Mallory v. Upson County Bd. of Educ

In Mallory v. Upson County Bd. of Educ., 163 Ga. App. 377 (294 SE2d 599), a county school district was seeking to condemn property located within a city's school district for the purpose of building an athletic track next to a county school it was constructing, also located within city limits. The Court noted that the county board of education had only a limited jurisdiction, and that it did not have such extraterritorial condemnation authority because there was nothing . . . to show that the construction and operation of an entire school and supporting facilities, such as an athletic track, totally outside the condemnor's territory is an undertaking "reasonably necessary" to the full and complete exercise of its express grant of authority and control over educational matters within its jurisdiction. Mallory, 163 Ga. App. at 381 (3). Indeed, the Court noted that the parties had not explained why the county school board was building a school in the city school district at all: On the record before us, this very premise upon which the condemnor ultimately seeks to justify the taking of condemnee's property for an athletic track -- the adjacent construction of a school outside the condemnor's territory and within the City school district -- is totally unexplained. Id. Rather, without evidence of a statutory authorization or a contract between the two bodies, the Court concluded that the City school board would appear to have control over educational issues and related real property within its own district: The condemnor in the instant case is expressly granted only the "control and management" of the Upson County School District, a limited territory. To this end, the condemnor is granted the power of eminent domain. There is nothing whatsoever to show that the extra-territorial exercise of the power of eminent domain within the City's school district to take property for an athletic track adjacent to a school which it also lacks the express constitutional or statutory authority to control and manage is "reasonably necessary" for the condemnor to attain complete effectuation of its express but territorially-limited authority over educational matters outside the City's school district. Id. at 381-382.