Ragle v. Mattox

• Decision Date: 19 December 1902
• Docket Number: 19,981
• Citation: 65 N.E. 743,159 Ind. 584
• Parties: Ragle v. Mattox
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

65 N.E. 743

159 Ind. 584

Ragle v. Mattox

No. 19,981

Supreme Court of Indiana

December 19, 1902

From Sullivan Circuit Court; O. B. Harris, Judge.

From a judgment of the circuit court reversing the action of the board of commissioners in refusing to grant to Alonzo Mattox a license to sell intoxicating liquors, John Ragle remonstrator, appeals. Transferred from Appellate Court under § 1337u Burns 1901.

Reversed.

J. T Hays, W. R. Nesbit and W. H. Hays, for appellant.

A. D. Leach, for appellee.

OPINION

Dowling, J.

The appellee filed with the board of commissioners of Sullivan county his application for a license to sell spirituous, vinous, malt, and other intoxicating liquors at retail, under the act of March 11, 1895 (Acts 1895, p. 248, §§ 7283a-7283k Burns 1901). At the proper time the appellant appeared and filed a remonstrance against the granting of such license, signed by himself, and also by a majority of the voters of the township in which the premises of the petitioner were situated, all of whose names had been subscribed by the appellant as the attorney in fact of such remonstrants. The board of commissioners sustained the remonstrance, and refused to grant the applicant a license. An appeal was taken by the appellee to the circuit court, and upon a trial of the cause there was a special finding with conclusions of law thereon, and a judgment in favor of the appellee.

The conclusions of law were as follows: "(1) That the said remonstrance is invalid and void, and said remonstrance should be dismissed; (2) that said Alonzo Mattox is entitled to receive a license, and a license should be granted to him to sell intoxicating liquors, of the kind and in the premises specified in his application, in Jackson township, Sullivan county, Indiana." The errors assigned are upon the conclusions of law.

The contention of the appellee is that the appellant had no authority to sign the names of the remonstrants to the paper filed with the board, for the reason that the power of attorney, under which he claimed to act, did not contain the name of the appellee, but was general in its character, and directed against all applicants for license. So much of the power of attorney as is involved in this controversy is in these words: "We, the undersigned, residents and voters of Jackson township, in Sullivan county, State of Indiana, do hereby respectively authorize John Ragle and Albert J. Zink or...