58 W. Va. 321 | W. Va. | 1905
The common council. of the city of Huntington, in the county of Cabell, is composed, under its city charter, of a mayor and twelve councilmen. At a meeting of said common council held at its council chamber in said city on the 19th day of June, 1905, the mayor presiding and eleven of the twelve members of council were present, when George L. Pickering who was one of the members at the time, tendered his resignation as a member of the council, which resignation was accepted. The council then proceeded to the election of a member to fill the vacancy thus created. When Warren Wood and I. K. Titus, respectively, were placed in nomination and a vote being taken, six of the councilmen voted for Wood and four voted for Titus, and the Mayor declared Wood elected to fill the vacancy of the unexpired term of George L. Pickering resigned, and Wood took and subscribed the oath of office, as a councilmen, and caused a certificate of said oath to be filed with the clerk of said city on the 20th day of June, 1905: On the 3rd day of July, 1905, the circuit court of Cabell county
Warren Wood filed his petition in this Court, praying for an alternative writ of mandamus to be directed to the common council of the city of Huntington, and to the said Mayor and the eleven members of the council and the clerk of said city, naming the mayor, councilmen and clerk, commanding them and each of them, to permit said Wood “to participate in all the meetings and deliberations of said common council and to be accorded the privilege of voting upon all questions arising before said common council upon which other members thereof have the right to vote, and to otherwise recognize your petitioner, as a member of said common council of said city, or show cause if any they, or any of them, can, why they, or any of them should not do so.” The only question involved in this case is the construction of section 14 of chapter 150 of the Acts of 1901, said chapter being the charter of the city of Huntington. Said section is as follows: “Wherever a vacancy shall occur from any cause in the office of mayor, councilman, treasurer, city clerk or city assessor, the council for the time being shall by a majority vote of all the members elected, fill the vacancy until the next general election, at which time a successor shall be elected by the qualified voters of said city.” The rule is well established that in the construction of statutes, effect must be given as far as possible to every part thereof: evidently the legislature had some object in providing that a vacancy should be filled “by a majority vote of all the members elected.” The number of members elected to said council was twelve, of which seven are required for a majority; if a majority of a quorum, or of the the number then constituting the council after one or more had died or resigned, had been intended, the leglature would have so provided by saying that a majority, of the council as then constituted, or a majority of a quorum, as might be
The writ of mandamus is refused.
Writ Refused.