291 Mass. 217 | Mass. | 1935
This is a petition for a writ of mandamus to compel the selectmen of Swampscott to call a special town meeting in order to submit to all the voters by referendum ballot an article passed at a representative town meeting. The town of Swampscott has adopted St. 1927, c. 300, a special act authorizing representative town meetings, town meeting members, a referendum, and other matters. By § 8 provision is made for submitting to the registered voters of the town at large “the question or questions involved” in a vote passed at a representative town meeting. One condition precedent for such submission is that “ a petition, signed by not less than two hundred registered voters of the town, containing their names and
The case was referred to an auditor. It was heard upon the report of the auditor and a supplementary agreed statement of facts without other evidence. The relevant facts are these: The petition was signed with two hundred forty-six names. Of these, twenty-seven were not the names of registered voters, eight were not names of registered voters at the time of filing the petition although they subsequently became registered voters, and six names were signed not by the voters but by other persons without there being any disability on the part of such voters to prevent them from signing. Manifestly these forty-one could not rightly be considered as signers of the petition. Of the remaining two hundred five names, fourteen were not signed with addresses, and fifty-four were not signed with the names, as they appeared on the list of registered voters, the same person being included in five instances in both groups. Therefore, of the two hundred five names, sixty-three are in question because, as to these names and addresses on the petition, there are no identical corresponding names and addresses on the list of registered voters. As illustrative of these variations, there are five addresses on different streets and nine addresses of different numbers on the same street when compared with the addresses as they appear on the list of registered voters. The variations in names comprise numerous differences in, or omission of, the middle initial, differences in the spelling of the surname, differences in the spelling of the Christian name, in the omission of “Junior” and in the use of the initial instead of the first or middle given name, and in the use of the full first name or the full middle name instead of the initial. Subject to the exception of the respondents, the single justice drew the inference from the auditor’s report that these signers
The name of a person is' the distinctive characterization in words by which he is known and distinguished from others. Description or abbreviation is not the equivalent of a name. Conners v. Lowell, 209 Mass. 111, 118. W. B. Manuf. Co. v. Rubenstein, 236 Mass. 215, 219. O’Brien v. Election Commissioners of Boston, 257 Mass. 332, 340. Commonwealth v. Gedzium, 259 Mass. 453, 461. The middle name or intial is a part of the name of a person. Commonwealth v. Snow, 269 Mass. 598, 600. Anderson v. Qualey, 216 Mass. 106, 109. Terry v. Sisson, 125 Mass. 560, 561. See Monroe Cattle Co. v. Becker, 147 U. S. 47, 58. It has been said that the term "Junior” is no part of the name of a person. Simpson v. Dix, 131 Mass. 179, 184. Commonwealth v. Parmenter, 101 Mass. 211, 213. However, it is used to describe and designate a person. Cobb v. Lucas, 15 Pick. 7. Boyden v. Hastings, 17 Pick. 200. Kincaid v. Howe, 10 Mass. 203. Where so used on the list of registered voters, the signature on a petition like the present must correspond.
The words of the governing statute already quoted are clear and unmistakable to the effect that a petition must be signed with the "names and addresses” of two hundred registered voters “as they appear on the list of registered voters.” Those words must all be given effect and be interpreted according to the common and approved usage of the language without enlargement or restriction. See v. Building Commissioner of Springfield, 246 Mass. 340, 342. Commonwealth v. S. S. Kresge Co. 267 Mass. 145, 148. Dexter v. Dexter, 283 Mass. 327, 330. The statutes contain minute directions as to the preparation of the lists of registered voters. The registrars of voters are required to exercise great care in ascertaining the surname, the full
The result is that the petition filed with the selectmen was not signed by two hundred “registered voters of the town, containing their names and addresses as they appear on the list of registered voters.” The respondents rightly refused to call a special town meeting.
Petition dismissed.