Commonwealth v. O'Neil
Commonwealth v. O'Neil
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The relator presented a petition in due form to the defendants, the commissioners of Allegheny county, requesting that his name for the office of treasurer of the city of McKeesport be printed upon the official ballots in said city for the primary election for the year 1911. The request was declined, and thereupon a suggestion was filed in the court below praying for a mandamus to compel the defendants to accept the petition and print the relator’s name on the ballots. He claims the right to become a candidate for the office of treasurer for a four-year term beginning the first Monday of December, 1911,
The learned trial court held that “no place in the schedule is there any enactment that applies directly to the officers elected in the year 1909. Nor does the schedule in relation to the extension of terms declare that it shall operate on the terms of officers heretofore elected, as well as lengthen the terms of officers hereafter to be elected until such terms shall be changed by an act of the legislature.” It was accordingly held that the office of treasurer of the city of McKeesport was not included in or affected by the schedule to the amendments of the constitution adopted in 1909, and that the term of the present incumbent of the office was shortened by the act of June 21,1911, and ends on the first Monday of December, 1911, “thus creating a vacancy to be voted for by the electors at the September primary election and the November election of this year.”
This case was argued with Meisel et al. v. O’Neil et al., ante, p. 213, in which we file an opinion herewith. It is there held that the schedule to the amendments to the constitution adopted in 1909 applied to officers thereto
The first paragraph of the schedule extends the terms of certain elective officers, but provides that "the legislature may change the length of the term, provided the terms for which such officers are -elected shall always be for an even number of years.” It is contended by the appellee that the act of June 21, 1911, was authorized by, and was enacted in pursuance of, this provision of the schedule, and that the present incumbent’s term was legally shortened and will expire on the first Monday of December of the present year. We do not regard this position as tenable. The provision of the act in question, claimed to produce this result, is as follows: "All mayors, city controllers, and members of councils now in office, whose terms of office would otherwise expire in the year 1912, shall hold their offices until the first Monday of December, 1911, and no longer.” If we are correct in holding that the schedule applies to existing officers, the terms of all such officers, éxcept those named in the second and third paragraphs were lengthened by the schedule,
The judgment of the court belowis reversed, and judgment upon the demurrer is now entered for the defendants.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Commonwealth ex rel. v. O'Neil
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Elections — Public officers — Cities of the third class — Treasurers—■ Constitutional amendments of 1909 — Schedule—Act of June 21, 1911, P. L. 1102. 1. The schedule to the constitutional amendments of 1909 extended for one year the term of office of a treasurer of a city of the third class who had been elected in 1909, and therefore no valid election to fill the office could be held in November, 1911. 2. The Act of June 21, 1911, P. L. 1102, providing that the incumbents of certain offices shall hold their 'offices until the first Monday of December, 1911, and no longer, does not affect the office of treasurer of a city of the third class elected in 1909, because it violates the schedule of the constitutional amendments of 1909, in that (1) it shortens the term of an officer whose official term was lengthened by the schedule; and (2) it cuts down the term of such an officer to a certain number of months, thus making the term an uneven number of years.