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Show JUDGE RULES IN FAVOR OF SCHOOL BOARD Decision Is Being Appealed To State Supreme Court A decision in favor of the Nebo school district Board of education handed down by District Judge W. Stanley Dunford of Provo, in connection with publication of the district financial report according to law, will be appealed to the state supreme court, according to Harrison Conover of this city. Mr. Conover, in his suit against the board, contended that the published pub-lished report gave the total paid out under nine sub-heads of expenditures ex-penditures and then listed all parties par-ties or firms to which the total was paid. It did not, however, list the specific spe-cific amounts which each firm received re-ceived out of the total, but merely mere-ly listed each person or firm as one of several, with the several receiving the total amount. For example, under insurance charges, it listed seven insurance firms as receiving a total of $4,128.72, but not how much each received. The plaintiff contended that a specific amount paid to each firm or party should have been given, in addition to the fact that the firm or party was merely one of several receiving an unspecified part of the total amount. The board claimed its published report am comply witn tne law, and attacked the constitutionality of the state statute covering this matter, holding that it required something of a county school board which it did not require from city board. Judge Dunford ruled that if it were assumed the report was in compliance with the state law, then the question of whether the law was unconstitutional would cease to exist. Judge Dunford held that if the published report told the public to whom monies had been paid and the total amount expended, that the principal intent of the law, which is construed as enabling enab-ling the public to tell whether or not the financial affairs of the school district are being lawfully conducted, had been fulfilled. The specific amounts paid each particular par-ticular party or firm are available to the public in the records of the school board, and the public may examine them there or take copies from them, he pointed out. Judge Dunford ruled that the publication of the report in the form in which it appeared in the Dec. 27, 1945 issue of the Spanish Fork Press, was in compliance with the state law, and dismissed the petition of the plaintiff. Each party in the action was ordered to pay its own court costs. |