State ex rel. Fahrman v. Ross

143 S.W. 502, 160 Mo. App. 682, 1912 Mo. App. LEXIS 18
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 8, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 143 S.W. 502 (State ex rel. Fahrman v. Ross) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Fahrman v. Ross, 143 S.W. 502, 160 Mo. App. 682, 1912 Mo. App. LEXIS 18 (Mo. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinions

COX, J. —

Respondents are judges of the county court of Jasper county and this is an action by mandamus to compel them to issue to relator a license to keep a dramshop within the city of Webb City. Webb City is a city of the third class and the license was refused solely upon the ground that the Local Option Law had been adopted in Webb City. A local option election was held in Webb City on February 1, 1910 and at such election a majority of the votes cast were against the sale of intoxicating liquor and the validity of that election is the issue in this case. At the trial in the circuit court, the peremptory writ of mandamus was denied and relator has appealed to this court.

It ha,s been suggested that since the statute now provides for a contest of a local option election that [688]*688that remedy is exclusive and that the validity of the election cannot be questioned in any particular in any other proceeding. In answer to this suggestion it is first contended that the statute is invalid because it does not provide what court shall have jurisdiction to try the contest. The statutory provision on this question is as follows: Sec. 7242, Stat. 1909’ “...... the election in this article provided for and the result thereof may be contested in the same manner as is now provided by law for the contest of the elections of county officers in this state, by any qualified voter of the municipal body or of the county in which said local option election shall be held by an action to contest as herein provided and which shall be brought against the municipal body or the county holding said election.”

The portion of this provision which provides who shall be parties to a proceeding to contest was added by amendment in 1909.' Prior to this time this provision was held inoperative because of the omission to provide for parties in the contest proceeding. [Kehr v. Columbia, 136 Mo. App. 322, 116 S. W. 428; Haas v. Neosho, 139 App. 293, 123 S. W. 473; State v. Gamma, 149 App. 694, 129 S. W. 734.] The amendment was made to cover this omission. The objection is now made that, because the court in which the contest is to be tried is not named, that it is still invalid. The provision is that the election may be contested in the same manner as is now provided by law for the contest of the election of county officers. The evident intention of the law makers was to provide that any qualified voter desiring to contest a local option elecr tion should proceed exactly as he would if contesting the election .of a county officer and he would readily understand that he was required to proceed in the same court as well as to follow the same form of procedure. We do not think the law open to the objection made against it.

[689]*689Is then the provision for contest exclusive and can the validity of the election be attached in no other way? The power to determine election contests, unless restricted carries with it jurisdiction to hear and determine every possible objection which may be urged against the validity of the election itself or the correctness of the declared result thereof. There is no doubt that all these questions may be passed upon in a proceeding to contest but does it necessarily follow that none of these questions can be passed upon in any other proceeding? '

It has been held in some jurisdictions that where the statute authorized a contest proceeding to contest a local option election that such provision is exclusive and that the validity of such election is not open to collateral attack, or to impeachment in a proceeding by mandamus to compel the issuing of a license to sell liquor. [23 Cyc. 101, under the head of “Intoxication Liquor.”] We find also in,15 Cyc. 394 under the head of “Elections,” the statement that it has been held that where a specific mode of contesting elections has been provided by statute, that mode is exclusive, and then, in the next paragraph it is said: “But it will be found upon examination that the decisions which hold thus are based upon peculiar constitutional and statutory provisions; and the better opinion as supported by the apparent weight of authority is that a special remedy given by statute is merely cumulative. ’ ’

In all those states in which it has been held that the provision for contest of a local option election is exclusive and that the validity of the election cannot be attacked collaterally it has also been held that an attack upon the validity of the election by one prosecuted for violation of the law is a collateral attack, and yet, as far as we can learn the party charged with violation of the law is permitted to show as a defense that the [690]*690election was void. [See Commonwealth v. Jones (Ky.), 84 S. W. 305.] In Norman v. Thompson (Tex.), 72 S. W. 62, it is said that a contest concludes no question that may be raised in a prosecution for illegally selling •liquor. It would thus seem that in that state had there been a contest and the election adjudged valid, a party prosecuted for violating the law could show it to be invalid as a defense to such prosecution. In our opinion the correct rule is that a provision for contest is exclusive as to all mere irregularities,, such as the qualifications of voters, electioneering within prohibited limits, frauds of voters which may affect the result but not the integrity of the election, etc., but is not exclusive as to such matters as will show the election to have been void or that no election was in fact held. We think this rule is in harmony with the established policy of this state. While we have a law providing for contest of elections of county and other officials, is has never been held to supersede the right to proceed by “quo warranto” and in that proceeding it may be shown that the election, by force of which the incumbent holds his office was void, and on that showing being made, he will be ousted. [State ex rel. Harrison v. Frazier, 98 Mo. 426, 11 S. W. 973.] In Gaston v. Lamkin, 115 Mo. 20, an election had been held to vote a special levy of taxes to build two courthouses in Jasper county and in a proceeding to set aside an order of the county court levying a tax thereafter for the purpose of carrying out the will of the voters, the validity of the election was passed upon. In State ex rel. v. McGann, 64 App. 225, which was a proceeding by mandamus to compel the inspectors, who had canvássed the vote in an election of directors of a corporation, to certify what the relators deemed the true returns, the point was made that there was another remedy provided by statute, hence mandamus would not lie. This was overruled and the cause heard. The St. Louis Court of Appeals, speaking through Judge [691]*691Rombatjer, held that the other remedy provided by statute did not destroy the right then existing to proceed by mandamus and said: “It has always been the policy of the courts of this state to treat statutory remedies as cumulative and not as exclusive of common-law remedies unless the contrary intention of the Legislature clearly appeared by the context of the statute.’-’ There is no expressed intention in the local option statute to make the provision for contest of the election exclusive and we do not think such was the intention of the Legislature. A provision for contest was in the law when it was first enacted in 1887 in these words: .“The election in this article provided for and the result thereof may be contested in the same manner as is now provided by law for the contest of the elections of county officers in this state. ’ ’ This provision remained unchanged until 1909 when it was amended by providing who should be parties in the contest.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
143 S.W. 502, 160 Mo. App. 682, 1912 Mo. App. LEXIS 18, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-fahrman-v-ross-moctapp-1912.