Dodd v. Lorenz
| Decision Date | 23 June 1930 |
| Docket Number | 40354 |
| Citation | 231 N.W. 422,210 Iowa 513 |
| Parties | J. W. DODD, Appellant, v. WILLIAM LORENZ, Appellee |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Tama District Court.--CLARENCE NICHOLS, Judge.
This is an election contest. The votes of three voters were rejected by the trial court, and the contestant appeals.
Reversed.
Thomas & Thomas and William S. Anderson, for appellant.
C. B Stiger and M. W. Hyland, for appellee.
At the general election of November 6, 1928, appellant and appellee were opposing candidates for the office of county supervisor for the second supervisor district in Tama County, Iowa. It is admitted that the appellant received 1,299 votes at said election, and the appellee 1,298. This appeal involves a challenge lodged against the qualifications of three voters all of whom voted for the appellant. These three voters were school-teachers, engaged in teaching in the public schools of Traer, in the election district. The only evidence adduced was that of the said three teachers. All of them were unmarried. It is essential that we review their evidence at some length.
The witness Lucile Hayes testified, in substance, that she graduated from Grinnell College in June, 1927, and while attending said college, she lived with her grandparents at Grinnell. Her parents and grandparents all lived together at Grinnell during her college days, except for about a year when they maintained separate homes, during which time she stayed with her grandparents. She signed a contract to teach in Traer in April, 1927, and went to Traer for the purpose of entering upon her work the first of September, 1927. During the preceding summer she had been on a trip in the west. Her contract was for a period of nine months, beginning September 1, 1927. She spent the Thanksgiving vacation and the Christmas vacation at Grinnell. Part of the spring vacation she spent at Oskaloosa, and part at another place. In March, 1928, she signed a new contract to teach said school for another nine-months period, commencing September 1, 1928. She spent about half of the summer of 1928 at her grandfather's home at Grinnell, and traveled part of the time in various places. During the summer of 1928 she stored part of her things in the home where she lived in Traer. She returned to Traer September 1, 1928, and resumed her work of teaching. She spent her Thanksgiving vacation in 1928 with her grandparents in Grinnell. At that time her father and mother had removed permanently to a new home in Muscatine. The Christmas vacation she spent at her grandparents' home. In April, 1929, she again entered into a contract to teach in Traer for the following year. That summer, she was in Grinnell for about two weeks, and the remaining time she was on a trip in the east. During the summer of 1928, when she was not traveling, she was at her grandparents' home in Grinnell. She was absolutely self-supporting. The source of her income was from her teaching. She had prepared herself for the teaching profession. She testified, on cross-examination, that, when she came to Traer, she did not know how long she would be there, but intended to continue her employment there after the first nine-months contract had expired, in case a contract was given her. She testified that she intended to stay there for three or four years, if things were suitable to her and to the school board. She received no support from her parents. She testified that she considered her residence as Traer; that she had a banking account there; that her interest in the community was there, and not at Grinnell, nor at Muscatine, where her parents lived. She said that she had no intention of returning to Grinnell as her home, and had merely been there to visit with her relatives. Her own mother died when she was a year old, and her father had remarried; and she testified that she looked upon her grandparents' home at Grinnell as her home until she graduated from college, and that, when she left Grinnell and came to Traer, she intended to make her residence and home where she taught. She considered it her residence when she came there to spend the teaching year, and was changing it from Grinnell to Traer. She testified that she had a room at her grandfather's at Grinnell; that she took her pictures and a couple of rugs to Traer with her, and what she did not need to make her comfortable at Traer, she left at Grinnell. She had never gone to Muscatine to live with her people. She testified that she intended to go to the place where she had a teaching contract, and make that her home, and that she intended to make Traer her home as long as she had a teaching contract there, but to return to her grandparents or go to her parents when her teaching was finished.
The witness Mayme Christ testified that she was engaged as a school-teacher at Traer in August, 1927, and came there in September, 1927, and was engaged to teach for nine months; that her contract was her sole reason for going to Traer; that her parents lived at Cresco, Iowa. She spent some time with them after September 1, 1927, but not all of the time. The Thanks-giving vacation she spent at her parents' home in Cresco, and also the Christmas vacation. The summer of 1928 she spent partly at Cresco and partly at school at Iowa City. Prior to entering into the contract to teach at Traer, she resided with her parents at Cresco. She had taught a rural school in Howard County. She renewed her contract at Traer for the year beginning September 1, 1928, for nine months. At the time of the trial, she testified that she had spent her time since school closed, in June, 1929, at Cresco. She was educated for the teaching profession at Cedar Falls, and obtained her education with the intent to follow the teaching profession. She was self-supporting, and when she came to Traer, did not know how long she would remain there. She testified that she intended to make Traer her home during the time she was employed there, and intended to return to her parents' home at the expiration of her employment, but expected to remain at Traer as a resident as long as she was employed there. She was born in Cresco. She testified that she did not think she ever gave up Cresco "as a sort of a home;" that she intended to make her home where she was teaching, and expected to return to Cresco at the expiration of her teaching, if she did not have anything else to do.
The witness Effie Wylie testified that she taught at Traer beginning September 1, 1928, and had a contract for teaching for a period of 9 months. She graduated from the Gilman High School at Gilman, Iowa, in June, 1923, and had resided in Gilman or vicinity for 16 years, more or less, prior to 1923, living with her parents for 14 years, and with an uncle for 2 years. Upon completing her contract at Traer in the spring of 1929, she went to her parents' home near Gilman. In 1923, 1924, and 1925, she attended the State College at Ames, spending her vacations at her parents' home. In the summer of 1926, she was employed elsewhere, and from September, 1926, to June, 1927, she was engaged as a teacher in the public schools of Salem, Iowa. She graduated from the State College at Ames in June, 1928, and in September, 1928, went to Traer to teach. She further testified that her reason for being at Traer was her contract to teach; that, to the best of her knowledge, her residence in the future will be in Tucson, Arizona; that she held a state teacher's certificate, and has followed the profession of teaching for a livelihood after her graduation from the State College; that she was self-supporting; that, when she came to Traer, on September 1, 1928, she did not know how long she would stay there, but intended to make her home there as long as she was employed there; and that she boarded and lodged at Traer during her employment there.
There is no very substantial difference in regard to the status of the three witnesses in question, as to their qualifications to vote. The case presents the one question as to whether or not an adult, unmarried woman, who is engaged in the profession of teaching, and who has a contract to teach for a period of nine months, and who enters upon said contract with the intention of making the place of performance of said contract her home, and of residing there during the completion of said contract, and longer if her employment continues at said place, is a qualified voter at said place where she is so employed. Our Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, defines the qualifications of a voter, and provides that such voter "shall have been a resident of this state six months next preceding the election, and of the county in which he claims his vote sixty days." The question, then, narrows itself to the proposition as to whether these three parties were "residents" of the voting precinct in which they voted. The cases almost universally interpret the word "residence" in election statutes as meaning "domicile." Vanderpoel v. O'Hanlon, 53 Iowa 246, 5 N.W. 119; Moffett v. Hill, 131 Ill. 239 (22 N.E. 821); Elam v. Maggard, 165 Ky. 733 (178 S.W. 1065); Berry v. Wilcox, 44 Neb. 82 (62 N.W. 249); State ex rel. Goldsworthy v. Aldrich, 14 R.I. 171.
The presumption is that...
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