223 Pa. 271 | Pa. | 1909
Opinion by
This is a contest over the election of a school director originating in the quarter sessions of Allegheny county.
On March 12, 1908, a petition was presented to the court of quarter sessions averring, inter alia, that at the election held February 18, 1908, two persons were to be elected school directors for the term of three years in the borough of Mc-Kees Rocks, and four persons were candidates for the office; that Charles F. Woods having received the highest number of votes was duly elected as one director; that 649 votes were counted and returned for J. A. Coole for the office; that petitioners believe and aver that 660 votes were cast and voted for J. A. Barr for said office, giving him a clear majority of eleven votes over Cole; that the election board counted and returned* but 649 votes for Barr, making the returns show that the vote between Barr and Cole was a tie; .that in the first elec
The court adjudged the petition sufficient and directed it to be filed, and fixed April 9, 1908, for the hearing. A bond was given by fiye of the petitioners, conditioned for the payment of costs, as required by the Act of April 28, 1899, P. L. 118, 2 Purd. (13th ed.) 1390. A rule to answer with a copy of petition was served on Cole on March 17, 1908. On May 23, 1908, an examiner was appointed to take testimony and report it to the court.
On June 1, 1908, Cole presented his petition to the quarter sessions and, for the reasons therein stated, prayed the court to quash the petition and dismiss the proceedings. A rule was granted upon Barr to show cause why the prayer of the petition should not be granted, which was subsequently made absolute. No opinion was filed by the two judges who made the rule absolute. They did not preside in the quarter sessions at the time the petition for the contest was presented and adjudged sufficient. As set forth in the printed brief of the learned counsel of the appellee, “the reasons assigned in the petition to quash are mainly on the ground that the petition of the appellants is not sufficient in law for the reason that it does not concisely
In Election Cases, 65 Pa. 20, Mr. Justice Agnew, delivering the opinion of this court, said: “The contest of an election is a remedy given to the people, by petition for redress, when their suffrages have been thwarted by fraud or mistake. . . . The object of the law is to give the people a remedy. It is their appeal from the election board to the court from an undue election or a false return. The law is therefore remedial, and to be construed to advance the remedy.....It is not to be supposed •the legislature, representing the people, intended to subject the remedy to unreasonable or impossible conditions.” Proceedings to contest elections are regulated by statute and should be so construed by the courts as to protect the elective franchise. The petition should aver plainly and distinctly such facts which if sustained by proof would require the court to set aside the result. In the language of the act of 1874, it should “ concisely set forth the cause of complaint, showing wherein it is claimed the election is undue or illegal.” This is all the statute requires, and the court is not authorized to require more by construction. This will give the respondent sufficient information of the charges of illegality which he is required to meet. He is entitled to nothing more. If the statutes on the subject are intended to give the people a remedy for undue and illegal elections, as unquestionably they are, then we must construe them so as to effect the purpose intended. If the courts require anything in a petition beyond substantial averments, clearly disclosing wherein the election is undue or illegal, they will defeat the very purpose of the legislation on the subject.
In the absence of an opinion by the two judges who sat in the quarter sessions and quashed the proceedings, we are with
Without any sufficient explanation for the delay in presenting the motion to quash, the quarter sessions should have denied it. The provisions of the statute providing for contested elections of this character show that it was the intention of the legislature to have such contests speedily disposed of. A school director is elected for the term of three years, and in this case, it will possibly be a year before the right of these parties to the office has been determined. So far as the record discloses, Cole,
We are of opinion that the petition in this case is sufficient under the act of 1874, and that it was error in the court below to quash it and dismiss the proceedings.
The order of the court below quashing the petition and dismissing the proceedings is reversed at the costs of the respondent, and the petition is reinstated with a procedendo.