Plott v. Board of Commissioners

187 N.C. 125
CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina
DecidedJanuary 22, 1924
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 187 N.C. 125 (Plott v. Board of Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Plott v. Board of Commissioners, 187 N.C. 125 (N.C. 1924).

Opinion

Adams, J.

For the purpose of providing better school advantages in Waynesville Township, the General Assembly, at the session of 1923, passed a public-local act which was to become effective when ratified by a majority of the qualified voters of the township (P.-L. L. 1923, ch. 350) ; but the appellants say that the act has not been approved and is not in force, and that the election which they attack was held under the provisions of the codified laws relating to public schools. Public Laws 1923, ch. 136. The appeal will be treated upon this assumption.

The action was brought to contest the validity of an election held in Waynesville Township on 28 July, 1923, to determine whether a special tax should be levied to supplement the school fund and whether bonds should be issued for the purpose of acquiring sites and improving and erecting school buildings. The plaintiffs obtained an order restraining the levy of the tax and the issuance of the bonds and appealed from his Honor’s refusal to continue the temporary order to the final hearing.

The' first and second exceptions are so clearly -untenable as to require no discussion, and the third relates to the legal effect of the first finding of facts and may be considered in connection with exceptions taken to the several conclusions of law. Exceptions 4-9 concern the facts as found or the failure to find additional facts. On appeal from an order refusing or continuing an injunction to the hearing, the facts as found by the lower court, while not conclusive, are entitled to just arid adequate consideration. In Hyatt v. DeHart, 140 N. C., 270, the Court [131]*131said r “Ordinarily tbe findings of fact by the judge below are conclusive on appeal. While this is not true as to injunction eases, in which we look into and review the evidence on appeal, still there is the presumption always that the judgment and proceedings below are correct and the burden is upon the appellant to assign and show error.” Jones v. Boyd, 80 N. C., 258; Evans v. R. R., 96 N. C., 47; Burns v. McFarland, 146 N. C., 382; Davenport v. Comrs., 163 N. C., 147; Peters v. Highway Com., 184 N. C., 30; School Com. v. Board of Education, 186 N. C., 643. From inspection of the record we find that the facts set out in the judgment are supported by the evidence and we see no substantial reason for declining to concur in the facts as found; and in the absence of a request for additional facts an exception that other findings should have been made is generally not available to the appellants. Dell School v. Peirce, 163 N. C., 424. If, however, the additions on which the appellants insist were incorporated in the judgment by this Court the result would not be changed.

The appellants excepted to the second and third conclusions of law which involve the regularity and legality of the election. They insist that the law prescribing the way in which electors may register was not followed; that several persons whose names were registered were not allowed to vote; that names were registered when the required oath was not administered; that the age of the elector was frequently omitted from the registration, and that these and other irregularities vitiated the election. On the other hand there was evidence tending to show that no voter was registered to whom the oath had not been administered unless the registrar was satisfied that he was entitled to vote; that of those who were not sworn .some did not vote while others voted against the bond issue and the tax, and that the oath was administered in all cases in which there was any reasonable doubt of the applicant’s eligibility. On these questions the affidavits were apparently conflicting, but the judge below concluded that the irregularities were committed by the registrars, not by the voters.; that there was no evidence to indicate that any one who voted was not entitled to registration or whether those alleged to have been improperly registered or denied registration voted or would have voted for or against the proposed measures, or whether the result of the election would probably have been reversed had the law been consistently observed. In other words, his Honor held that the appellants had failed to show that the result of the election would have been otherwise if the alleged irregularities had not occurred. We approve this conclusion.

In Davis v. Board of Education, 186 N. C., 233, holding that a mere irregularity in registration will not vitiate an election, the Court said.: “The mere irregularity of an election-officer who has neither rejected a [132]*132qualified voter nor admitted one who was disqualified, is ordinarily overlooked as the failure to comply with a directory provision; but it is otherwise if the irregularity is caused by the agency of a party who seeks to obtain a benefit for himself. DeBerry v. Nicholson, supra. Instances of the disregard by an election officer of directory provisions which ordinarily will not deprive the elector of his right to vote are an improper method of administering an oath or failure to administer it, providing ballots slightly beyond the required size, certifying the count made not by but in the presence of the officers of election, and other irregularities not affecting the result of a fair expression of the popular will. Newsome v. Earnheart, supra; DeBerry v. Nicholson, supra; Roberts v. Calvert, 98 N. C., 581; Hampton v. Waldrop, 104 N. C., 453; Quinn v. Baltimore, 120 N. C., 426; Hendersonville v. Jordan, 150 N. C., 35; Gibson v. Comrs., 163 N. C., 511; Hill v. Skinner, 169 N. C., 409.”

No complaint having been filed, the motion to continue the restraining order was heard on affidavits and record evidence. To entitle them to an injunction it was incumbent upon the appellants not only to set out specific allegations as a basis of relief, but to produce evidence which if accepted would show at least an apparent right to the relief' demanded. Even where injunctive relief is not merely ancillary to the relief sought but is itself the principal relief a prima facie case must be shown. Craycroff v. Morehead, 67 N. C., 422; Riggsbee v. Durham, 98 N. C., 81; Jones v. Comrs., 107 N. C., 248, 265; Porter v. Armstrong, 132 N. C., 66; Jones v. Lassiter, 169 N. C., 750; Woodall v. Highway Com., 176 N. C., 388; Peters v. Highway Com., supra, 32.

Herein the appellants have failed. They have produced no evidence as to the sentiment of the electors on the questions proposed except in remote and general terms and no evidence from which we can reasonably infer that the irregularities complained of turned the election. True, there is evidence that a majority of the voters residing outside the original taxing districts voted against the proposed bonds and tax, but there is no suggestion that their ballots were not included in those returned by the judges of election in opposition to both measures. The exceptions relating -to the irregularities in the election and those taken to the second and third conclusions of law must therefore be overruled.

The exception to the first conclusion of law is based on the contention that the resolution adopted by the board of education on 17 May, 1923, did not create a special-taxing district, but in legal effect merely combined two taxing districts with territory in which no tax had been voted, and that such consolidation was unlawful.

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Bluebook (online)
187 N.C. 125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/plott-v-board-of-commissioners-nc-1924.