Jones v. Lawless

• Decision Date: 26 March 1956
• Docket Number: No. 5-898,5-898
• Citation: 226 Ark. 110,288 S.W.2d 324
• Parties: A. M. JONES, Appellant, v. Henry LAWLESS, Appellee.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 324

288 S.W.2d 324

226 Ark. 110

A. M. JONES, Appellant, v.Henry LAWLESS, Appellee.

No. 5-898.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

March 26, 1956.

Gordon B. Carlton, DeQueen, for appellant.

Geo. E. Steel, Nashville, for appellee.

HOLT, Justice.

A petition signed by 63 qualified electors was filed in the Pike County Court for a special election in Pike County School DistrictNo. 1'for electing one member to the County Board of Education in Zone 4 Pike County, § 80-302 Ark.Stats.1947.'On March 30, 1955, this petition was granted by the County Court and an election was ordered to be held on April 30, 1955, at such place or places as the Board of Election Commissioners might designate.In apt time Pike County School DistrictNo. 1 published notice setting out that one of its purposes was 'to elect one County Board Member from Zone 4 for a regular term of 5 years.'Kirby School DistrictNo. 32 had caused to be published a similar notice for the same purpose.Following these notices the special election was held in accordance with the County Court order.Appellant says in his brief, 'The special election was held in School DistrictNo. 1 and Zone 4 of Pike County pursuant to the order of the County Court.'The Board of Election Commissioners on April 4, 1955, designated the Langley School House Building as the polling place in Pike County School DistrictNo. 1 and Zone 4, for the special election to be held on April 30, 1955.Thereafter (April 15, 1955) the Board of Directors of Kirby School DistrictNo. 32 gave notice that a special election would be held in Zone 4, School District 32, on April 30, 1955, and the Daisy School Building was designated as the polling place.The election was held and appellant Jones received a majority of the votes cast at the Langley box and appellee Lawless received a majority of the votes cast at the Daisy box.It is conceded that Lawless received a majority of the combined votes cast at Langley and Daisy boxes.

Pike County, in April 1941, was divided into four zones under Act 327 of 1941, Ark.Stats. § 80-201, and in that zoning order Kirby School District 32 was placed in Zone 3 and Daisy School District in Zone 4.In an order of the County Board of Education, February 28, 1949, Daisy School District 37 was dissolved and its territory annexed to Kirby School District 32 in Pike County.

In due course the Pike County Board of Election Commissioners, on May 4, 1955, filed with the Clerk of the County Court a report and certificate of the result of said election: that appellee Lawless had received 95 votes and Jones 66 votes in the special election, and that Lawless had been elected County Board Member for the regular term of five years from Zone 4.Thereafter on May 10, 1955, the County Court entered an order which contained this recital: 'This Court, after a careful analysis of the result, from a canvass of the returns, and from an examination of the Zoning Order of 12th of April, 1941 for Pike County, Arkansas, made from an examination of certain order of the County Board of Education made and entered on the 28th day of February, 1949, dissolving Daisy School DistrictNo. 37 of Pike County and annexing the territory thereof to Kirby School DistrictNo. 32 of Pike County; and from an examination of a Rezoning Order made by the County School Re-Districting Committee of Pike County on the 4th day of April, 1955, in accordance with Act 229 of the Acts of the General Assembly for 1953 and from other facts and records examined and construed, is of the opinion, and so finds, that the territory which, prior to the dissolution of the Daisy School District under the orders of the County Board of Education, together with the property, funds and obligations of every nature of said district were annexed to Kirby School DistrictNo. 32, and said territory has continuously since 1949 been a part of the Kirby School District, and by reason of the Kirby School District having been placed in Zone 3 of Pike County, became a part of said Zone 3.The Court further finds that, since the re-zoning action of the County School Re-districting Committee on the 30th day of April, 1955, without regard to other acts and orders of the Zoning and Re-Districting Committee, of the County Board of Education, or of the Board of Election Commissioners for Pike County, all of the territory embraced in the old Daisy School District of Pike County became a part of Zone 3 and that as a result of said Re-Zoning Order, without regard to other orders or facts, the electors of the old Daisy School District were without right to legally cast their votes at the special election of April 30, 1955, for the County Board Member to be elected for Zone 4, and that the election so held at the Daisy Schoolhouse was void and the votes there polled and counted and certified to the clerk of this court by the Board of Election Commissioners for Pike County cannot be legally counted or considered in determining the results of the election called and held on the 30th day of April, 1955, for the purpose of electing a County Board Member for Zone 4; that said box should be expunged from the record of the said election and that A. M. Jones, having received a majority of the votes cast and counted at...