181 Iowa 544 | Iowa | 1917
Lead Opinion
I. The petition alleges: (1) That a pretended consolidated district has no legal existence, because the proposal to create it failed to receive the sanction of a legal majority of the voters; (2) that, despite this, a pretended election was held to name school directors for said pretended district; (3) that defendants claim, on account of said pretended elections, to be directors and officers of said pretended district; (4) that these are threatening and proceeding to discontinue the use of schoolhouses and the maintenance of schools heretofore and now existing and being maintained in an independent district now claimed to be a part of the consolidated district; (5) that they are threatening to sell, dispose of and remove said schoolhouses and to discontinue the schools heretofore and now maintained in each of named subdistricts located near the homes of the plaintiffs, and thereby to deprive plaintiffs of convenient and valuable school privileges for their school children, and require plaintiffs to send such children many miles away for their school privileges; (6) that they are about to proceed to erect extensive and expensive school buildings, at great cost to these plaintiffs and other electors residing within the territory attempted to be included within the pretended consolidated independent district; (7) that they will cause taxes to be levied
1-a
In Nelson v. Consolidated Ind. School Dist., 181 Iowa 424, it is settled that quo warranto alone affords a remedy where the sole question is whether a municipal corporation was legally formed. But it does not hold that this goes to jurisdiction or may be raised for the first time on appeal. It does hold, and we do now, that, when the formation is merely emergent or incidental, a court of equity may pass upon its legality. We hold further and now that the point is purely modal, and that it may not be raised first on appeal that the court of chancery acted and that quo warranto is the exclusive proceduré. See Hogueland v. Arts, 113 Iowa 634; In re Receivership of Magner, 173 Iowa 299, at 313.
The right to vote is a' political and not a natural one, and if it is not conferred by law, it does not exist. The denial of it is completely justified if the Constitution requires a stated qualification, or the statute imposes one which is not in conflict with the Constitution, and the citizen lacks that qualification. Paine, Elections, Secs. 57, 58; Morrison v. Springer, 15 Iowa 304, 342; 10 Am. & Eng. Encyc. of Law, 568, 596-607; In re Denny, (Ind.) 59 N. E. 359; Greenough v. Board, (R. I.) 74 Atl. 785; State v. Blaisdell, (N. D.) 119 N. W. 360; 29 Am. & Eng. Encyc. of Law, 1075. Section 1, Article 2, of the Constitution provides:
“Every male citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a resident of this state six months next preceding the election, and of the*551 county in which he claims his vote, sixty days, shall be entitled to vote at all elections which are now or hereafter may be authorized by law.”
Assuming, for the purposes of present discussion, that the vote taken on this proposed consolidation was an election, and we. have the question whether the residence for 60 days is merely a direction to avoid fraudulent voting, facilitated by lack of personal acquaintance with those tendering a vote, or whether a residence for at least 60 days before the day of election in some county is one of the qualifications for voting at all — whether the lack of such residence is akin to the requirement as to age. Is the residence requirement merely -a precautionary direction, or is it an essential qualification? Does it do no more than work that one who has not lived in the county the stated length of time ought not to vote, or should not be allowed to on challenge, or is the true construction that, if one does not have such residence, he can no more vote in any place in the state or for any purpose than if he were less than 21, or not a resident of the state for the prescribed length of time? Langhammer v. Munter, (Md.) 31 Atl. 300, Fry’s Election Case, 71 Pa. 302, 306, and Dicey, Law of Domicil, page 55, declare it to be obvious that state residence and district residence are of the same nature, and whatever is necessary to constitute the one is essential to define the others. Kreitz v. Behrensmeyer, (Ill.) 17 N. E. 232, 253, holds if a voter abandon his residence in a voting district at a date too near the election for the requisite intervening time of the residence to be a voter in the new district to which he has removed, he will be entitled to vote in neither district. The required residence seems to be precisely equal to requirements like that as to age and being a male. State v. School District, (Neb.) 7 N. W. 315, 316; State v. Boyd, (Neb.) 48 N. W. 739. One must be an “inhabitant” to be a voter. Baldwin v. Town of N. Branford, 32 Conn.
“He is entitled to vote only in the county Avhere his home is, where his fixed place of residence is for the time being.”
And in State v. Minnick, 15 Iowa 123, at 125:
“But a person may be a qualified voter, so far as age, residence in the state or county are concerned, and yet if he simply votes in the wrong township, he is clearly guilty of illegal voting, under Section 1337. It was the intention of the statute to confine voters to the toAAuiship of their residence, and the disability attaches when they offer to vote in any other, as much as if they Avere not tAventy-one years of age.”
The words of the Constitution, that he “shall have been a resident * * of the county in which he claims his vote,” may have been written in oversight of the fact that, as to some elections and some voting, it should be immaterial that one claim a vote in a particular county. But though there Avas this oversight, it does not alter that, so far as the Constitution goes, it gives no right to vote at'any election unless one claim the right to vote in a particular county, and has resided in that county for the specified time. It is no answer that one who lives in
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4-a
Some cases that, on surface consideration, seem to sustain the ruling of the trial judge, upon careful examination rather militate against it. It is said in State v. Minnick, 15 Iowa 123, at 126, that one does not gain a residence
4-b
We come nearer to having the question of whether Cook abandoned his residence in Madison County than whether he gained a residence there on January 23d. Much already said demonstrates that he did not abandon such residence if he ever had it. An absence for months, or even years, is not an abandonment if qll the while intended to be a temporary absence for some temporary purpose, to be followed by a resumption of residence. Kreitz v. Behrensmeyer, (Ill.) 17 N. E. 232. We say, in State v. Savre, 129 Iowa 122, that “mere bodily presence or absence cannot have controlling effect in determining residence when once established,” and that “persons who travel for business or pleasure for long or short periods do not lose their residence by such absence;” that “the vital inquiry, then, in determining the residence of a person always is, Where is his home, the home where he lives, and to which he intends to return when absent, or when sick, or when his present engagement ends.” It was held, in Carter v. Putnam, (Ill.) 30 N. E. 681, that, where a man moved from Illinois to an
In Love v. Cherry, 24 Iowa 204, residence in Iowa was held not to be lost where a woman left Iowa to make a visit or visits and transact some business, intending to return in a convenient but uncertain time. This intention was never relinquished or abandoned, though subsequent developments rendered it necessary for her to remain longer absent than she had expected. In State v. Deniston, (Kans.)
We do not disagree with the holding of State v. Savre, 129 Iowa 122, that, as to an unmarried man, “between the place where one rooms and sleeps and the place where he obtains his meals, without other facts indicating the contrary, the former must be regarded as his residence.” But, sell-evidently, the fact that Cook and his family ate and slept in Dallas County temporarily, and during the period that must elapse before they could return to the house in Madison County and get possession of same under existing agreement, does not bring this case within the rule announced in the Savre case.
If, on January 23 d, inquiry had been made on the instant after the deposit of the goods by Cook, and while he and his family were still physically present in Madison County, as to where Cook intended to live, and then had a residence, and why he was going into Dallas County, it would surely have been found that he was presently to become a resident of Madison County, and would return and work there just as soon as the room provided for under existing agreement was available, and that he was leaving for the temporary purpose of obtaining a lodging until he could return. Clearly, a going into Dallas County in these circumstances was not an abandonment of his status in Madison County.
We think the court was in error in holding that Cook was disqualified.
VI. Appellee challenges two more votes for consolidation which the court held to be legal. It would be moot to decide this contention. If we should reach the conclusion the trial judge did, we must still affirm. If we did not, it would but accomplish, that, to illegal votes enough to work an affirmance, more illegal votes would be added.
VII. Appellant presents a motion to strike some four pages of the argument for appellee from the files. The burden was on appellee, and he should have made, or at least had the right to make, the opening argument. He did not make it, and appellant did. Appellant invokes Section 44
The decree must be and is — Affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. — The authorities agree that two things must concur in order to constitute residence under the election laws: the fact of residence, and the intent that it be such. State v. Savre, 129 Iowa 122. As so employed, the word-means “home” or “domicile;” a permanent abode or habitation, to which a party, when absent, intends to return. Vanderpoel v. O’Hanlon, 53 Iowa 246; State v. Savre, supra; Hinds v. Hinds, 1 Iowa 36. There must be a residence, and, in addition thereto, it must be permanent; that is, in the sense that the party, when absent, has the animms revertendi. Before one can be said to be a resident, he must have taken up his abode or dwelling somewhere, and abiding or dwelling is essential to constitute residence. Cook had abandoned his home in Union County, but his residence is presumed to have continued there until established elsewhere. No one claims that he became a resident of Dallas County, as his stay there was temporary. He hád entered into an agreement to begin work in Madison County March 1st following. All claimed is that he, with hjs family and goods, went to the house he was to occupy, on January 23d, and found it occupied by a former employe. Bearing in mind that Cook was not entitled to possession or to his home there until over a month later, did his ar
I dissent from the conclusion reached in the fourth division of the opinion.