Brandenburg v. Daugherty
Brandenburg v. Daugherty
Opinion of the Court
Opinion of the Court by
Affirming.
On August 13, 1919, Areb Snowden and twenty-nine other voters of the Proctor magisterial district óf Lee county filed tbeir petition in tbe county court, asking that
While the validity of the election is assailed on several grounds, the only question we deem it necessary to consider is whether the failure to give notice of the election rendered it invalid.
Section 4646, Kentucky Statutes, makes it the duty of the county court, upon the filing of the petition of twenty voters of any magisterial district, to direct the officers of election of such district to open a poll at the next regular election held in such district, in not less than sixty days after the filing of such petition, for the purpose of ascertaining the will of the voters of such district upon the question whether or not they wish cattle or any species thereof to run at large in said district. Section 4647, Kentucky Statutes, is as follows:
“No polls shall be opened unless the petitioners shall deposit with the county court, at the time the petition is filed, an amount sufficient, in the judgment of the court, to defray the expenses of the election upon this question, nor shall such question be submitted unless notice thereof be published twenty days before the election in at least four issues of the paper published in such county, if there be one, having the largest bona fide circulation in the county; if there is no paper published in the county, notice shall be given by posting notices thereof on the court house door, and in four other public places in'each precinct in which the election is to be held. ’ ’
It is ably and earnestly argued by counsel for appellants that as the statute made it the duty of the county
But it is insisted that the publication of the petition was a sufficient notice of the election. The argument is that as no particular form of notice was required by the statute, and the law made it the duty of the county court, upon the filing of the petition, to order the election to be held at the next November election, a duty which it might have been required to perform by mandamus, the publication of the petition brought home to the voters notice of the fact that the election would then be held. As the court may reject the petition on the ground that it is not signed by the requisite number of legal voters, or may decline to hold the election on the ground that it could not be legally held at the time applied for, or may fail in its duty to order the election even when the petition is proper, and no mandamus may be obtained, it does not necessarily follow that an election will be ordered in every instance where a petition has been filed. That being true, it seems to us that the notice itself should specify the time, place and purpo'se of the election, and should not make it the duty of the voters to ascertain these facts by a process of reasoning, which may or may not be sound, based on the presumption that the court will order an
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.