Schiff v. Griffin

• Decision Date: 12 February 2002
• Docket Number: No. C9-01-1291.,C9-01-1291.
• Citation: 639 N.W.2d 56
• Parties: Gary SCHIFF, et al., Appellants, v. Susanne GRIFFIN, City of Minneapolis Director of Elections, Respondent.
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals

639 N.W.2d 56

Gary SCHIFF, et al., Appellants, v. Susanne GRIFFIN, City of Minneapolis Director of Elections, Respondent.

No. C9-01-1291.

Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

February 12, 2002.

Alan W. Weinblatt, Weinblatt & Gaylord, PLC, St. Paul, MN, for appellant.

Jay M. Heffern, Minneapolis City Attorney, Larry F. Cooperman, Assistant City Attorney, Kristi M. Lassegard, Assistant City Attorney, Minneapolis, MN, for respondent.

Considered and decided by WILLIS, Presiding Judge, CRIPPEN, Judge, and ANDERSON, Judge.

OPINION

G. BARRY ANDERSON, Judge.

Appellants, candidates for council member in the Minneapolis primary election of September 11, 2001, challenge the district court order denying their petition for correction of ballot error, arguing that (1) they had standing by legislative conferral to seek judicial review of the alleged error; and (2) the phrases "DFL/Labor Endorsed" and "DFL-Endorsed" are lawful designations of political party or political principle under applicable election law. Respondent argues that appellants' challenge is moot because the election is over. Although appellants' claim is justiciable, the district court correctly denied the petition. We affirm.

FACTS

On July 3, 2001, appellants Gary Schiff and Dean Kallenbach filed affidavits of candidacy for the office of council member in the September 11, 2001 Minneapolis city primary election. Affidavits of candidacy for council member in Minneapolis must include the candidate's "political party or political principle, stated in three words or less." Minneapolis, Minn., Code of Ordinances (MCO) ch. 2, § 5 (2001). The political party or political principle is placed on the ballot with the candidate's name. Id. Each appellant wrote "DFL/Labor-Endorsed" as his political party or political principle. Respondent Susanne Griffin, the acting Minneapolis Director of Elections, received the affidavits.

On July 12, 2001, respondent informed appellants that "DFL/Labor-Endorsed" is not an appropriate designation of political party or political principle under the MCO. Respondent notified Schiff and Kallenbach that

since you have selected "Democratic-Farmer-Labor" as your party choice, I intend to place those three words on the ballot as your designation of "party or principle."

Respondent noted that appellants could refile their affidavits of candidacy by July 17, 2001 if they wished to confirm or change the "party or principle" designation. Appellants did not refile their affidavits of candidacy.

On July 31, 2001, appellants filed a petition for correction of ballot error and an application for order to show cause in district court, pursuant to the "errors and omissions" provision of Minn.Stat. § 204B.44 (2000). That provision authorizes the court, upon the petition of "any individual," to act to prevent an error or omission in the placement or printing of the name or description of any candidate or any question on any official ballot.

In their petition and application, appellants challenged respondent's refusal to place the words "DFL/Labor Endorsed" as their political principle on the primary election ballot. Appellants argued that (1) a factual statement of endorsement is a lawful expression of political principle; (2) "DFL" and "Democratic-Farmer-Labor" should be considered one word for the purpose of the three-word maximum mandated by MCO ch. 2, § 5; and (3) respondent's decision to designate appellants' political principle as "Democratic Farmer Labor" was an arbitrary, capricious, and illegal abuse of her essentially "ministerial" duty to place each candidate's political principle on the ballot as the principle is stated on the affidavit. Appellants requested a court order compelling respondent to place the words "DFL-Endorsed" next to their names on the ballot.

The district court issued an order for respondent to show cause for refusing to grant appellants' request. Respondent argued that (1) the phrase "DFL/Labor-Endorsed" is not a lawful expression of political principle under MCO ch. 2, § 5; (2) the phrase "DFL/Labor-Endorsed" violates Minn.Stat. § 204B.35 (2000) by giving appellants an unfair advantage over other candidates; (3) appellants lacked standing to request that "DFL-Endorsed" be placed on the ballot because they had not written "DFL-Endorsed" on their affidavits of candidacy; and (4) because "Democratic-Farmer-Labor" and "DFL" consist of three words, the phrase "DFL-Endorsed" violates MCO ch. 2, § 5's three-word limit.

The district court denied appellants' petition to correct ballot error, finding that (1) appellants lacked standing to challenge respondent's actions; (2) the designation "DFL-Endorsed" is not a lawful political principle under MCO ch. 2, § 5; and (3) the designation "DFL-Endorsed" confers an unfair advantage on candidates so designated under Minn.Stat. § 204B.35. The district court did not address the issue of whether "DFL" or "Democratic Farmer Labor" is one word or three words for the purpose of MCO ch. 2, § 5. This appeal follows.

ISSUES

I. Did the district court err by finding that appellants lacked standing to file a petition to correct ballot error?

II. Did the district court err by finding that the phrases "DFL/Labor-Endorsed" and "DFL-Endorsed" are not legitimate designations of political party or political principle under Minneapolis, Minn., Code of Ordinances ch. 2, § 5 (2001) or Minn.Stat. § 204B.35?

III. Did respondent lawfully refuse to place appellants' designation of political principle, as stated on their affidavits of candidacy, on the primary ballot?

IV. Was appellants' petition to correct ballot error rendered moot after the election was held?

ANALYSIS

I.

Appellants challenge the district court's finding that they lacked standing to bring the petition for correction of ballot error, arguing that Minn.Stat. § 204B.44 (2000) broadly confers standing "on any individual" to allege ballot error, and that the district court impermissibly considered the merits of the petition and the nature of the relief sought in determining standing. We agree, and now hold that appellants had standing to bring the petition.

Whether a party has standing to sue is a question of law, which we review de novo. See Frost-Benco Elec. Ass'n v. Minn. Pub. Utils. Comm'n, 358 N.W.2d 639, 642 (Minn.1984)

; Joel v. Wellman, 551 N.W.2d 729, 730 (Minn.App.1996),

review denied (Minn. Oct. 29, 1996).

Standing is an aspect of justiciability that requires a party to have "a sufficient stake in a justiciable controversy to seek relief from a court." State by Humphrey v. Philip Morris Inc., 551 N.W.2d 490, 493 (Minn.1996)

(citation omitted). A determination of standing properly focuses on the party seeking to have a court decide the merits of a dispute "and not on the issues [the party] wishes to have adjudicated." Sundberg v. Abbott, 423 N.W.2d 686, 688 (Minn.App.1988) (quoting Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 99, 88 S.Ct. 1942, 1952, 20 L.Ed.2d 947 (1968)), review denied (Minn. June 29, 1988).

The legislature may confer standing on parties who might not otherwise meet judicially imposed standards for establishing standing. See Minn. Pub. Interest Research Group v. Minn. Dept. of Labor & Indus., 311 Minn. 65, 72, 249 N.W.2d 437, 441 (1976)

. When the legislature

has authorized public officials to perform certain functions according to law, and has provided by statute for judicial review of those actions under certain circumstances, the inquiry as to standing must begin with a determination of whether the statute in question authorizes review at the behest of the plaintiff.

Id. (quoting Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 732, 92 S.Ct. 1361, 1364-65, 31 L.Ed.2d 636, (1972)).

Minn.Stat. § 204B.44 provides:

Any individual may file a petition * * * for the correction of * * *

(a) An error or omission in the placement or printing of the name or description of any candidate or any question on any official ballot; * * *

* * * *

The petition shall be filed with * * * any judge of the district court in that county in the case of an election for county, municipal, or school district office.

This grant of standing has been broadly construed. See Clifford v. Hoppe, 357 N.W.2d 98, 100 n. 1 (Minn.1984)

("a registered voter has a sufficient interest in the election" to petition the court to correct a ballot error under Minn.Stat. § 204B.44 (citation omitted)); Moe v. Alsop, 288 Minn. 323, 325, 180 N.W.2d 255, 257 (1970) ("a person qualified to vote" can invoke the court's jurisdiction to hear a petition to correct ballot error); State ex. rel. Olson v. Scott, 105 Minn. 513, 516, 117 N.W. 1044, 1045 (1908) ("a candidate at a primary election" has a sufficient interest in the election to request an order to show cause concerning alleged errors or omissions in placing names on the official ballot).

Respondents correctly cite to Schroeder v. Johnson, 311 Minn. 144, 252 N.W.2d 851 (1976), for the proposition that the § 204B.44 does not authorize courts to correct candidates' errors, but only errors attributable to election officials. See id. at 145-46, 252 N.W.2d at 852 (holding that the legislature did not intend the statute to "correct errors or omissions resulting only from the candidate's inadvertence during the filing procedure"). But appellants are challenging respondent's alleged error, not asking to rectify their own, so Schroeder does not apply here.

The district court also denied appellants standing after concluding that their petition was substantively flawed and their requested remedy prohibited by Minn.Stat. § 204B.44. The court found that appellants did not have standing to seek placement of "DFL-Endorsed" on the ballot since they had not used that designation on their affidavits of candidacy. The court concluded that it lacked authority to revise the ballots when no error had occurred.

But a determination of standing must not be based on the substantive merits or prospective success of a claim. See Schlesinger v....