Skidmore v. Fuller, 115
| Decision Date | 19 April 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 115,No. 36350,115,36350 |
| Citation | 59 Wn.2d 818,370 P.2d 975 |
| Court | Washington Supreme Court |
| Parties | Betty A. SKIDMORE, Respondent, v. W. C. FULLER, Clerk, Board of Directors of Colville School District, a municipal corporation, Appellant. |
Raftis & Raftis, Colville, for appellant.
Robert D. Skidmore, Colville, for respondent.
This is an action involving a petition to recall W. C. Fuller and others who are directors of Colville School District No. 115. The action was commenced through an application for a writ of mandate, in which the respondent alleged that she had complied with the law respecting the initiation of a recall and that the appellant, the person whose duty it was to formulate a ballot synopsis of the charges contained in the demand for recall, had failed to perform this duty. She prayed that the court order the appellant to prepare such a synopsis.
In reference to the recall of elective officers, amendment 8, Art. 1, § 33, of the Washington constitution provides that every elective public officer of the state is subject to recall and discharge by the legal voters of the state or subdivision thereof from which he was elected whenever a petition is filed: (a) demanding his recall; (b) reciting that he has committed some act of malfeasance or misfeasance while in office, or has violated his oath of office; (c) stating the matters complained of; and (d) signed by a percentage of the qualified electors specified in the amendment.
RCW 29.82.010 provides that when any legal voter shall desire to demand a recall and discharge under the provisions of this section of the constitution, he shall prepare a typewritten charge naming the officer and giving the title of his office, and reciting that such officer has committed an act or acts of malfeasance or misfeasance while in office or has violated his oath of office, which demand shall state the act or acts complained of in concise language without unnecessary repetition, and shall be signed by the voter and verified.
The petition shall be filed with an officer whose duty it is to receive and file petitions for nomination of candidates for the office. RCW 29.82.015.
RCW 29.82.020 provides that the officer shall determine whether the acts complained of are acts of misfeasance or malfeasance or a violation of the oath of office, and if they are sufficient, he shall formulate a ballot synopsis of such charge, not to exceed two hundred words.
Upon being notified of the language of the ballot synopsis, the person filing the charge shall cause it to be printed in a certain manner. RCW 29.82.030. Thereafter the requisite signatures must be obtained.
The acts alleged by the respondent in her demand for recall were as follows:
'That the said William C. Fuller, after request by Betty A. Skidmore, pursuant to RCW 28.67.070, Laws of the state of Washington, for a hearing on the action by the board of directors of said district in failing to renew her teaching contract, and prior to the date of said hearing on April 17, 1961, did conspire and agree with the remaining members of said board of directors that each would vote for reaffirmance of the decision of said board without regard to the evidence presented at said hearing, and did, in furtherance of said conspiracy and agreement, conduct or participate in the conduct of said hearing in an arbitrary and capricious manner, suppressing or attempting to suppress relevant evidence and testimony offered in behalf of said teacher, and did thereafter vote to reaffirm the decision of said board in accordance with said conspiracy and agreement, without attempting in good faith to seek a determination at said hearing whether good cause existed for the nonrenewal of the contract of said teacher.
'That the Washington Education Association (hereinafter referred to as the WEA) is the duly recognized and existing professional organization of teachers and administrators of the public schools of the state of Washington, whose members consist of teachers and administrators in nearly all school districts in the state, including the said Colville School District No. 115. That on or about May 19, 1961, in accordance with recognized procedure, the Executive Committee of the WEA, at the request of the Stevens County Education Association, a subsidiary unit of the WEA, duly authorized the Ethics Commission of the WEA to appoint a committee to investigate the personnel relations situation in the Colville School District No. 115, and that Margaret Weed, Eugene McNamara and Roy Cope were duly appointed as members of said investigating committee.
'That on or about June 9, 1961, the said William C. Fuller, while a director of said Colville School District No. 115, and acting in concert with the remaining members of said board of directors, did willfully, knowingly and maliciously make or subscribe to, and cause to be printed, published and widely circulated in the Statesman-Examiner, a newspaper of general circulation in said district, the following false and defamatory statements concerning the said WEA, its officers and members, and the said members of said investigating committee, to-wit: that they were not impartial; that they were a pressure group; that they had pre-judged the subject matter of the pending investigation of personnel relations in said school district and that they were injecting themselves in an obvious attempt either to interfere with or assume the lawful functions of the school board and the court, and further referring to and describing said pending investigation as a 'witchhunt,' all of which statements and accusations were false and without foundation in fact, and which were made by the said William C. Fuller without honest belief of their truth or fairness or without reasonable grounds for such belief, and without a fair and impartial investigation of the truth thereof.
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...the purview of the courts in the absence of an attack upon the constitutionality of the legislation involved); Skidmore v. Fuller, 59 Wash.2d 818, 822, 370 P.2d 975 (1962) (the truth or falsity of the allegations in a recall demand is a political question to be determined by the voters); Ca......
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