State ex rel. Hopkins v. City of Salina

194 P. 931, 108 Kan. 271, 1921 Kan. LEXIS 29
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJanuary 19, 1921
DocketNo. 22,990
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 194 P. 931 (State ex rel. Hopkins v. City of Salina) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Hopkins v. City of Salina, 194 P. 931, 108 Kan. 271, 1921 Kan. LEXIS 29 (kan 1921).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Marshall, J.:

This is an original proceeding in mandamus to compel the city of Salina and its mayor and councilmen to procure a site and issue bonds for the erection of a military memorial under chapter 279 of the Laws of 1919. C. W. Burch has been granted permission to .intervene.

The validity of chapter 279 is attacked on the ground that it was not presented to the governor for approval until May 10, 1919, forty-nine days after the legislature had adjourned sine die.

The history of that chapter is as follows: It was introduced February 21, 1919, as house bill No. 690 (House Journal, 1919, p. 295), and was referred to the committee of the whole (House Journal, 1919, p. 810), which proposed two amendments and recommended that the bill be passed as amended. (House Journal, 1919, p. 464.) The bill as amended passed the house (House Journal, 1919, p. 481), and was messaged to [272]*272the senate (Senate Journal, 1919, p. 383), where it was referred to the senate committee on military affairs. (Senate Journal, 1919, p. 399.) That committee reported the bill back with the recommendation that it be passed. (Senate Journal, 1919, p. 452.) The senate substituted house bill No. 690 for senate bill No. 503 and proposed certain amendments which are set out in the journal. (Senate Journal, 1919, pp. 482, 484.) It was passed as amended (Senate Journal, 1919, p. 485), and was reported back to the house. (House Journal, 1919, p. 592.) The house nonconcurred in the senate amendments and asked for a conference to which the senate acceded. (House Journal, 1919, pp. 638, 646.) The conference committee rejected the senate amendments and proposed others which appear in the house journal, page 652, and the senate journal, pages 527, 528. The conference report was adopted on March 17, 1919, by each house. (House Journal, 1919, p. 653; Senate Journal, 1919, p. 528.)

The house journal, page 749, shows that the clerk on enrolled bills reported that he had—

“Compared the engrossed copies with the enrolled bills, and I am directed to report to the House that the same are correctly enrolled, that they have been properly signed by the president and secretary of the Senate and the speaker and chief clerk of the House, and have been presented to the Governor for his approval, this 20th day of March, 1919.”

The bill was not engrossed. Page 750 of the house journal shows that the governor approved house bill No. 690 on March 22, 1919. One enrolled bill, purporting to be house bill, No. 690, appears on file in the office of the secretary of state with the following indorsements:

“I hereby certify that the above Bill originated in the House, and passed that body March 7th, 1919.
“House adopted conference report March 17th, 1919.
W. P. Lambertson,
Speaker of the House.
Clarence W. Miller,
Chief Clerk of the House.
“Passed the Senate March 14th, 1919.
“Senate adopted conference report March 17th, 1919.
Chas. S. Huffman,
President of the Senate.
Emmet D. George,
Secretary of the Senate.”
“Approved March 22, "1919. Henry J. Allen, Governor.
[273]*273“House Bill No. 690.
“Received in the office of Secretary of State at 10:45 o’clock a. m., March 22nd, 1919. L. J. Pettijohn, Secretary of State.
“I hereby certify that this law was published in the official state paper on the 7th day of April, 1919. . L. J. Pettijohn, Secretary of State.”

That enrolled bill, the original of which is on file in the office of the secretary of state, is the bill as amended by the senate, in which amendments the house refused to concur and on which a conference committee was appointed. It affirmatively appears that the enrolled bill, approved by the governor March 22, 1919, was not passed by the house. That, however, is not the act published as chapter 279 of the Laws of 1919. The journals of the house and senate disclose that chapter 279 is house bill 690 as it was adopted and passed by the house and senate upon the recommendation and report of the conference committee. This bill, also enrolled as house bill No. 690, is on file in the office of the secretary of state and bears the same indorsements showing its passage by the house and senate as the one approved by the governor March 22, 1919. The indorsements showing the date of its approval by the governor and of its being received in the office of the secretary of state are as follows:

“Approved May 10, 1919. Henry J. Allen, Governor.
“House Bill No. 690.
“Received in the office of Secretary of State at 11:40 o’clock a. m., May 10th, 1919. L. J. Pettijohn, Secretary of State.”

The latter enrolled bill shows on its face that it was not approved by the governor until May 10, 1919. The legislature adjourned sine die on March 22, 1919.

Our constitution (Art. 2, § 14) requires that—

“Every bill and joint resolution passed by the house of representatives and senate shall, within two days thereafter, be signed by the presiding officers, and presented to the governor; if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it to the house of representatives . . . If any bill shall not be returned within three days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to the governor, it shall become a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the legislature, by its adjournment, prevent its return, in which case it shall not become a law.”

The state urges it be presumed that the bill which passed the legislature was properly enrolled and presented to the [274]*274governor within the time fixed by the constitution, and, that he either then approved it, or, that it became a law without his approval because he had retained it more than three days without returning it to the house of representatives.

The state relies on the rule declared in The State v. Andrews, 64 Kan. 474, 67 Pac. 870, where this court said:

“An enrolled statute imports absolute verity and is conclusive evidence of the passage of the act and of its validity, unless the journals of the legislature show affirmatively, clearly, conclusively and beyond all doubt that the act was not passed regularly and legally, and this rule applies to the title as well as to the body of the act. The cases of Homrighausen v. Knoehe, 58 Kan. 646, 50 Pac. 879, and In re Taylor, 60 id. 87, 55 Pac. 340, followed.” (Syl. ¶ 1.)

(See, also, The State, ex rel., v. Francis, Treas’r, 26 Kan. 724, 731; In re Vanderberg, Petitioner, &c., 28 Kan. 243; Stephens v. Labette County, 79 Kan. 153, 98 Pac. 790; Ziegler v. Junction City, 90 Kan. 856, 136 Pac. 223.)

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

Related

Harris v. Shanahan
387 P.2d 771 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1963)
State ex rel. Miller v. Common School District No. 87
186 P.2d 677 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1947)
Charleston National Bank v. Fox
194 S.E. 4 (West Virginia Supreme Court, 1937)
State ex rel. Boynton v. French
300 P. 1082 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1931)
State ex rel. Smith v. Ryan
256 P. 811 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1927)
Robinson v. City of Winfield
219 P. 273 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1923)
School District No. 37 v. Board of Education
204 P. 758 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1922)
White v. Board of County Commissioners
197 P. 1092 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1921)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
194 P. 931, 108 Kan. 271, 1921 Kan. LEXIS 29, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-hopkins-v-city-of-salina-kan-1921.