State ex rel. McCray v. Burk

20 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 399

This text of 20 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 399 (State ex rel. McCray v. Burk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Ohio, Sixth District, Huron County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. McCray v. Burk, 20 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 399 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1914).

Opinion

The action is one in mandamus to compel the defendants, members of the council of the village of New London and the clerk of said village, to authorize and direct the drawing of a warrant, and to draw such warrant, on the treasurer of the village to pay the relator the salary claimed to be due Him as street commissioner. The controversy turns on whether the relator was the street commissioner during the month of February, 1914, for which period he demands that an order be allowed and drawn to cover his compensation. In the court of common pleas the petition of the relator was dismissed.

It appears from the pleadings and evidence that one E. H. Hood was the street commissioner of the village, appointed by [400]*400the mayor and confirmed by the council,' for the year 1913; that at the expiration of his year in the office, and withou waiting for any successor to take his place, he abandoned the duties of his office, in effect leaving a vacancy. On January 1, 1914, the mayor appointed A. B. Davis as street commissioner for one month and that appointment was confirmed by the village council, but Davis failed to give any bond to secure the performance of his' duties as such street commissioner, until February 5, 1914, although he in fact assumed to perform the duties of the office. On January 12, 1914, the mayor appointed George Reis street commissioner, which appointment the council declined to confirm. On February 2, 1914, the mayor appointed the relator, Charles McCray, as street commissioner, and the council declined to confirm his appointment. Thereupon the mayor submitted a written communication reading as folknvs:

“The council having failed without just cause to confirm my appointments for the office of street commissioner and no complaint having been offered as to the ability and efficiency of the appointees in question, I hereby appoint Charles McCray temporary street commissioner to prevent the stoppage of public business. Said appointment to terminate when the contingency has passed. (Signed) W. I. Bracy, Mayor.”

Mr. McCray executed a bond, .with sureties, on February 6, 1914, to secure the performance of his duties as street commissioner, conditioned as follows:

“Now if the said Charles McCray as such street commissioner (emergency) aforesaid shall faithfully perform the duties of his said office until the contingency caused by the failure of council of said village to confirm said appointment by mayor is removed, then the above obligation to be void. ’ ’

The controversy between the mayor and the village council arises from the construction to be placed on Section 4363, General Code, and other statutes in pari materia. The section above cited reads as follows:

“The street commissioner shall be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by council for a term of one year, and shall serve until his successor is appointed and qualified. He shall be an elector of the corporation. Vaeancies in the office of street com[401]*401missioner shall be filled by the mayor' for the .unexpired term. In any village the marshal shall be eligible to appointment as street commissioner.”

Counsel-on behalf of the relator contend that by the plain reading of the statute the appointment of a street commissioner to fill a vacancy does no.t require the confirmation of the council, and it is contended by counsel for the defendants that all appointments for -street commissioner are incomplete until the same have been confirmed by the village council.

The record discloses that the street commissioner for 1913, Mr. Hood, in effect abandoned the office and thereby created a vacancy which should have been filled by appointment, the appointee to hold for the unexpired term and until his successor should be appointed and qualify. The mayor undertook to fill that vancaney by naming A. B. Davis, but this appointee failed to qualify until February 5, 1911, on which date he executed a bond in accordance with statute. He did, however, in effect, hold the office during the month of January and was at least the de fado street commissioner. By virtue of the provisions of Section 4251, General Code, it was the duty of the mayor to appoint a street commissioner between the second Monday in January and the first Monday in February, for the full term of one year. He attempted t-o perform that duty by naming the relator as street commissioner on February .2, 1914, and, on the council refusing to confirm the appointment, he then sought to name the same man as street commissioner for a -temporary period. The mayor assumed that Section 4488, General Code, authorized a temporary appointment, but that section applies only to appointments in the civil service. The only appointment which could have been made at that date would have been an appointment for the full term of one year, and such an appointment would, by plain language of Section' 4363, General Code, have required confirmation by the council.

The circuit court of the sixth circuit, sitting in Fulton county, in the case of State v. Darby, 12 C. C., 235, held that the misapprehension of the true tenure of the appointee, on the part of the mayor or others, could not abridge the term of his contin[402]*402uance in office. It would follow that any attempted limitation in the terms of the appointment would be ineffective and that the appointee, if he became street commissioner by virtue of the appointment of February 2, 1914, would hold for the period of one year and until his successor should be appointed and qualify.

We do not, however, rest the decision of this case on that proposition alone, but construe Section 4364, General Code, when read in connection with other parallel statutes, to require a confirmation by the village council of all appointments to the office of street commissioner, whether for a full term or a vacancy, in order to perfect the title of the appointee. It is doubtless true that a literal reading of the language of the section does not require such confirmation. Neither does it provide for the omission of such confirmátion in filling a vacancy in the office. The statute in question provides that an appointment for the full term shall be confirmed by the council, and all that the remaining portion of the section provides for is that in ease of a vacancy appointment, the appointee shall hold for the unexpired term. The section does say that the vacancy shall be filled by the mayor, but it does not say how it shall be filled, and the fair inference is that it shall be filled in the same manner as the office was filled for the full term, namely, appointment by the mayor and confirmation by the council.

To so construe this section as to allow the mayor to fill a vacancy in the office of street commissioner without the concurrence of the village council, would result in an anomaly in the statutes. By other sections of the statutes the street commissioner is under the direct control of the village council and that body has the power to determine whether he shall have assistants and this is true whether the official be an appointee .for the full term or to fill a vacancy.

An examination of the statutes shows a general legislative purpose to provide in cases where offices are to be filled by an appointment by one official and confirmation by another body, that vacancies occurring in such offices shall be filled in the same manner. An illustration may be found in the same chapter of the .statutes now under, consideration, where it is [403]

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Bluebook (online)
20 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 399, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-mccray-v-burk-ohctapp6huron-1914.