State v. Barbee
State v. Barbee
Opinion of the Court
The office of the additional judge provided for by the act of February 24th, 1868, having become vacant
The act creating the office (65 Ohio L. 11) provides that “the first election for said additional judge shall be held on the first Monday in April, 1868, and his term of office shall commence on the second Monday in May thereafter.” It also provides, that “ the sheriff in each county in said subdivision, shall, at least fifteen days prior to the first Monday in April, 1868, and at least fifteen days prior to the first Monday of April thereafter, in each year, when an election for such additional judge is to be held, give notice by proclamation of the time and place of holding such election,” and “ any vacancy that may occur in the office of such additional judge, by death, resignation or otherwise, shall be filled as in other cases of vacancy in the office of judge of said court.”
Section 11 of the Revised Statutes, relating to appointments to fill vacancies, and the election of successors in such cases, contains the following provision: “ When an elective office becomes vacant, and is filled by appointment, such appointee shall hold the office till his successor is. elected and qualified, and such successor shall be elected at the first proper election that is held more than thirty days after the occurrence of the vacancy.”
The question still remains, what is the proper election ? In the absence of any other positive rule, the answer naturally suggested would be, that it is the first regular recurrence of that election, at which the officer, whose successor is to be chosen, was elected; or, in other words, the first election occurring, appropriate to that particular office, under the law regulating elections to that office.
It'is claimed, however, that section 13, of article 4, of the constitution prescribes a different and positive rule on the subject. Its language is : “ In case the office of any judge shall
1. That the November election is the first annual election occurring more than thirty days after the vacancy happened, and by the plain terms of the section, the successor for the unexpired term must be elected thereat.
2. That since, by the constitution, state officers are required to be elected at the fall, and not at the spring, election and' since judges are state officers, the annual election contemplated by the section, is the general election for state officers.
These propositions may be considered together. It is a fundamental rule that to properly determine the effect to be given any clause of an instrument, a due regard must be had to all its parts, and its various provisions be so construed, if possible, as to make a harmonious whole. In the constitution, elections are characterized as general, and annual. Section 1, of article 3, provides that the officers of the executive department, viz.: governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor of state, treasurer, and attorney-general, shall be chosen on the second Tuesday of October (now the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November), and the provision of section 18 of the same article is: that every vacancy in the office of auditor, treasurer, secretary, and attorney-general, “ shall be filled by election, at the first general election that occurs more than thirty days after it shall have happened.” Section 4, of article 10, provides that township officers shall be elected on the first Monday of April annually; and by the terms of section 15 of the schedule, “ until otherwise provided by law, elections for judges shall be held, and the poll-books returned as is provided for governor.” It will thus be seen that certain state officers are required by the constitution to be elected at the October (now November) elec
• It is to be observed that section 13, of article 4 of the constitution, does not authorize the successor of a judge whose office becomes vacant before the expiration of his term, to be elected at the first election that occurs more than thirty days after the vacancy happens. It certainly -would have done so, by omitting the word “ annual,” if the sole or dominating purpose was to so limit the executive patronage in filling vacancies, that persons appointed thereto should hold only until it was possible to elect the successors. While a primary object of the constitution undoubtedly was to make the office of judge elective by the people, the limitation upon the power of executive appointments to vacancies, was intended to be reasonable, and to some practical end. The same intention and policy is manifest in the provisions of section 18, of article 3, investing the governor with the like power of filling vacancies in the office of auditor, treasurer, secretary and attorney-general, and requiring all such vacancies to be filled at the first general election that occurs more than thirty days after they shall happen. >
It is worthy of notice that in this latter section the first general election is the period fixed for filling vacancies, while in section 13, of article 4, it is the first annual election. It cannot be assumed that this difference in phraseology was accidental, or that the terms are used in the same sense. The pre
In State v. Taylor, 15 Ohio St. 137, while the question we are now considering was not directly involved, Brinkerhoff, C. J., in the opinion, after quoting section 13, of article 4, says: “Now according to the facts in this case, admitted by the pleadings, Cassad, the deceased predecessor of the defendant Taylor, was regularly and duly elected (probate judge of Logan county)’ on the second Tuesday of October, 1860, for the full term of three years from the ninth day of February, 1861, which would expire on the ninth day of February, 1864. He died in October, 1861. The defendant Taylor was appointed to fill, for the time being, the vacancy thus created, and was elected to the same office at the October election, 1862.” And in Foster v. Scarff, 15 Ohio St. 533, speaking of the same election, the same judge says: “ On the second Tuesday of October, 1862, Taylor was regularly elected to said office.” And see State v. Cogswell, 8 Ohio St. 620.
From these cases and considerations, it may be accepted as a sound conclusion, that where a judge is by law required to be elected at the general election, and his office becomes vacant before the expiration of his term, the next general election that occurs more than thirty days after the vacancy happens, is the first annual election so occurring, within the meaning of section 13, of article 4, of the constitution, at which his successor must be elected; and it would seem as certainly to follow that, where, by law, the office of judge is created, and the
The statement of the proposition at once provokes the inquiry, that if such was the intention of the framers of the constitution, why they did not in section 13, of article 4, provide that every vacancy in the office of judge should be filled at the first general election, as they did in section 18, of article 3, in regard to executive officers? We have before indicated that the difference in the phraseology of the two sections was for a purpose, and what that purpose was; and adverted to the different provisions made concerning elections for executive and judicial officers, from which it appears that under the constitution it is perfectly competent to1 provide by statute for the election of all judges at the April election. If it were so provided, and their regular elections so set apart for a period different and distinct from the general election, would it be claimed that, because judges are state officers, the elections for their successors in cases of vacancies, must be fixed with reference to the elections at which executive officers are regularly chosen, rather than those appointed for the regular election of all judicial officers?
The legislature has seen proper to provide that some of the judges of the court of common pleas shall be elected at the
The real ground for the claim that where a vacancy occurs, the successor for the unexpired term of a judge should be elected at the general election, is that that is the appropriate election for that office, because it is a state office, and that is the election at which state officers are regularly elected. This is, at last, determining what is the appropriate election for choosing the successor, by reference to the election at which the officer is regularly chosen; and the grade or class to which the office belongs, is of consequence only as it makes that certain. The reasoning is that since judges are state officers, and the latter are regularly elected at the general election, therefore that is the proper election whereat to . elect successors to fill vacancies for the unexpired terms of judges. The defect in the reasoning is evident; all judges, though state officers, are not regularly elected at the general election, but some are so elected at the April election; and hence, whether a successor for the unexpired term of any particular judge, is to be chosen at the general, or at the April election, depends upon which is the one established by law far regular elections to that office; the decisive fact in each case being, not the rank of the office, but the class of elections to which the law has assigned it.
The statute creating the office of additional judge under discussion, has made specific provisions for the election of judges thereunder, and appointed the April election, as the one at
The provision in the act of 1868 that “ any vacancy shall be filled as in other cases of vacancy in the office of judge of said court,” is not incompatible with this conclusion; for, as judges are by law elected at different elections, the election of a successor for the unexpired term in other cases, must be governed by the considerations already expressed.
The further claim is made, that section 2978 of the Revised Statutes, as amended March 24, 1886 (83 Ohio L. 35), which provides that all general elections for judge of the court of common pleas shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, rejjeals that part of the act of February 24, 1868, relating to the election of judges thereunder, and changes all such elections from April to November.
The obvious answer to this claim is, that, by its terms, the section applies only to general elections, and the act referred to is unaffected by it. Writ refused.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.