State Ex Rel. Miller v. O'Malley

117 S.W.2d 319, 342 Mo. 641, 1938 Mo. LEXIS 613
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 21, 1938
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 117 S.W.2d 319 (State Ex Rel. Miller v. O'Malley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Miller v. O'Malley, 117 S.W.2d 319, 342 Mo. 641, 1938 Mo. LEXIS 613 (Mo. 1938).

Opinion

*645 ELLISON, J.

Original proceeding in certiorari brought by the Honorable Franklin Miller, Circuit Attorney of the City of St. Louis; to review the record in a certain ex parte proceeding entitled In The Matter of The Grand Jury, pending in the circuit court of said city, Division No. 11, over which the respondent, Honorable Frank C. O ’Malley, Circuit Judge, then was presiding. The proceeding was this. The relator, Judge Miller, filed a verified application in said court on April 16, 1937, for the issuance of a subpoena duces tecum directed to the Secretary of the Board of Election Commissioners of St. Louis, commanding him to produce' before the grand jury six days later on April 20, all ballots east, rejected and spoiled in the 1st Precinct of the Fifth Ward at a special bond election, commonlyknown as-the “ Jefferson Memorial Plaza Bond Issue Election” held in the city some nineteen months earlier on September 10, 1935. The respondent had therefore ordered the issuance of a subpoena duces tecim bringing in the talley sheets, return of the votes cast and certified statements of the result of the election; so that an examination of the ballots in connection with these would ■ disclose how every voter had voted.

The application alleged that the grand jury had under investigation certain charges of criminal frauds alleged to have-been committed in said voting precinct (and others) at said election;' and that Said ballots were necessary and material evidence in- the investigation. It further alleged that said investigation was begun by a former grand jury on September 8, 1936, within twelve months after the election and thereafter “has been continuously kept alive by the Circuit Attorney, and has been and now is a pending investigation before the present grand jury.” The respondent judge denied the application, *646 for reasons stated in two memorandums filed, and this certiorari proceeding followed.

A number of legal questions are presented by the record: (1) is a certiorari the proper remedy under the facts? (2) was the special bond election such an election as comes within the proviso of Article VIII, Section 3 of the State Constitution preserving the secrecy of the ballot, but authorizing the opening, examination, counting and comparison of ballots in certain instances? (3) is the constitutional provision self-enforcing ? (4) were the proceedings below governed by Section 10315, Revised Statutes 1929 (Mo. Stat. Ann., p. 3753), or Section 10619, Revised Statutes 1929 (Mo. Stat. Ann., p. 3903) ? (5) are these two sections constitutional? (6) should the circuit court have ordered the issuance of the subpoena duces tecum for the ballots even though no grand jury investigation was pending, since they were in existence and accessible?

I. Relator and respondent agree that the scope of review by certiorari is never extended to the merits. The action of the inferior body is final and conclusive on every question except jurisdiction or power. The only questions presented are questions of law arising on the face of the record. Both parties cite State ex rel. Kennedy v. Remmers, 340 Mo. 126, 131, 101 S. W. (2d) 70, 71, which so holds.

II. We have ruled that the writ of certiorari ordinarily will be refused where there was no final judgment or order below and the proceeding in which the writ is sought is still pending and undetermined in the lower tribunal. [State ex rel. United Brick & Tile Co. v. Wright, 339 Mo. 160, 165, 95 S. W. (2d) 804, 805.] The reasonableness of this rule will be apparent at once. We cannot undertake to review by certiorari parts of records brought up piecemeal from time to time during the pendency of cases in lower courts. It is alleged in the relator’s petition that the grand jury investigation is still pending below. But even so the application in the circuit court for a subpoena duces tecum and the order denying it constituted, in effect, a proceeding separate from the grand jury investigation, and the order was to all intents and purposes final. We shall, therefore, concede that our writ was properly issued, so far as the question of finality is concerned, especially since this court on March 24, 1937, less than a month before the filing of the petition for certiorari herein on April 21, 1937, denied an application for an alternative writ of mandamus directed to Judge Joynt in the same matter.

III. It may be conceded further that the court’s action in issuing or denying a subpoena duces tecum is discretionary or judicial, as opposed to ministerial. For the court must pass upon: the *647 relevancy and materiality of the evidence sought to be brought in, 70 C. J., secs. 34, 39, 40, pp. 48, 52-3; State ex rel. v. Wurdeman, 176 Mo. App. 540, 158 S. W. 436; the hardships entailed in producing it, Ex parte Brown, 72 Mo. 83, 96, 37 Am. Rep. 426; and, of course, the legal question whether it is subject to subpoena. This being true certiorari will lie. [State ex rel. Manion v. Dawson, 284 Mo. 490, 506, 225 S. W. 97, 100; State ex rel. Davidson v. Caldwell, 310 Mo. 397, 406-7, 276 S. W. 631, 633.]

IV. Was the bond election within the provisions of Section 3, Aricle VIII, Constitution of Missouri, submitted by the Constitutional Convention of 1922-3 and adopted in 1924? We set out the pertinent parts of the sections before and after amendment, the present section being shown in the right column :

“All elections by the people shall be by ballot. . . . The election officers shall be sworn or affirmed not to disclose how any voter shall have voted, unless required to do so as witnesses in a judicial proceeding: Provided, that in all cases of contested elections the ballots cast may be counted, compared with the list of voters, and examined under such safeguards and regulations as may be prescribed by law. ’ ’
“All elections by the people shall be by ballot. . . . The election officers shall be sworn or affirmed not to disclose how any voter shall have voted; Provided, That in cases of contested elections, grand jury investigations and in the trial of all civil or criminal cases in which the violation of any law relating to elections, including nominating elections, is under investigation or at issue, such officers may be required to testify and the ballots cast may be opened, examined, counted, compared with the list of voters and received as evidence."

The relator expressly contends the bond election was an ‘ election ’ ’ within the meaning of the whole section. It is evident that the respondent must concede such elections are covered by the first part of the section at least, guarding the secrecy of the ballot. How else can protection for the ballots of voters in the instant election be claimed thereunder? It was said in Dooley v. Jackson, 104 Mo. App. 21, 30, 78 S. W. 330, 333, that the word election frequently occurs in the Constitution and that wherever used it means choosing a person for office by vote, and nowhere is used in the sense of nominating a candidate for office by vote. This decision was followed in later eases, including State ex rel. Von Stade v. Taylor, 220 Mo. 618, 630-1, 119 S. W. 373, 376, and State ex rel. Dunn v. Coburn, 260 Mo.

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Bluebook (online)
117 S.W.2d 319, 342 Mo. 641, 1938 Mo. LEXIS 613, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-miller-v-omalley-mo-1938.