Barber v. DeFord

169 Iowa 692
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedDecember 19, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 169 Iowa 692 (Barber v. DeFord) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barber v. DeFord, 169 Iowa 692 (iowa 1914).

Opinion

Withrow, J.

l. Intoxicating IjIQUOiís : statement of consent: duty to canvass all statements: statutory construction.

— I. The appellee urges that this court is, and that the district court was, without jurisdiction to consider this appeal for the following reasons:

a. Valley Junction is a city having more than 2,500 and less than 5,000 population.

Under Code Supplement See. 2450, there is no provision [695]*695for any finding by tbe board of supervisors as to the result of the canvass of petitions under the mulct law in cities of that class, and, therefore, there can be no appeal from the finding of the board, as no authority or duty is created in the board to make a finding.

b. That the cited section, while providing that all statements of consent filed with the county auditor shall after due notice be publicly canvassed by the board of supervisors, limits the power and duty of the board to entering of record its findings as to the result in “the city having over five thousand inhabitants, or the county, as the ease may be, and the various towns and townships therein,” and by necessary implication excludes cities between 2,500 and 5,000 in population, no. reference being made to them, such cities having a different requirement from other cities and towns as to the • number of names necessary to authorize the sale of liquor under the mulct law.

c. That Sec. 2448, which provides for the canvass of petitions in cities of the class under consideration and the entry of the findings of record, is complete in itself, and in that section no right of appeal is granted. That such section provides for a canvass of the petitions at a general or special meeting of the board, while Sec. 2450 authorizes, as to the matter which may be considered under it, findings to be made only at a regular meeting of the board.

It is claimed by appellee that by failing to mention cities between 2,500 and 5,000 in population among those expressly named, and as to which the findings of the board of supervisors shall be entered of record, it must be held to have been the intent of the legislature to exclude them.

Code Supplement Sec. 2450, provides that ‘ ‘ all statements of general consent filed with the county auditor as provided in the two preceding sections (2448 and 2449 Supp.), shall be publicly canvassed,” etc. In that general provision is necessarily included cities of the population in question, the requirements as to which are fixed in Sec. 2448, Supp., unless they [696]*696are expressly excepted. Does tbe omission to include such cities in express terms in the clause “cities having over five thousand population, or the county, and the various towns and townships therein” leave them outside the operation of that section? While it is a settled rule of statutory construction that where general terms of expression in one part of a statute are inconsistent with more specific or particular provisions in another part, the latter will generally control, it is also the rule that a particular expression in one part of a statute not so large and extensive in its import as other expressions in the same statute will yield to the larger and more extensive expressions, when the latter embody the real intent of the legislature. 36 Cyc. 1130 and cases cited. A careful reading of Sees. 2448, 2449, and 2450, Code Supp., leaves no doubt that it was the legislative intent that as to all classes of cases arising under them the right of appeal should be afforded to both parties as they might seem to be aggrieved. While the legislative intent must, if possible, be determined by a construction of the language it has used, where there is conflict of terms in the same section the rule above stated has full application; and in Sec. 2450 the alleged conflict between the general and the particular expressions, in the light of the purpose of the legislature as expressed in the cited sections, is not of such gravity as to compel us to hold that the general provisions’ must yield to the particular ones.

' We conclude that the provision in Sec. 2450 as to the finding by the board of supervisors, and making a record of such, applies to all eases which are covered by the general terms of the section, that the right of appeal is given, and that we have jurisdiction of the cause.

II. By concession made upon the trial of the case in the lower court, it appears that the total vote of Valley Junction at the general election last preceding the circulation of the statement of consent was 412, and that the statements filed contained 352 names. Based on the total vote as shown, the number of signatures required, that is, eighty per cent of the legal [697]*697voters in cities of that size, being between 2,500 and 5,000 population, was 330.

Included in the total of 352 signatures are four which are conceded to be duplicates, five whose names do not appear .on the poll list, and one who was a non-resident at the time of the circulation of the statement of consent. This concededly reduced the number of signatures to 342. Of this number, seventeen made withdrawals of their signatures; and of this seventeen, upon the submission of the statement of consent to the board of supervisors, nine filed requests for withdrawals of their withdrawals. Two of the remaining number signed by a mark, which was witnessed only by the canvasser who made the affidavit. Seven, whose names appeared on the poll book with only their initials, signed the petition or' statement of consent by using Christian names and initials, as follows:

ON POLL BOOK. ON PETITION.

P. MeCanna Patrick MeCanna

G. W. Pring Geo. W. Pring

B. Strange Basil Strange'
C. A. Pray Chas. A. Pray
F. D. Gray Frank D. Gray
F. J. Hester Fred J. Hester
P. J. Casey Peter J. Casey

The witness to the name of A. H. Dyke on the petition swore to the same before a person who purported to be a notary public in and for Polk County, Iowa, but the notary’s seal attached to the affidavit indicated that he was a notary public in and for St. Johns County, Florida. .

The witness as to the name of G. J. Zerwech on the petition made affidavit before a notary who properly signed himself as a notary public in and for Bureau County, Illinois, but at the head of the affidavit appeared the caption: ‘‘ State of Iowa, Polk County, SS.”

It was also agreed that the name L. E. McCelland was [698]*698signed by L. E. McClelland; R. H. McCulland was signed by R. H. McClelland; W. B. Osborne was signed by W. D. Osborne, the first of each of said names being as shown by the poll list.

The agreement as to facts simplifies the case. The trial court found the statement of consent to be sufficient. The appellant concisely states the question presented for our determination under the conceded facts as follows:

1. Should the nine withdrawals of withdrawals be considered?

2. Should the seven names in which the initials only were given on the poll books, and the full name written on the petition, be counted?

3.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Booth Fisheries Corp. v. Case
47 P.2d 834 (Washington Supreme Court, 1935)
Milligan v. Zeller
197 Iowa 79 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1924)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
169 Iowa 692, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barber-v-deford-iowa-1914.