Bordwell v. State
| Decision Date | 02 December 1905 |
| Citation | 91 S.W. 555 |
| Parties | BORDWELL et al. v. STATE et al. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Proceedings by the state and others against Henry Bordwell and others, to quash liquor licenses issued by the county judge. From a judgment quashing the licenses, defendants appeal. Reversed.
M. M. Stuckey, W. S. Wright, Gustave Jones, and Jno. W. & Jos. M. Stayton, for appellants. J. M. Bell, Joseph W. Philips, G. A. Hillhouse, O. W. Scarborough, and S. D. Campbell, for appellees.
On the 10th day of March, 1903, the state of Arkansas and J. E. Wilmans, and 11 other inhabitants of certain districts in the county of Jackson wherein the sale of liquor was prohibited by an order of a county court, instituted a proceeding in the Jackson circuit court against John M. Jones, county judge of said county, E. L. Boyce, county clerk, Henry Bordwell and four other liqour dealers, to quash the licenses granted to such dealers to sell liquor in said districts and in the city of Newport, in the year 1903, and to prohibit the sale of liquor therein. The circuit court rendered judgment quashing the licenses, prohibiting the county court of Jackson county from granting liquor license in the first ward of the city of Newport until after the general election to be held in the year 1904, and the operating of saloons within three miles of a certain Methodist Church in the town of Jacksonport; and the defendants appealed.
On the 22d day of January, 1901, the county court of Jackson county made an order prohibiting the sale of liquor within three miles of a certain church in the town of Jacksonport, on petition of the majority of the adult inhabitants of that district. The order was to continue in force for two years "and until upon a petition of a majority of the adult inhabitants of such territory" the county court shall make an order nullifying and revoking the same. The county court attempted to revoke it on the 21st day of February, 1903, but, on appeal to the circuit court, the county court was reversed and the prohibitory order was left in force. This was on the 3d day of July, 1903. On the 10th day of July, 1903, the county court, on the petition of what it found to be a majority of the adult inhabitants of the district, revoked the prohibitory order the second time. An appeal from the last order was taken to the circuit court, but the order was not superseded or suspended, and the appeal is still pending.
The board of election commissioners of Jackson county divided Union township in that county into two election precincts. One of these was the Second Ward of the city of Newport, and the other was the First Ward of that city and the remainder of that township. The place fixed for voting in the first-mentioned precinct was Stephen's livery stable in the Second Ward, and in the other precinct the hosehouse in the First Ward. The courthouse of Jackson county and Stephen's livery stable are in the Second Ward, in the same block, on the same street, and on the same side of it, and within a short distance of each other. The general election of the first Monday of September, 1902, for the precinct composed of the Second Ward, was held at the courthouse. There was a crowd assembled in front of the courthouse while the election was being held. Previous elections in the Second Ward were held at the courthouse, and there was a general expectation that the election of 1902 would be held at the same place. There is no reason to believe that any one lost his vote by it being so held. The general election of 1902, for the other precinct, was held at the hosehouse. The electors of the First Ward and of that part of Union township not included in Newport voted at that place. Territorially Newport is a small part of Union township.
On the 15th of September, 1902, the county board of election commissioners filed with the clerk of the county court of Jackson county a report of the result of the general election of 1902, including the vote for license and against license, from which it appears that a majority of the votes cast in the county and in the city of Newport, and in each ward and in Union township, were for license, but in the certificate appended to the report nothing is said about the vote for license or against license. On the 3d day of September, 1903, the county court of Jackson county, by a nunc pro tunc order, noted the filing of such report.
On the 21st day of February, 1903, the county court of Jackson county, immediately after the first revocation of the prohibitory order made on the 22d day of January, 1901, and before any appeal or supersedeas was allowed, granted licenses to the five...
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