McClain v. Church

• Decision Date: 12 June 1930
• Docket Number: 5022
• Court: Utah Supreme Court
• Parties: McCLAIN v. CHURCH, Mayor

289 P. 88

76 Utah 170

McCLAIN v. CHURCH, Mayor

No. 5022

Supreme Court of Utah

June 12, 1930

Application by H. E. McClain against John Church, Mayor of Eureka City, for a writ of prohibition to restrain him from casting the decisive vote to fill a vacancy in the city council.

An alternative writ having issued, the same was recalled, and the permanent writ denied.

C. N Leatherbury, of Eureka, for plaintiff.

Claude F. Baker, of Eureka, for defendant.

STRAUP J. CHERRY, C. J., and EPHRAIM HANSON and FOLLAND, JJ concur. ELIAS HANSEN, J. dissenting.

OPINION

STRAUP, J.

The electorate of the city of Eureka, in Juab county, in electing a mayor and a city council of five members, divided into factions or parties called the "citizens" on the one side and the "taxpayers" on the other. The citizens elected the mayor and two councilmen, the taxpayers three councilmen. The municipal government of the city so functioned until recently, when one of its councilmen, a taxpayer, died. The statute requires the vacancy to be filled by the city council, by the four remaining councilmen, the two citizens and the two taxpayers. Each faction insisting the vacancy be filled by a member of its party, the four members are voting two to two for their respective nominees, with no choice. The mayor threatens to break the tie vote by voting with the two citizen councilmen. The taxpayer councilmen assert the mayor is not entitled to cast a vote on such a subject or proposition. Their opponents and the mayor assert the contrary.

On a petition of the city marshal, a taxpayer, an alternative writ of prohibition was granted by us temporarily restraining the mayor from casting the decisive vote. The marshal avers that the mayor is but an executive officer, is not a member of the city council, has no vote in the selection to fill the vacancy though the vote of the councilmen is a tie, and that the threatened action of the mayor is unauthorized and unlawful. The mayor demurs and asserts the right to vote on all questions coming before the council, when the vote of its members constituting a quorum is a tie. Eureka is a city of the third class, having a mayor and a city council of five members, all elected at large. The statutes bearing on the question are as follows:

Section 533, Comp. Laws Utah 1917, which provides that the municipal government of all cities of the third class is vested in a mayor and city council and that the city council shall be composed of five members chosen at large by the qualified voters of the city; section 536, that the mayor is the chief executive of cities of the third class; section 539, that "in cities of the third class, the mayor shall preside at all meetings of the city council, but shall not vote except in case of a tie, when he shall give the casting vote"; section 548, that "if any vacancies shall occur in the office of councilmen by death, resignation, removal, or otherwise, such vacancy shall be filled for the unexpired term by appointment of the city council from the ward in which the vacancy occurs"; section 551, that the majority of the council elected shall constitute a quorum to do business; section 553, that the city council shall sit with open doors and keep a journal of its own proceedings and that "the yeas and nays shall be taken upon the passage of all ordinances and all propositions to create any liability against the city, and in all other cases at the request of any member, which shall be entered upon the journal of its proceedings. The concurrence of a majority of the members elected to the city council shall be necessary to the passage of any such ordinance or proposition; provided, that in cities where there are an even number of councilmen the consent or concurrence of one-half of the councilmen elected shall be sufficient to confirm an appointment or concur in the removal of an appointive officer"; section 601, that "in cities of the third class the mayor, by and with the advice and consent of the council, may appoint all such officers and agents as may be provided for by law or ordinance, and in like manner fill all vacancies among the same, except as otherwise provided by law"; and section 602, that, except as otherwise provided by law, the term of office of all appointive officers shall be until the municipal election next following their appointment and until their successors are duly appointment and qualified, unless, in cities of the third class, sooner removed by the mayor with the concurrence of a majority of the members of the city council or by the city council with the concurrence of the mayor.

Under the statute it is clear that the mayor is a mere executive and a presiding officer, the city council the legislative body, and that the mayor has no vote concerning subjects or questions before the council, "except in case of a tie," and as by section 539 provided. It is just as as clear that the filling of a vacancy in the council is not by appointment of the mayor by and with the advice and consent of the council as provided for appointments under section 601, but by the city council itself as by section 548 provided. The mayor not being a member of the city council or governing body, and having functions only of an executive or administrative character (2 Dillon, Municipal Corps. [5th Ed.] § 513; 2 McQuillin, Municipal Corps. [2d Ed.] § 620), and, as clearly indicated by our statute, the controlling question is where there is a tie vote, as here of all of the remaining elected members of the council, constituting a quorum, may the mayor cast the decisive vote in filling the vacancy? Looking alone at section 539, that the mayor shall preside "at all meetings of the city council, but shall not vote except in case of a tie, when he shall give the casting vote," it would seem he was authorized to give the casting vote in all cases "of a tie," except as to matters referred to in section 553 or other matters requiring a favorable vote of a designated number of elected or other members of the council. His power to do so is not restricted or limited to any particular question or subject except as controlled by other provisions of the statute. Under a statute, "in case of a tie vote in the city council upon any question whatever, the mayor shall have the right to vote and shall decide the question in dispute," it was held (Hecht v. Coale, 93 Md. 692, 49 A. 660) that he had the power to cast the deciding vote on all questions of a tie vote of the council. While such language is a little different from our statute, yet in effect is no broader. The same result was reached by the Connecticut court in State v. Pinkerman, 63 Conn. 176, 28 A. 110, 22 L.R.A. 653, under a statute which provided that the mayor had the "casting vote only in case of a tie." So too by the Illinois court, in the case of Carrollton v. Clark, 21 Ill.App. 74, 79, under a statute providing that "the mayor shall preside at all meetings of the city council, but shall not vote except in case of a tie, when he shall give the casting vote." So also in Brown v. Foster, 88 Me. 49, 33 A. 662, 31 L.R.A. 116. By a "casting vote" is meant when the assembly or council is equally divided. Wooster v. Mullins, 64 Conn. 340, 30 A. 144, 25 L.R.A. 694. In considering cases, the statutes of the respective jurisdictions must also be considered. The New York statute limited the right of the president of the council to vote on resolutions and ordinances submitted in case of a tie and hence could not vote on other matters though there was a tie. People ex rel. Argus Co. v. Bresler, 171 N.Y. 302, 63 N.E. 1093. To that effect is also Cate v. Martin, 70 N.H. 135, 46 A. 54, 48 L.R.A. 613. However, the chief contention of the petitioner is that under section 553, "all propositions to create any liability against the city * * * the concurrence of a majority of the members elected to the...