State ex rel. Ellis v. Board of Deputy State Supervisors
State ex rel. Ellis v. Board of Deputy State Supervisors
Opinion of the Court
The pleadings inform us that on the-second day of May, 1904, the state supervisor and inspector of elections, pursuant to the provisions of the-act of April 23, 1904, appointed the defendants. Gfentschj Hopkins, Fitzgerald, and Christian as members of the board of deputy state supervisors and inspectors of elections in and for the county of Cuyahoga ; that said persons duly qualified as members .of said board and organized, as required by law, and that they thereupon demanded the ballot boxes and other property used in the conduct of elections, from, the other defendants (except Coughlin and Grongwer), who refused to deliver said property, claiming-the. right to the continued possession thereof by reason of their previous appointments, some of them as members of the board of deputy state supervisors of said county and some of them as members, of the city board of elections of the city of Cleveland, in said county, the statutes under which said previous boards had been constituted having been repealed by said act of April 23, 1904. The prayer of the petition is that the defendants other than those appointed under the recent act be ousted from the asserted right to perform said functions. It is. further made to appear that before the cause can be put at issue, heard and determined upon its merits, it will be necessary that action be taken for the holding of popular elections in said county. It also appears that the members of the former boards assert, a right to continue in office and to retain possession of said property, upon the ground that the act of
The case is not now prepared for submission upon its merits, but we are called upon to determine who shall exercise the official functions which public interests require to be performed, pending the determination of the cause upon its merits. The attorney general invokes that action by a motion for an order enjoining the members of former boards from interfering with the members of the board appointed under the act of April 23, 1904, and from withholding said property from their possession. It is obvious that the public interests require that some board shall exercise these controverted functions, and every consideration of propriety tends to the conclusion that the validity of the later act should be assumed until after hearing and consideration it is found to be invalid.
The text books and numerous adjudicated cases have made common knowledge of the rule that in actions in quo warranto against an incumbent to try title to an office, the court will not enjoin the incumbent from the exercise of the functions of the office pending the determination of the question of title. This is for reasons of obvious and conclusive force. The public interests require that the functions of the office be performed by some one, and to transfer their performance from the incumbent to the contestant would deny effect to the prima facie title of
Motion granted.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). I am unable to concur in the opinion that this is a discovery and not an invention. Quo warranto is of ancient origin, but no precedent for the conclusion reached is cited and I suspect none can be found, and for the very good reason that the proceeding is legal and not equitable, and authority to allow an injunction incident exclusively to chancery jurisdiction. The question is not affected by the code of civil procedure for the reason that original jurisdiction in quo warranto is
State ex rel. Campbell et al. v. Wolfenden et al., 74 N. C., 103, was a proceeding in the nature of a quo warranto and an injunction was asked until the final hearing of the case. The question of authority in such a proceeding to grant an injunction is not considered, but I suspect from Patterson v. Hubbs, 65 N. C., 119, that the question is settled by statute and a case based upon a statute is, of course, not a precedent. The opinion proceeds upon, the assumption that the power has not been conferred by statute and is to the effect that it could not be.
The question was made in The State v. Durkee et al., 12 Kan., 308, and if decided, the case supports this dissent.
The People v. Draper, 24 Barb., 265, also supports it, unless a distinction is to be taken between a case involving title to an office and one involving the existence of an office.
It is averred in the petition that the defendants, the Board of Deputy State Supervisors and Inspectors of Elections, have the right to the property belonging to that office, consisting of ballot boxes, books, papers, etc., and that they demanded possession of the same from the other defendants, assuming to be the other boards therein described, which was by them refused, and tha,t they unlawfully retain possession of the same and usurp and intrude
The case differs in no respect from those referred to in the opinion.- In none of them has a court of equity found that a prima facie title gave it any power to interfere by a mandatory injunction directing a surrender of property, but on the. contrary, whenever, it has interposed, it has been in the exercise of its clearly defined jurisdiction to protect the possession of property.
Hullman v. Honcomp, 5 Ohio St., 238, and others, are to the effect that generally,, even a court of equity will not interfere. . .
That the legislature may confer power upon the court incident to its original jurisdiction to allow- an injunction finds support in Yeoman v. Lasley, 36 Ohio St., 416, but not that the power is inherent.
That the remedy hj quo warranto is not as speecly
In Prince v. Skillin, 71 Me., 361, 366, Appleton, C. J., says: “By quo warranto the intruder is ejected. By mandamus the legal officer is put in his place. The act c. 198, accomplishes by'one and the same process the objects contemplated by both these results. It ousts the unlawful incumbent. It gives the' rightful claimant the office to which he is entitled. It affords a speedy and effectual remedy instead of the tedious and dilatory proceeding of the common law. ’ ’
My excuse for indicating the reasons for my dissent is that the court being the exclusive judge of its own jurisdiction, ought not to exercise any hot «clearly possessed:
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.