118 A.2d 323 | Conn. Super. Ct. | 1955
As more particularly set forth in the stipulation of facts, the defendant was duly elected and qualified as tax collector of New Milford at the October election of 1953; on October 10, 1954, he left for Reno, Nevada, where he established a domicil and residence although still maintaining his residence in New Milford; on or about November 20, 1954, he returned to New Milford and re-established his domicil; he has at all times since his election performed the duties of tax collector and no other person has been appointed or elected to this office; his name has at all times continuously remained, and is now, on the voting or registry list of New Milford. *484
Technically, the proceeding is defective, perhaps fatally defective, because the allegations of paragraph 6 of the complaint are not admitted in the answer and are not covered in the stipulation. Consequently, there is nothing to show that the relator has any standing in the matter. However, it is obvious that counsel intended to raise no such problem, and in the interest of economy of judicial procedure, with some hesitation, and rather against its better judgment, the court has decided to take the case as presented by the parties and to consider that the relator is, as alleged, a taxpayer and elector of New Milford. Also to be assumed, on the same basis, is that New Milford has biennial town elections so that the defendant's present term as tax collector runs for two years from the date of his election and qualification in 1953.
One may simultaneously have two or more residences.Dorus v. Lyon,
Under § 517 of the General Statutes, the defendant would, by removal from New Milford — which obviously took place here — have rendered his office of tax collector vacant. Union v. Crawford,
The relator correctly claims that § 431c of the 1953 Cumulative Supplement is not applicable, since it is restricted by its express terms to situations where an elector removes from one town to another town both of which are in Connecticut.
Sections 426c through 435c provide for the making and correction of registry lists of electors. Section 434c particularly applies to questions concerning the removal from the registry list of the name of an elector who has ceased to reside in a town; and § 435c provides for an appeal from an adverse decision of a registrar to the "board for admission of electors of such town." In view of the constitutional provision hereinafter referred to, this board must be taken to consist of the selectmen and town clerk.
The basic claim of the defendant is that whether or not one is an elector is not a matter which is subject to review by the court, and, so, that the court has no jurisdiction of this proceeding in quo warranto or, for that matter, of any other proceeding having for its object a judicial determination of whether the defendant is an elector. *486
This is true where the question involves solely the unqualified status of "elector" as distinguished from that of a "resident elector" or some other particular kind of elector. Hackett v. New Haven,
The relator, in support of his position that the court has jurisdiction in this proceeding of quo warranto, relied upon State v. Hayes,
It may well be true that if the defendant ceased to be an elector, as would be the case if his name were legally erased from the list of electors, and notwithstanding he thereafter continued to hold office as tax collector, quo warranto would lie to oust him from that office. But that would be because the determination of his status as an elector would have been made by the body to whom, alone, the constitution had committed such determination.
Judgment may enter dismissing the proceeding for lack of jurisdiction under the rule of cases such as