one district cannot refuse to receive the money thus ordered by the board of trustees to be paid to them; by receiving it, they do not become liable to an action by another district claiming it. If another district has any action, it must be against the trustees of the township. School Directors v. School Directors, 36-140.

5. Trustees of schools are not named in the Constitution. They are not included in the municipalities which may be vested with power to assess and collect taxes, and they have never been authorized, by any public law, to assess taxes for any purpose. The term townships evidently refers to townships formed under the township organization law, and the Legislature could only clothe school districts, and not school trustees, with the power of taxation. Trustees v. The People, 63-299.

6. The trustees of schools are not corporate authorities within the meaning of the constitutional provision. When the Constitution said that the corporate authorities of school districts might be vested with the right of taxation, it limited the power of the Legislature to the corporate authorities designated. The designation of the particular authorities must exclude all others, or there would be no limitation. Ibid.

7. The Constitution restricted the use of the taxes to corporate purposes. In determining the declared purpose we must regard alone the object to be accomplished by the school district. The only design of a school district must be to give instruction. It could never have been contemplated that it should embark in railroad and other enterprises entirely foreign from the aim of its existence. Ibid.

8. When a delinquent treasurer goes out of office and retains moneys which he received by virtue of his office, and refuses to pay the same to his successor in office, a right of action is created thereby in favor of the board of trustees, and against the delinquent and his sureties upon his official bond, whether an apportionment or division of the fund has been struck or not among the various districts of the townships. Tappan v. The People, 67–340; Kagay v. Trustees of Schools, 68-75; Trustees of Schools v. Stokes, 3A-267.

9. Each congressional township is established a township for school purposes. The business of the township shall be done by three trustees, to be elected by the legal voters of the township, who, upon their election, as hereinafter provided, shall be a body politic and corporate, by the name and style of trustees of schools of the township. The corporation shall have perpetual existence, and shall have power to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, in all courts and places where judicial proceedings are had. People v. Dupuyt, 71-651.

10. The duties and powers of the trustees are defined to be, among other things, the authority to appoint a treasurer, who shall be clerk of the board; to lay off the township into one or more school districts, to suit the wishes and conveniences of a majority of the inhabitants of the township; they are invested with the title, care and custody of all school houses and school sites; all money for school purposes in the township goes into the hands of the treasurer; it is the duty of the trustees to apportion all school funds between the several districts in the township. Ibid.

11. From the various provisions of the statute, it is apparent that the trustees of schools were created a corporation, or what might more strictly be termed a quasi corporation, for the purpose and with the sole and only power of acting in matters pertaining to the public schools of the township. All other business is foreign to the object for which they were created a body corporate. Ibid.

12. When trustees of schools obtain and hold money belonging to an adjacent township, they must be held to refund it. It is an elementary principle of law, that the action of assumpsit for money had and received for the use of another, will lie whenever the defendant has received money which, in equity, belongs to the plaintiff. Trustees of Schools v. Trustees of Schools,

81-470.

13. A promissory note signed by two persons as school trustees, but which does not purport to be a note given in behalf of a school district, is the individual note of such persons and not the note of any school corporation. The words school trustees are simply descriptio personarum. Trustees of Schools v.

Rautenberg, 88-219.

14. A person who acts as township treasurer for a number of years, thereby sanctioning the acts and doing of the board of trustees, and afterward contracts to sell a lot for a school house site, knowing that the title would go to the trustees, is estopped from denying the legality of the election of such offiFrick v. Trustees of Schools, 99–167.

cers.

15. It is essential to the legal organization of a school district that it shall have a definite territory. An admission of the legal corporate existence of a school district is an admission that its organization was legal, and that the territory embraced in the district as it was originally organized was legally included therein. School District v. The People, 75A-539.

16. The common law writ of certiorari is the appropriate remedy to bring before the circuit court, for review, the proceedings of a board of trustees in uniting school districts. Upon a hearing in a proceeding of this character, evidence other than the record of the inferior tribunal can not be heard or considered. Miller v. Trustees of Schools, 88-26.

17. Whenever great public detriment or inconvenience might result, the writ of certiorari should be denied. It should not be granted after the lapse of three years, to review the actions of the trustees of schools, in changing the boundaries of school districts. Trustees of Schools v. School Directors, 88-100. 18. The trustees of schools represent the public in respect of all matters confided to them by law, and their action, within the scope of their authority, when acting in conformity with the law, must necessarily be binding on the public, and their acts, when done in obedience to the mandate of a court of competent jurisdiction, must have the same binding force and effect as if performed without such mandate, and upon their own motion and judgment. School Directors v. School Directors, 135-464.

§ 5. The election of trustees of schools shall be on the second Saturday in April, annually.

1. Section 19 of this article provides, that in counties under township organization, where the school and civil townships are co-extensive in territory, the trustee or trustees shall be elected at the same time and in the same manner as the township officers.

§ 6. At the first regular election of trustees, after the passage of this act, a successor to the trustee whose term of office then expires shall be elected, and thereafter one trustee shall be elected annually. Said trustees shall continue in office three years, and until their successors are elected and enter upon the duties of their office.

§ 7. No person shall be eligible to the office of trustee of schools. unless 21 years of age, and a resident of the township. And where there are three or more school districts in any township, no two trustees shall reside, when elected, in the same school district, nor shall a person be eligible to the office of trustee of schools and school director at the same time.

1. The Constitution requires that all civil officers, with exceptions that do not include trustees of schools, shall take and subscribe an oath before entering upon the duties of their respective offices. Such official oath is an essential and necessary qualification for holding the office, and without it, the title to the office fails. Simons v. The People, 18A-588.

§ 8. Notice of the election of school trustee shall be given by the township treasurer, upon the order of the trustees of schools by posting notices of such election at least ten days previous to the time of