Kellum v. Johnson

115 So. 2d 147, 237 Miss. 580, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 395
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 29, 1959
DocketNo. 41460
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 115 So. 2d 147 (Kellum v. Johnson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kellum v. Johnson, 115 So. 2d 147, 237 Miss. 580, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 395 (Mich. 1959).

Opinion

Lee, J.

J. W. Kellum appealed from a judgment of the Special Court, set up under the Corrupt Practices Act of 1935, which dismissed his petition to contest the democratic nomination of Roy E. Johnson in the primary election of August 4, 1959, for the office of District Attorney of the Seventeenth Circuit Court District of the State.

In the primary election, Kellum received 9411 votes and Johnson received 9430 votes, thus giving to Johnson a majority of 19 votes. Thereupon the State Executive Committee declared Johnson to be the nominee.

On September 8, 1959 — 35 days after the primary— Kellum filed with the chairman of the State Democratic [583]*583Executive Committee Ms complaint' as to the result. (This petition or contest was, by agreement of the paries, omitted from the record). At any rate, the petition for a judicial review recited that the chairman of the State Democratic Executive Committee gave notice that the committee would take no action thereon.

On September 21, 1959, Kellum filed, in the CircMt Court of the Second Judicial District of Tallahatchie County, his petition for a judicial review.

' In answer to that petition, Johnson filed what he denominated as a “Motion to Dismiss” in which it was pointed out that “the petition exhibited against him herein by the Contestant shows on its face the following facts, to-wit:

“That the Contestant’s original petition by which he initiated his contest was not filed with the Chairman of the State Democratic Executive Committee within a period of twenty days after the primary election sought to be contested; that, therefore, any right wMch the Contestant may have had to contest the declared result of said election had expired prior to the filing of said original petition with said Chairman; and that, accordingly, said Chairman properly and correctly declined to take any action on said original petition.
“Wherefore, the Contestee respectfully moves the court to dismiss the partition exhibited against him herein.”

On the date of the hearing, no question of fact was presented. The Special Judge, Hon. Arthur B. Clark, Jr., appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi, heard the parties and concluded that the motion to dismiss was well taken. Consequently, the motion was sustained, the petition was dismissed, and the action of the State Democratic Executive Committee in. declaring Roy E. Johnson as the nominee of the democratic party for the office of District Attorney [584]*584of the Seventeenth. Circuit Court District of the. State was approved, ratified and affirmed.

The sole question for determination is whether or not the contest was filed in time.

Prior to 1908, there was no tribunal vested with power to hear a primary election contest and determine who was the party nominee — to correct the wrongs and frauds bearing upon the solution of that question — except the Executive Committee. Brewer v. Abbay, 82 Miss. 559, 35 So. 153 (1903), a contest over the democratic nomination for the office of county treasurer; Ramey v. Woodward, 90 Miss. 777, 44 So. 769 (1907), a contest over the democratic nomination for the office of chancery clerk; State v. Brown, 90 Miss. 876, 44 So. 769 (1907), a contest over the democratic nomination for the office of sheriff.

However, the Legislature by Chapter 136, Laws of 1908, provided a method of contest in such instances; and that Act, with slight and unimportant amendments, now appears as Section 3143-45, Code of 1942 Rec., and has remained unchanged after the enactment of the corrupt Practices Act of 1935, Section 3158, et seq., of the Code of 1942.

Section 3143, supra, is as follows: “A person desiring to contest the election of another person returned as the nominee of the party to any county or beat office, may, within twenty days after the primary election, file a petition with the secretary, or any member of the county executive committee in the county in which fraud is alleged to have been perpetrated, setting forth the grounds upon which the primary election is contested; and it shall be the duty of the executive committee to assemble by call of the chairman or three members of said committee, notice of which contest shall be served five days before said meeting, and after notifying all parties concerned, proceed to investigate the allegations of fraud, and, by majority vote of members pres[585]*585ent, declare the true results of such primary.” (Emphasis supplied). Under this Section the petition to contest must be filed within twenty days after the primary election.

Section 3144, supra, is as follows: “In state, congressional and judicial districts, upon complaint filed with the chairman of the state executive committee by petition, reciting the allegations of fraud, and with the advice of four members of said committee, the chairman shall issue his fiat to the chairman of the county executive committee, where fraud is alleged to have been committed, and in like manner as in county office, the county committee shall investigate the complaint and return their findings to the chairman of the state committee, which shall declare the candidate nominated, whom the corrected returns show is entitled to the same. And the same procedure shall apply to senatorial and flotorial contests in and by their respective executive committees.” (Emphasis supplied). Under this section, the time within which a petition to contest must be filed is not mentioned.

Section 3145, supra, merely grants the power to subpoena and attach witnesses.

In construing statutes, the courts should not convict the Legislature of unaccountable capriciousness. See 50 Am. Jur., Statutes, Section 372, page 380, in part as follows: “An intent to discriminate unjustly between different cases of the same kind is not to be ascribed to the legislature. It is not to be presumed that the legislature intended to make a distinction which would convict it of an unaccountable capriciousness on the subject. Hence, where the legislature has clearly laid down a rule for one class of cases, it is not readily to be supposed that, in the same act, a different rule has been prescribed for another class of cases within the same reason as the first.”

[586]*586 Statutes should, if possible, be given a construction which will produce reasonable results, and not uncertainty and confusion. 50 Am. Jur., Statutes, Section 382, page 394.

The two sections here under consideration are parts of the same statute, and the Act must be considered as a whole. See 50 Am. Jur., Statutes, Section 352, pp. 350-4, as follows: “The different parts of a statute reflect light upon each other, and statutory provisions are regarded as in pari materia where they are parts of the same act. Hence, a statute should be construed in its entirety, and as a whole. The general intention is the key to the whole act, and the intention of the whole controls the interpretation of its parts. The fact that a statute is subdivided into sections or other parts should not obstruct or obscure the interpretation of the law as a whole. All parts of the act should be considered, compared, and construed together. It is not permissible to rest the construction upon any one part alone, or upon isolated words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, or to give undue effect thereto.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
115 So. 2d 147, 237 Miss. 580, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kellum-v-johnson-miss-1959.