Lewis v. Gibbons

• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: Per Curiam
• Citation: Lewis v. Gibbons, 80 S.W.3d 461 (Mo. 2002)
• Decision Date: 05 August 2002
• Docket Number: No. SC 84651.,SC 84651.
• Parties: Garry D. LEWIS, Respondent. v. Roger M. GIBBONS, Appellant, State of Missouri, Intervenor.

80 S.W.3d 461

Garry D. LEWIS, Respondent v. Roger M. GIBBONS, Appellant State of Missouri, Intervenor.

No. SC 84651.

Supreme Court of Missouri, En Banc.

August 5, 2002.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Roger M. Gibbons, Osage Beach, for Appellant.

Keith W. Hicklin, Platte City, Kimberly J. Nicoli, Troy, for Respondent.

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., James R. Layton, State Solicitor, Karen P. Hess, Assistant Attorney General, Jefferson City, for Intervenor.

PER CURIAM.

Roger M. Gibbons and Garry D. Lewis filed as candidates for associate circuit judge for Knox County. Lewis challenged Gibbons' right to be on the ballot on the basis that Gibbons did not meet the one-year residency requirement of section 478.320.6.¹ After hearing, the trial court entered judgment for Lewis. Gibbons asserts that he meets the statutory requirement and, if not, that the requirement is invalid. This Court has jurisdiction. Mo. Const. article V, section 3.² Finding no error as to whether Gibbons meets the statutory requirement and finding that the statute is valid, the judgment is affirmed.

Gibbons moved to Knox County prior to his first birthday. He attended school in the county and worked in the county one year after graduating from high school. He then attended college in Columbia, Missouri, and law school in Kansas City, Missouri. Following graduation from law school in 1991, Gibbons worked for various law firms in the Kansas City area. In 1995, he relocated to the Lake of the Ozarks area. He owned a duplex, in which he lived, in Camden County and was a part-time prosecuting attorney in Miller County. His parents and siblings continued to live in Knox County, where he visited on holidays and weekends.

In 2001, Gibbons decided to stand for election as the associate circuit judge of Knox County. On October 20, 2001, he rented a house in Knox County on a month-to-month basis. He did not move into the house, place any furniture or clothing in the house, eat any meals in the house, stay overnight in the house, have any guests in the house, or have any telephone service to the house. On or about November 12, 2001, the landlord indicated he had made arrangements to sell the house and refunded the payment Gibbons had made. Gibbons then moved to a house owned by his mother and aunts. He does not pay rent for this house, but he does maintain it. Gibbons continues his employment in Miller County and maintains a law office and the duplex in Camden County.

Section 478.320.6 states:

6. No person shall be elected as an associate circuit judge unless he has resided in the county for which he is to be elected at least one year prior to the date of his election; provided that, a person who is appointed by the governor to fill a vacancy may file for election and be elected notwithstanding the provisions of this subsection.

The parties agree that the date of the relevant election is November 5, 2002. Gibbons contends he meets the requirement of section 478.320.6 because he has lived in Knox County one year prior to the election; i.e., the period prior to going to college. Lewis argued, and the trial court apparently agreed, that the relevant period was the one year immediately prior to the election.

Gibbons' statutory construction argument is that the words "at least one year prior to the date of his election" are satisfied by any one-year period prior to the election, however remote. He invokes the language of certain other residency statutes that are more specific. For example, he argues that if the legislature had intended to require that candidates reside in a county for at least one year "immediately" or "next" or "just" prior to the election, it could have done so expressly as it did in those particular statutes.³ He also notes that the Missouri Constitution often displays this type of specificity.⁴ The dissenting opinion also argues that this Court should construe the residency requirement narrowly, to refer to any cumulative year of living in a county at any time, because it deals with voting rights and, so, should be liberally construed.

But, the arguments made by Gibbons and the dissenting opinion fail to consider a number of other residency statutes that do not include such specific language. For example, section 64.350 requires that county planning and recreation commissioners be residents "for a period of five years prior to" the date of their appointment. Section 99.050 requires that housing authority commissioners reside in the city "for five years prior to" appointment. Section 226.030 requires that state highway commissioners shall be taxpayers and residents of the state "for at least five years prior to" appointment. Section 249.1112.1, RSMo Supp.2001, requires that sewer district board members reside in the district "for one whole year prior to" appointment. Section 262.217 requires that state fair commissioners shall be residents of the state "for five years prior to" appointment. Section 321.130.1 requires that fire district board members be a "voter of the district at least two years prior to" his or her election or appointment. Section 331.090.1 requires that state chiropractic board members shall have practiced chiropractic continuously "for a period of at least two years prior to" appointment. Section 339.120.1 requires that Missouri real estate commissioners reside in the state "at least one year prior to" appointment. Section 339.507.1 requires that members of the Missouri real estate appraisers commission be residents and registered voters of the state "for a period of one year prior to" appointment. Section 542.190 requires that special deputies, marshals and police officers be residents "for at least three years prior to" appointment. And, finally, in a slightly different context, section 36.050.2 requires that no personnel advisory board member "during the member's term of office, or for at least one year prior thereto, shall be a member of any local, state, or national committee of a political party ..."

Although one might wish that the legislature had drafted its statutes with the absolute uniformity, clarity, and precision of an English grammar teacher, it obviously did not do so. It is not our place to require that the legislature draft its statutes with that degree of precision.⁵ Instead, the primary rule of statutory construction is to ascertain the intent of the legislature from the language used, to give effect to the intent if possible, and to consider the words in their plain and ordinary meaning. Wolff Shoe Co. v. Director of Revenue, 762 S.W.2d 29, 31 (Mo. banc 1988). The construction of statutes is not to he hyper-technical, but instead is to be "reasonable and logical and [to] give meaning to the statutes." State ex rel. Rhodes v. Crouch, 621 S.W.2d 47, 49 (Mo. banc 1981). Although the legislature has chosen to write these various residency statutes in slightly different ways and with slightly different language, their plain meaning, as in the statute now before us, is clear.⁶ Indeed, Gibbons does not cite to any residency requirement, in Missouri or elsewhere, that has ever been construed to require residency during any period other than that immediately preceding the office or action at issue, whether or not the statute used the term "prior." This is because, quite simply, the purpose of the word "prior," read within the context of these statutes, includes within it the concept of immediacy, whether stated expressly or not. This is in accord with case law construing the word "prior" in other situations. Endicott v. Display Technologies, Inc., 77 S.W.3d 612 (Mo. banc 2002); Owens v. Norb Hackmann, Inc., 979 S.W.2d 941, 944 (Mo.App.1998)("a prior employer" was held to mean the immediate prior employer and not "any" prior employer). This plain meaning of the word is so understood that the argument Gibbons now makes was not even attempted in Chowning v. Magness, 792 S.W.2d 438 (Mo.App.1990)(courts and parties assumed statute referred to 12 months immediately prior to election). See also State ex rel. Nixon v. Jewell, 70 S.W.3d 465, 466 (Mo.App.2001); Trusler v. Tate, 941 S.W.2d 794, 797 and 799 (Mo.App. 1997).

The purpose of residency statutes is to ensure that governmental officials are sufficiently connected to their constituents to serve them with sensitivity and understanding. To adopt the reading of this statute proposed by Gibbons would permit a person to live in a county between the age of birth and 18 months, to leave the county and to return 50 or 60 years later and be eligible to run. Such an interpretation is obviously inconsistent with the intention of the legislature, unreasonable and absurd. "Construction of statutes should avoid unreasonable or absurd results." Murray v. Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission, 37 S.W.3d 228, 233 (Mo. banc 2001).

If the 12 months prior to the election is the relevant period, Gibbons contends he meets this requirement. As noted in Chowning v. Magness, at 439, this case was tried without a jury and is, therefore, reviewable under Rule 73.01. That review is governed by the constraints imposed in Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30, 32 (Mo. banc 1976). The judgment of the trial court must be sustained unless there is no substantial evidence to support it, unless it is against the weight of the evidence, unless it erroneously declares the law, or unless it erroneously applies the law. Id. In considering whether the judgment of the trial court is "against the weight of the evidence," this Court may exercise its power to set aside the judgment of the trial court only with caution and only if it possesses a firm belief that the judgment is wrong. Id. In undertaking this review, this Court is mindful of the opportunity of the trial court to have judged the credibility of the witnesses and gives due regard thereto. Rule 73.01(c)(2). The trial court's finding that Gibbons was not a resident "one year prior to the date of his election" is...