Butler v. Mills

• Decision Date: 04 January 1896
• Parties: BUTLER et al. v. MILLS et al.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 632

33 S.W. 632

BUTLER et al. v. MILLS et al.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

January 4, 1896.

Appeal from circuit court, Little River county; William P. Feazel, Judge.

S. S. P. Mills and others petitioned for removal of county seat. J. T. Butler and others were made parties to the proceedings, and appeal from a judgment ordering an election on the subject. Affirmed.

J. C. Head, for appellants. L. H. Byrne and Jones & McCain, for appellees.

BUNN, C. J.

This is an appeal from the Little River circuit court, from a judgment therein rendered affirming the judgment of the county court on appeal therefrom, ordering an election on the subject of a removal of the county seat of that county. There were, at the time of the presentations for removal under the statute, as shown by the return of the assessor made next before that time, to wit, on the 15th August, 1894, 2,030 voters in Little River county; and the four petitions presented to the county for removal, in behalf of Millikin, Rocky Comfort, Ashdown, and the Younse Place, contained 450, 125, 175, and 19 names of unchallenged voters, respectively; making in the aggregate the number of 769 undisputed names of voters asking for removal, but for the different places as aforesaid. One-third of the legal voters was 677. Thus, the aggregate number of petitioners for removal to the four several places from the existing county seat was 92 voters in excess of the requisite one-third named in the statute. The only question before us is, was the county court authorized to order the election under section 945, Sand. & H. Dig., on the petition of more than one-third of the voters of the county, expressed in four several petitions for removal, but each to its own place, where each or no one of said petitions contained the names of the requisite one-third of the voters of the county?

The 945th section of the Digest is in the following language, to wit: "Whenever the qualified voters of any county in this state to the number of one third thereof shall join in the petition to the county court of such county for the change or removal of the county seat, embodying in the petition the designation and abstract of title and terms and conditions of the sale or donation, as provided for and required by section 943, the county court shall order an election to be held at the several voting places in the county, directing that the proposition of the petitioners for the change or removal, shall be submitted to the qualified voters." It will be observed that the word "petition" is used in the singular number in this section, and, from that circumstance, it might reasonably be inferred, and is in fact contended, that the one petition — that is...