Yocham v. Horn

1948 OK 258, 207 P.2d 919, 201 Okla. 647, 1948 Okla. LEXIS 426
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 23, 1948
DocketNo. 33498
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1948 OK 258 (Yocham v. Horn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Yocham v. Horn, 1948 OK 258, 207 P.2d 919, 201 Okla. 647, 1948 Okla. LEXIS 426 (Okla. 1948).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

This is an action in the nature of quo warranto to determine L. F. Yocham’s right to hold the office of county commissioner of Creek county for a term of office commencing July 7, 1947.

At the General Election held throughout the state November 5, 1946, defendant in error, Frankie M. Horn, was the Democratic nominee to succeed herself in the office of county commissioner of Creek county, district No. 1. L. F. Yocham was the Republican nominee and he received the higher number of votes cast for the office. Defendant in error then commenced an election contest contending that L. F. Yocham had been adjudged guilty of a felony and was, by reason thereof, ineligible to the office of county commissioner, and that votes cast at the election for him were void and that she was entitled, under the proviso of article 23, §10, Constitution of Oklahoma, and the provisions of Title 19 O. S. 1941 §131, to continue to perform the duties of the office until her successor was duly qualified.

A writ of prohibition was issued out of this court to prohibit the exercise of jurisdiction by the election board. Yocham v. County Election Board, 198 Okla. 588, 180 P. 2d 831.

A certificate of election was issued to Yocham on May 15, 1947, who qualified and entered upon the duties of office, and, thereafter, defendant in error commenced in the district court the action in the case at bar.

L. F. Yocham, as defendant, answered, expressly denying that he had ever been adjudged guilty of a felony, either • under the laws of the United States or the State of Oklahoma. He admitted that he had pleaded guilty in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma to offenses charged against him in an indictment, but which offenses, under the laws of the State of Oklahoma, do not constitute felonies.

Defendant further pleaded that subsequent to his election, and as set forth [648]*648in plaintiff’s petition, a full and unconditional pardon for the offenses to which he had pleaded guilty, and for which he had been placed on probation for 12 months, had been granted to him on June 28, 1947, by the President of the United States.

The issues were joined and the cause proceeded to a trial before the court. It appears from the evidence that on January 8, 1937, in the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of Oklahoma, defendant, Yoch-am, was indicted, under the name of Loyron F. Yocham, on two counts and charged with offenses of having had in his possession a still and distilling apparatus; and of having had in his possession distilled spirits on which the tax had not been paid, to wit: one gallon of whisky. Both of the counts charged in the indictment constitute felonies under the laws of the United States. Title 26 U. S. Code, §201, and Title 2 of the Liquor Taxing Act of 1934.

Neither of the offenses charged against defendant in the indictment constitutes a felony under the laws of the State of Oklahoma. Under somewhat similar prohibitions of statute, the possession of spirituous liquors in certain amounts is prohibited. Title 37, O. S. A. §§31 and 32, and under the provisions of section 52, Id., it is unlawful for any person to have an unregistered still worm or still, but the violation of such prohibitions, contained in the statutes of the state, constitutes misdemeanors only. Section 57, Id.

The evidence in the case at bar establishes that on January 28, 1947, defendant, Yocham, was arraigned in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma; that he entered pleas of guilty to both counts of the indictment charged against him. He was placed on probation for a period of 12 months, and subsequent to his election to office, but prior to his qualification and assumption of the duties of the office, he was granted a full and complete pardon by the President of the United States.

The trial court made findings of fact substantially as hereinbefore set out, and concluded, as a matter of law, that defendant’s pleas of guilt placed him in a category as having been adjudged guilty of a felony; that defendant was thereby disqualified as an elector at the time of his election to the office of county commissioner, and that the effect of Executive clemency, by the exercise of which defendant, on June 28, 1947, was granted a full and unconditional pardon, was to restore defendant’s right of citizenship, but that the same was without effect on his right to hold the particular office as a result of the election theretofore held on November 5, 1946.

The trial court concluded that defendant’s election was a nullity and that plaintiff having been elected in 1944 and having assumed and exercised the duties of the office, was entitled to hold the office until a successor was elected and qualified. Judgment was rendered ■accordingly, and defendant appeals.

There is set forth in article 3, §1, Constitution of Oklahoma, the qualifications of electors of this state. The section contains a proviso “that no person adjudged guilty of a felony, subject to such exceptions as the Legislature may prescribe . . . shall be entitled to register and vote.”

Title 26 O. S. A. §61 also enumerates the qualifications of electors of this state and subject to an exception contemplated by the Constitution, supra, prohibits voting by a person guilty of a felony, after the adoption of the Constitution of this state. The exception expressed is that “unless his citizenship shall have been restored in a manner provided by law.”

Title 19 O. S. A. §132 provides:

“No person shall be eligible to any county office unless he shall be, at the time of his election or appointment, a qualified voter of the county.”

[649]*649We shall assume, for the purposes of our decision, that defendant’s pleas of guilt to the offenses charged in the indictment rendered against him in the federal court were equivalent to convictions and that his being placed upon probation for a period of 12 months is tantamount to a judgment of guilt, and we shall assume, but not decide, that the trial court was correct in its conclusion of law that the exercise of Executive clemency by the President of the United States, in granting a full and unconditional pardon to defendant for the offenses in violation of the laws of the United States, did not affect defendant’s eligibility to the office of county commissioner, under the laws of this state, prior to the date of the pardon, and, thus, limit our inquiry as to whether a qualified elector adjudged guilty of offenses which, under the laws of the United States, constitute felonies but are not felonies under the laws of the State of Oklahoma, and rendered defendant ineligible to a county office under the provisions of section 132, supra.

In re Dunham’s Estate, 181 Okla. 407, 74 P. 2d 117, Lee H. Dunham sought an appointment as an administrator of the estate of his deceased mother, but objections were made to his appointment and it was contended that he was ineligible as having been convicted of an infamous crime and, therefore, rendered incompetent under the provisions of 58 O. S. A. §126. Dunham had been sentenced to jail by the federal court in Oklahoma on a plea of guilt to the charges of selling intoxicating liquors to restricted Indians. The offense, under federal law, subjected the offender to punishment by as much as two years in the penitentiary.

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Bluebook (online)
1948 OK 258, 207 P.2d 919, 201 Okla. 647, 1948 Okla. LEXIS 426, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yocham-v-horn-okla-1948.