Perkins v. Ledbetter

• Decision Date: 26 January 1891
• Citation: 68 Miss. 327,8 So. 507
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: W. H. PERKINS ET AL. v. M. V. B. LEDBETTER

8 So. 507

68 Miss. 327

W. H. PERKINS ET AL. v. M. V. B. LEDBETTER

Supreme Court of Mississippi

January 26, 1891

FROM the circuit court of Monroe county, HON. LOCK E. HOUSTON Judge.

Ledbetter the appellee, desiring to obtain license to retail intoxicating liquors in Aberdeen, Monroe county, filed a petition with the corporate authorities, as provided by chap 39, code 1880. The said county never having held an election under the "local option" law of 1886, said petition was filed under the provisions of the code, and when published and filed was signed by a majority of the legal voters of said city. A counter-petition, signed by appellant and many others, was presented, and a controversy arose before the city authorities as to which petition contained a majority of the legal voters. Several names signed to the petition had been procured to be signed to the counter-petition, but before the latter was filed some of those who had signed it were prevailed on to petition the board of selectmen to have their names erased from the counter-petition and again placed on the petition. Pending the consideration of the application, several other changes were made, and certain names of persons, not deemed to be legal voters, were stricken from the petition.

After considering the matter the board of selectmen decided that the petition, after all the changes were made, did not contain a majority of the legal voters of the city, and refused the application. On appeal to the circuit court this decision was reversed, and the case comes to the supreme court on an appeal taken in behalf of the counter-petitioners.

Judgment reversed.

Sykes & Richardson, for appellants.

E. H. Bristow and Houston & Reynolds, for appellee.

OPINION

CAMPBELL, J.

All that has been urged in support of the action of the circuit court, in reversing the order of the municipal authorities of the city of Aberdeen, and granting license to sell vinous and spirituous liquor by retail in Aberdeen, may be admitted, and still the judgment of the circuit court must be reversed, and vacated, and the order of the authorities reinstated.

The circuit court proceeded on an erroneous conception of the admirable law entitled "An act in relation to the sale of vinous and spirituous liquors," in the code of 1880, by which, happily, this case is governed, since it has not been superseded in Monroe county by that mischievous law, approved March 11, 1886, miscalled a "local option law."

The code chapter cited provides a simple, direct, inexpensive and complete system by which the will of every local community constituting a supervisor's district or an incorporated town may be manifested to...