36 Neb. 9 | Neb. | 1893
dissenting.
I am unable to assent to the judgment of the majority of the court and I will as briefly as possible state the reasons for failing to do so.
“All counties which have not been organized in the manner provided by law, or any unorganized territory in the state, shall be attached to the nearest organized county directly east, for election, judicial, and revenue purposes; Provided, That Sioux county shall be attached to Cheyenne county for all the purposes provided for in this section; Provided further, That if no county lies directly east of any such unorganized territory or county, then such unorganized territory or county shall be attached to the county directly south, or if there be no such county, then to the county directly north, and if there be no county directly north, then to the county directly west of such unorganized territory or county.
“Sec. 147. The county authorities to which any unorganized county or territory is attached shall exercise control over, and their jurisdiction shall extend to, such unorganized county or territory the same as if it were a part of their own county.
“Sec. 148. If two or more organized counties, or portions thereof, lie directly east of any unorganized county, then the portions of territory of such unorganized county which lie either north or south of a line running directly
Suppose, therefore, that the territory in question was unorganized, it is to be attached to the nearest organized county directly east. If there is no organized county directly east, then it is to be attached to the nearest organized county directly south. Webster defines the word “ directly,” “In a direct manner; in a straight line or course; without curving, swerving, or deviation.” Directly east, therefore, means in a direct line on the same parallel east of Boyd county. An examination of a good map will show that Boyd county is northwest of Knox county; that the northwest corner of Knox county joins the southeast corner of Boyd county — the points of contact extending about seven miles, and that only a triangular point of Boyd county extends as far south as Knox; that Boyd county extends north to the 43d parallel, while Knox county at no point reaches within ten miles of that degree of latitude; that nearly all of Boyd county is north of the degree of latitude that passes along the north line of Knox county.
It is very evident, therefore, that Knox county is not directly east of Boyd county, but is southeast, while Holt county is directly south of Boyd county, and the latter county is and was properly attached to that county for election purposes. It is very clear to my mind that the authorities of Knox never had any right to interfere in the affairs of Boyd county, and they seem to have recognized this fact by not doing so.
But suppose that Knox county had jurisdiction over the territory in question, still the relator is not entitled to the writ. The certificate of nomination shows that the convention was held at Creighton; that a resident of
It also appears that the clerk had previously refused to insert the relator’s name on the sample and official ballots, and that the district court compelled him to insert the same,
This court from the first has compelled the counting of votes cast in pursuance of law in any legal subdivision of the state. The trouble with this case is, there was no representative district created either in fact or in law in which any votes were cast in Boyd county for the relator. There is no pretense that the records of the territory of Boyd county were kept in Knox county; that any taxes were ever levied there, or any jurisdiction of any manner or kind ever exercised, or attempted to be exercised, by the authorities of Knox county. All these things were done by Holt county under a colorable annexation of that county
This, so far as I know, is the first attempt of the kind in this state. The sole ground on which the relator claims a right to a certificate is that Boyd county is directly west of Knox, but it is very clear that the territory of Boyd county is not directly west and not unorganized territory, and was, in fact, annexed to another county, and cannot be placed in the same district with Knox without
For majority opinion see post, p 91.