State ex rel. Williams v. Samuelson

111 N.W. 712, 131 Wis. 499, 1907 Wisc. LEXIS 246
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedApril 30, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 111 N.W. 712 (State ex rel. Williams v. Samuelson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Williams v. Samuelson, 111 N.W. 712, 131 Wis. 499, 1907 Wisc. LEXIS 246 (Wis. 1907).

Opinion

Marshall, J.

The questions whether the relator Rad legal capacity to commence and maintain the action and whether the facts alleged are sufficient to constitute a cause of action seem to he the ones relied upon to sustain the order complained of, so this opinion will he restrained accordingly.

The first question is ruled in favor of appellant by the statute, sec. 3466, Stats. (1898). It is there provided that/ an action may be brought against the party offending in the name of the state by a private person on his own complaint when the attorney general refuses to act, or when the office usurped pertains to a county and any person shall usurp, intrude into, or unlawfully hold any public office. True, in order for a private person to be competent to commence such an action he must have some interest in ending the claimed usurpation, but that is satisfied by his being a taxpayer of the district affected. State ex rel. Kelleher v. Fordyce, 115 Wis. 608, 92 N. W. 430. As suggested by appellant’s counsel, the-point under discussion was directly passed upon in that case. It was again passed upon very decisively in State ex rel. Weinsheim v. Leischer, 117 Wis. 475, 94 N. W. 299, this language being used:

“True, such private person, when not suing on behalf of' the public, must have some interest in the question, more than that which is common to all members of the community; but that interest certainly appears when it is shown that he is a property owner and taxpayer in the village, and hence is necessarily pecuniarily affected. . . . We can entertain no doubt but that the action is properly brought by the private relators named in the complaint, under the express terms of the statute. It is still an action by the state, but the state has, by statute, permitted it to be prosecuted by private-parties.”

Whether the office here alleged to be usurped is strictly a county office or not, it quite clearly pertains to a county, within the meaning of the law. The name of the office is-“county supervisor of assessment,” and the duties incident. [503]*503thereto are confined to and extend throughout the comity. In the broad general sense of the term, the office is a county office.

Moreover, it appears that the attorney general was hostile to the maintenance of the action from the fact that he appeared therein as one of the attorneys for the respondent at the outset and continued as one of such attorneys down to the present time. That, as it has been held, shows that an application to him to commence the action would have been entirely futile, which is equivalent to a refusal to act in the matter on behalf of the state (People ex rel. Ayres v. State Auditors, 42 Mich. 422, 4 N. W. 274; State ex rel. Lamb v. Cunningham, 83 Wis. 90, 130, 53 N. W. 35), thus rendering operative that part of sec. 3466, Stats. (1898); aforesaid, making it competent for a private person to commence the action when the attorney general refuses to act. So there was legal capacity to commence and maintain the action both upon the ground of the attitude of the attorney general in the matter and the ground that the office pertained to a county.

The first question in order respecting whether the law is valid is, Does the feature which provides that the supervisor of assessment for each county shall be elected by its board of supervisors and for a term of three years, violate sec. 4, art. VI, of the constitution, providing that “sheriffs, coroners, registers of deeds, district attorneys, and all other county officers except judicial officers, shall be chosen by the electors of the respective counties once in every two years V’ In short, is the so-called office of county supervisor of assessment a county office within the meaning of the language “all other county officers” as used in the quoted words ? If so, manifestly, the legislature acted outside the scope of its authority in providing for filling the office otherwise than by an election by the people.

Conceding for the purposes of the discussion thaf in the broad, most comprehensive meaning of .the term “county offi-[504]*504eers” a county supervisor of assessment would be included therein, the ultimate question is whether the language is to he taken in that sense or in a restricted sense excluding such officers.

While the language of a law, whether fundamental or a legislative creation, which is plain, looking at its literal sense, ordinarily, in such sense, is to he regarded as expressing the intent of the lawmakers, that sense may he viewed broadly or restrictively, or even violated, within the limits that the reasonable meaning of words cannot be departed from, in case of their being ambiguous and such departure being necessary in order to render efficient the purpose of the lawmakers. This subject has been many times discussed in our decisions. The law in respect to the matter was declared in Rice v. Ashland Co. 108 Wis. 189, 192, 84 N. W. 189, 190, thus:

“There must be some uncertainty of sense, else the natural and ordinary meaning of the words must prevail. When there is no such uncertainty, to resort to judicial construction to extend or restrict the meaning of words and give to a legislative enactment a character other than that which its language plainly indicates, it is said, ‘would be extremely dangerous, for there would be no law, however definite and precise in its nature, which might not thereby be rendered useless.’ . . . But courts are obliged in many cases to go further. . . . It is always presumed, in regard to a statute, that no absurd or unreasonable result was intended by the legislature. Hence if, viewing a statute from the standpoint of the literal sense of its language, it is unreasonable or absurd, an obscurity of meaning exists, calling for judicial construction. . . . While courts do not, and cannot properly, bend words out of their reasonable meaning to effect a legislative purpose, they do give to words a liberal or strict Interpretation within the bounds of reason, sacrificing literal sense and rejecting every interpretation not in harmony with the evident intent of the lawmakers rather than that such tent shall fail,”

So before attempting to read the provision of the constitution in question other than in the plain literal sense thereof, [505]*505we must reach the conclusion that ambiguity exists, when we view it according to established principles.

The language of a law is not necessarily free from ambiguity merely because looking thereto alone no uncertainty of meaning appears. Ambiguity, as has often been said, may as well spring from the effect that would' result by applying a law in its literal sense, as from obscurity of expression in the words themselves. This subject was thus treated in Rossmiller v. State, 114 Wis. 169, 178, 89 N. W. 839, 841:

“It is fundamental that if, giving to the words of an act fcheir literal or natural meaning, thé conólusion reached would be unreasonable or absurd, some other meaning within the reasonable scope of the words may be adopted to avoid that result, if it appears that such meaning may probably have been the one intended.”

One of the familiar principles to be applied in determining whether words of a law which are plain on their face are ambiguous nevertheless, is that it mu§t always be presumed that the lawmakers did not intend anything clearly unreasonable •or absurd. Another familiar principle is that implied repeals are not favored.

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

Related

Opinion No. Oag 4-94, (1994)
81 Op. Att'y Gen. 114 (Wisconsin Attorney General Reports, 1994)
Opinion No. Oag 25-88, (1988)
77 Op. Att'y Gen. 113 (Wisconsin Attorney General Reports, 1988)
Ripley v. Brown
422 N.W.2d 608 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1988)
Ripley v. Brown
415 N.W.2d 550 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1987)
Harbick v. Marinette County
405 N.W.2d 724 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1987)
Opinion No. Oag 30-85, (1985)
74 Op. Att'y Gen. 160 (Wisconsin Attorney General Reports, 1985)
(1974)
63 Op. Att'y Gen. 196 (Wisconsin Attorney General Reports, 1974)
(1972)
61 Op. Att'y Gen. 355 (Wisconsin Attorney General Reports, 1972)
(1971)
60 Op. Att'y Gen. 497 (Wisconsin Attorney General Reports, 1971)
State Ex Rel. Thompson v. Gibson
125 N.W.2d 636 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1964)
Schultz v. Milwaukee County
13 N.W.2d 580 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1944)
Coulter v. Pool
201 P. 120 (California Supreme Court, 1921)
State ex rel. Langland v. Manegold
157 N.W. 535 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1916)
United States ex rel. Frizzell v. Newman
42 App. D.C. 78 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1914)
Milwaukee County v. Halsey
136 N.W. 139 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1912)
State ex rel. Buell v. Frear
131 N.W. 832 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1911)
Clappenback v. New York Life Insurance
118 N.W. 245 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1908)
State ex rel. Gubbins v. Anson
112 N.W. 475 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1907)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
111 N.W. 712, 131 Wis. 499, 1907 Wisc. LEXIS 246, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-williams-v-samuelson-wis-1907.