Morrison v. Board of Supervisors

62 Misc. 2d 416, 308 N.Y.S.2d 681, 1970 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1832
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 7, 1970
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 62 Misc. 2d 416 (Morrison v. Board of Supervisors) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morrison v. Board of Supervisors, 62 Misc. 2d 416, 308 N.Y.S.2d 681, 1970 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1832 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1970).

Opinion

Henry A. Hudson, J.

The plaintiffs are citizens, residents and voters of Oswego County, New York entitled to vote for Supervisors in the political subdivision in which they reside. They have moved for .summary judgment pursuant to CPLR 3212, in the action instituted by them for a declaratory judgment. In the action they seek a determination that section 150 of the County Law and all other provisions of such law and of any other statutes of the State of New York which pertain to the selection of the Board of Supervisors of Oswego County hereinafter referred to as the Board, are unconstitutional as violative of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and of section 11 of article I of the Constitution of the State of New York. They contend that the voting strength of the members of the Board representing the smaller towns is completely disproportionate to that of those Supervisors representing the various towns of the county and the wards of the Cities of Fulton and Oswego in said county, which have large populations, in that each town and ward is represented on such Board by only one Supervisor who has but one vote as a member of such Board. As a result they contend that proper representation on the Board as guaranteed by the Constitution, commonly referred to as “ One Man — One Vote ”, is not available to the plaintiffs and all other citizens similarly situated.

The plaintiffs seek relief implementing the effect of such a declaration. They ask that the court enjoin the Board from acting in their collective capacity until such county is redistricted or reapportioned so that the future members of the Board will be composed of representatives, who will be elected from areas whose population will be substantially equal in population or that a plan of weighted voting be adopted so that the voting strength of each Supervisor will be substantially equal. They further request that the court grant temporary relief by directing that a system of weighted or fractional voting be adopted by the Board until such time as permanent redistricting or reapportionment can be accomplished. They further [418]*418request that the court retain jurisdiction of the action pending the final accomplishments of the relief sought by them.

The material facts do not appear to be in dispute. Oswego County is composed of 22 towns and 14 wards in the Cities of Oswego and Fulton making the total membership on the Board of Supervisors of 36. Each is entitled, as a member of the Board to cast one vote. Under the 1960 census the population of the City of Fulton was 14,261 and of the City of Oswego 22,155. The total population of the county was 86,118. There was a population variance in the towns of from 293 in the Town of Boylston to 5,554 in the Town of Schroeppel, a variance in the City of Oswego from 1,501 in the Second Ward to 4,272 in the First Ward and a variance in the City of Fulton from 1,932 in the Fourth Ward to 3,512 in the Second Ward. It is, therefore, apparent that there is a great disparity in the number of people represented by the various Supervisors of Oswego County. The representative of 293 people living in the Town of Boylston has an equal vote to that of the representative of the 5,554 people living in the Town of Schroeppel. The constitutional guarantee of equal representation is clearly violated.

Since the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in Reynolds v. Sims (377 U. S. 533), the question has been passed upon by the courts in respect to many of the counties of this State. In every instance coming to my attention, section 150 of the County Law and all other statutes of the State and any local law which in any way provides for the right of every Supervisor to have the same vote on a Board regardless of the population of the area which he represents have been held to be unconstitutional. (Treiber v. Lanigan, 48 Misc 2d 434, mod. 25 A D 2d 202, further mod. 25 A D 2d 937; Shilbury v. Board of Supervisors of Sullivan County, 46 Misc 2d 837, affd. 25 A D 2d 688; Graham v. Board of Supervisors of Erie County, 49 Misc 2d 459, mod. 25 A D 2d 250, app. dsmd. 17 N Y 2d 866; 26 A D 2d 772, mod. 18 N Y 2d 672; Town of Greenburgh v. Board of Supervisors of Westchester County, 49 Misc 2d 116, 120.) As a result more than half of the counties of the State have either corrected the disparity in representation by adopting a permanent plan of redistricting or reapportionment or at least have adopted a temporary or interim scheme for weighted or fractional voting or multimember constituency apportionment.

The Court of Appeals in its decision of October 8, 1969, in Abate v. Mundt (25 N Y 2d 309) approved as constitutional a permanent multimember constituency apportionment scheme. The dissenting Judges would approve the plan as a temporary [419]*419or interim plan only. It had previously held unconstitutional a permanent plan of weighted voting. For the most part, however, multimember apportionment and weighted voting plans have been approved as a method of temporary or interim voting pending the adoption of a permanent redistricting or reapportionment plan. The permanent plan has usually been accomplished either by continuing the Board of Supervisors as such with each member having proportional voting power, determined by computer, or through the adoption of a County Legislature under article 4 of the Municipal Home Buie Law, with accompanying redistricting.

The court has jurisdiction of the subject matter of the action. (Seaman v. Fedourich, 45 Misc 2d 940, 942; Treiber v. Lanigan, 48 Misc 2d 434, 436, supra; Shilbury v. Board of Supervisors of Sullivan County, 46 Misc 2d 837, 841, supra.)

The court has the power to require valid reapportionment and to formulate redistricting. (Scott v. Germano, 381 U. S. 407, 409-410.)

Summary judgment is granted to the plaintiffs herein to the extent that the present Board, as constituted, is not a constitutionally appointed body and does not provide the “ One Man— One Vote ” principle of representation as contemplated under the Constitution. Section 20 of the Town Law and section 150 of the County Law and any other statute or local law under which the Board is established must be held to be unconstitutional.

There remains for consideration the relief to be awarded the plaintiffs. It was conceded by the defendant county that the Board had had under consideration the adoption of some plan of weighted voting or redistricting for some time so as to give effect to the so-called, “ One Man — One Vote doctrine. It is, therefore, undisputed that the problem has been one which the Board has been aware of for a sufficient period of time so that it cannot be heard to complain that it has not known of the necessity of providing 'some form of redistricting or reapportionment. It was urged by the County Attorney and by the Attorney-General that the insistence of the plaintiffs that action should be taken by the Board to provide a permanent plan of redistricting in time for the November, 1969 election to replace the present Board was unreasonable and in fact would impose an impossible task.

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Bluebook (online)
62 Misc. 2d 416, 308 N.Y.S.2d 681, 1970 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1832, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morrison-v-board-of-supervisors-nysupct-1970.