176 Ind. 208 | Ind. | 1911
Appellant brought this proceeding before the commissioners of Lake county in March, 1909, to obtain a license to sell intoxicating liquors at retail. On May 1, 1908, a general remonstrance against the granting of a license “to all applicants” was filed under the provisions of §8332 Burns 1908, Acts 1905 p. 7.
Appellant challenged this remonstrance, by a verified pleading in six paragraphs, under §8333 Burns 1908, Acts 1907 p. 281.
The board of commissioners found that said remonstrance was signed by a majority of the legal voters of the township, and rendered judgment against the applicant and in favor of the remonstrators as required by §8332, supra.
Prom this judgment the appellant appealed to the Lake Superior Court, where he applied for a change of judge, on account of the alleged bias and prejudice of said judge, as provided for in §422, subdv. 7, Burns 1908, §412 R. S. 1881. This application was sustained, and another judge was called to sit in said cause.
Afterwards appellees filed an application for a change of venue, which was granted, and the ease was sent to the court below, where it was tried and a finding made that said remonstrance was signed by a majority of the legal voters of said township, and, over a motion for a new trial filed by appellant, judgment was rendered against him. Prom said judgment he appealed to this court and assigned errors.
It is first insisted that the Lake Superior Court erred in
But if the applicant files a pleading verified by him, challenging the voting qualifications of certain specified remonstrators, or the authority of the persons who have acted for them in signing or attaching their names to the remonstrance, the burden is upon the remonstrators to establish the existence of such voting qualifications of the challenged remonstrators as are so denied under oath by the appellant, and the authority of the persons by whom the names were signed to the remonstrance, whose authority is so denied under oath by appellant. Miller v. Resler (1909), 172 Ind. 320, 326, 327; Adams v. Smith (1910), 173 Ind. 398.
It was said in the case of Miller v. Resler, supra, at page 327: ‘‘This verified pleading is required to be definite in respect to each of the remonstrators challenged, and fully to set forth the grounds of the challenge, in order that the remonstrators may thereby be apprised of what they are expected to meet or rebut.”
This court in the case of Adams v. Smith, supra, said concerning the verified pleading challenging the legal qualifications of the remonstrators to sign said remonstrance: “But challenge can only be made by pointing out the specific objection to the signer so that each party may know the issue to be contested.”
A person must possess a number of qualifications to be a
If the applicant does not have knowledge sufficient to enable him to make oath to a pleading setting out the particular disabilities that disqualify a remonstrator from being a voter, he does not have sufficient knowledge to enable him to swear that said remonstrator is not a legal voter.
It is evident that the act of 1907, supra, was intended not only to limit the questions as to the sufficiency of a remonstrance under §8332, supra, to those specifically alleged in the pleading under oath by the appellant, but thereby to simplify the issues, lessen the number of witnesses, shorten the trial of said cause and expedite the business of the court. This being the purpose of said act of 1907 it is clear that the court did not err in sustaining appellees’ motion to make the first paragraph of his verified pleading specific. Adams v. Smith, supra; Miller v. Resler, supra.
The court by sustaining said motion did not require appellant to plead his evidence, but required him to plead the particular disability or disabilities of each remonstrator challenged, relied on as a disqualification of such remonstrator as a voter. Quinn v. State (1871), 35 Ind. 485-488, 9 Am. Rep. 754, and cases cited.
Appellant cites the case of Behler v. Ackley (1909), 173 Ind. 173, to sustain his contention that the court below erred in sustaining said motion to make said first paragraph more specific. In that case, however, there was no motion to make the verified answer as to the qualifications of the remonstrators more specific, but the question was only as to the sufficiency of one of the special findings of the court. The case is not in point here.
It is evident that if said paragraph was insufficient as against a demurrer for want of facts after said amendment, it was insufficient before said amendment was made, and that any ruling on the motion to make more specific before said amendment was made, even if erroneous, was harmless, and furnishes no ground for reversal.