State Ex Rel. Rosenstock v. Democratic Municipal Executive Committee

1 So. 2d 697, 197 La. 469, 1941 La. LEXIS 1057
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedApril 2, 1941
DocketNo. 36175.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1 So. 2d 697 (State Ex Rel. Rosenstock v. Democratic Municipal Executive Committee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Rosenstock v. Democratic Municipal Executive Committee, 1 So. 2d 697, 197 La. 469, 1941 La. LEXIS 1057 (La. 1941).

Opinion

HIGGINS, Justice.

The candidates for the Democratic nominations for the offices of Mayor, Members of the Board of Aldermen, Town Marshal and Members of the Municipal Executive Committee, respectively, for the Town of Westwego, Parish of Jefferson, Louisiana, in the Democratic Primary Election to be held- on April 8, 1941, instituted mandamus proceedings against the Municipal Executive Committee of the Town of Westwego and the individual members thereof, to compel them to perform the ministerial duty of selecting and compiling a list of election commissioners to serve at the polls in the Democratic Primary Election to be held in the Town of Westwego on April 8, 1941, in accordance with law, and particularly the provisions of Act 46 of 1940.

The defendants filed exceptions to the jurisdiction of the court rationae materia and of no cause and no right of action.

The trial judge overruled the jurisdictional plea but sustained the other exceptions and dismissed the suit on the grounds (1) that, in order for a writ of mandamus to issue, the relators must assert plain, unequivocal rights granted by some law or statute; (2) that Act 46 of 1940, the Primary Election Statute, does not provide for the method of drawing and selecting election commissioners by a Municipal Executive Committee, but applies only to Parish Executive Committees; and (3) that relators’ petition fails to allege in what manner they might suffer any other injury except the alleged irreparable injury said to have resulted from the committee failing to comply with the law.

The relators applied to this Court for writs of mandamus, certiorari and prohibition, under our supervisory jurisdiction, alleging that they have no adequate remedy by appeal. We granted a rule nisi with a stay order and the respondents, the district judge, and the committee and members thereof have filed a return thereto, and the matter is now before us for review.

In the petition for the writ of mandamus in the district court, it is alleged that the Municipal Executive Committee of the Town of Westwego, Jefferson Parish, Lou *473 isiana, in accordance with the provisions of Act 46 of 1940, called the Democratic Primary Election for the purpose of nominating Democratic candidates for the offices of Mayor, Members of the Board of Aider-men, Town Marshal, and the Members of the Municipal Executive Committee of the Town of Westwego, Jefferson Parish, La., to be held on April 8, 1941; that in accordance with the provisions of the law the Executive Municipal Committee met twenty days prior to the date of the election, or on March 19, 1941, at 12 o’clock noon, in the City Hall, at Westwego, in regular session for the purpose of selecting five commissioners from the lists submitted by the candidates, as prospective commissioners, to serve as commissioners of election, or election officials, in the said Primary Election ; that the members of the committee arranged the names of the twenty proposed commissioners submitted by the respective candidates, in alphabetical order, and numbered the names from 1 to 20, inclusive; that the committee then produced numbered keno balls corresponding with the number opposite the name of each prospective commissioner, the balls being numbered from 1 to 20, inclusive; that the members of the committee then placed the balls in a wheel or a receptacle of a “goose-neck” type, commonly used in the game of keno; that the chairman of the said committee, who was a candidate to succeed himself, without being blindfolded, proceeded to select five of the numbered balls from the keno wheel or receptacle; that the numbered balls, after having been selected, were compared with the corresponding numbered names on the alphabetical list of prospective commissioners and these five names were ordered certified as commissioners to serve at the polls in the Primary Election; that the drawing of the commissioners was illegal and caused irreparable injury to the petitioners, because the chairman of the committee, instead of some selected person, drew the numbers from the receptacle; that he was not blindfolded as required by law; that the chairman of the committee failed to properly mix the numbers, although he was requested by petitioners to do so; that the selection of the commissioners was made in an irregular and unlawful manner and petitioners were, therefore, “surreptitiously deprived” of their legal rights to have the commissioners selected in a lawful way; that they protested against the method employed by the committee in selecting the commissioners but, despite their protest, additional names were drawn without a thorough mixing of the numbered balls in the receptacle; and that the members of the committee had no discretionary power to substitute their opinion of a fair method to choose commissioners for the mandatory requirements of the law. They prayed that the action of the committee in selecting the commissioners be declared illegal, null and void and that an alternative writ of mandamus issue to the committee and the members thereof, to select and compile the names of the commissioners of election to serve in the primary election on April 8, 1941, in the Town of Westwego, according to law.

In the brief in support of the application to this Court, it is conceded that, according to the last United States census, the Town *475 of Westwego has slightly less than 5,000 inhabitants.

Respondents first contend that the relators .have an' adequate remedy by appeal and that the Court of Appeal for the Parish of Orleans has jurisdiction of such an appeal, under Article 7, Section 29 of the Constitution of 1921, and Section 101 of Act 46 of 1940, in the absence of any allegation that the salaries of the offices involved exceed the sum of two thousand dollars. The relators allege that they have no adequate remedy by appeal, because there is not sufficient time to obtain relief by appeal and that they have not been guilty of any delays but have been prompt in the assertion of their rights and, therefore, this Court should exercise its broad supervisory powers and jurisdiction under the Constitution and determine the questions presented at once.

The record shows that the relators have pursued their rights with all possible diligence and have in no way delayed instituting and prosecuting this suit. It is obvious that the remedy of appeal is inadequate, because there is not ample time within which to have the case decided. We shall, therefore, accept and consider the case under our supervisory jurisdiction 'and powers. Long v. Martin, Chairman of State Central Committee, et al. (In re Gremillion), 194 La. 797, 194 So. 896.

The main issue in the case raised by the respondents is that Act 46 of 1940, the Primary Election Law of this State, and particularly Section 61 thereof, which specifically deals with the method of selecting election commissioners, does not in any way specify or provide how election commissioners shall be selected to serve in the polls in Municipal Primary Elections throughout the State. In making this contention, counsel for the respondents points out that there is a total absence of any reference in the statute as to the selection of commissioners to serve at the polls in Municipal Primary Elections, whether the city or town has more or less than 5,000 inhabitants according to the last United States census.

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Bluebook (online)
1 So. 2d 697, 197 La. 469, 1941 La. LEXIS 1057, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-rosenstock-v-democratic-municipal-executive-committee-la-1941.