State ex rel. Goebel v. Chamberlain

• Decision Date: 03 May 1898
• Citation: 75 N.W. 62,99 Wis. 503
• Parties: STATE EX REL. GOEBEL v. CHAMBERLAIN, COUNTY TREASURER.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

99 Wis. 503

75 N.W. 62

STATE EX REL. GOEBEL

v.CHAMBERLAIN, COUNTY TREASURER.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

May 3, 1898.

Appeal from circuit court, Langlade county; John Goodland, Judge.

Petition by Edward Goebel for mandamus to S. W. Chamberlain, county treasurer of Langlade county. Writ denied, and relator appeals. Affirmed.

This is an appeal by Edward Goebel from an order of the circuit court for Langlade county denying the writ of mandamus prayed for in said relator's petition. The petition stated, in substance, that said relator was the proprietor, editor, and publisher of the Antigo Herold, a German weekly newspaper printed and published at the city of Antigo, in Langlade county; that said paper had been regularly and continuously published in said county for more than six years then last past, and still continued to be so published; that March 25, 1897, the number of descriptions in the list of lands to be advertised for sale by the county treasurer for the year 1896 for taxes exceeded 4,000; that the respondent, S. W. Chamberlain, then county treasurer of said county, and acting as such, March 25, 1897, delivered to and left with the relator a printed notice, notifying him, in substance, that the number of descriptions of lands to be advertised for sale for the nonpayment of taxes for the year 1896 exceeded 4,000, and that he would let by contract the publication of the list to the lowest bidder, at his office in the court house in the city of Antigo, in said county, on April 6, 1897, at 10 o'clock in the forenoon, and that all publishers proposing to bid on such publication must comply strictly with the provisions of law concerning the same, and that no bids would be considered which failed so to do; that on the same day said Chamberlain delivered to and left with each and all the editors and publishers of papers in said county qualified to publish said tax list a similar notice; that thereafter, and prior to the time of opening said bids and letting of the contract, the said relator, as editor and publisher of the Antigo Herold, delivered to and left with the said county treasurer his bid, duly signed and sealed as by law required, agreeing to publish said list in the English language in said Antigo Herold for the sum of 18 cents for each and every description in said list contained, and at the same time, accompanying said bid, was said relator's bond for $5,000, duly executed as provided by statute, conditioned, among other things, that the work would be properly performed, and signed by five sureties, who each justified in the sum of $2,000. It was further alleged that the only other bid for said work was one made by John A. Ogden, editor and publisher of the Antigo Republican, who agreed to print and publish said list for 25 cents for each and every description therein, and these were the only bids submitted to said county treasurer; that, although the bid of the relator was the lowest, said county treasurer, S. W. Chamberlain, refused to act upon and accept said bid, and refused to award the publishing of said list to the relator, solely for the reason that the said Antigo Herold was a newspaper printed in the German language, and publishing said list in the English language in said paper would not be a legal publication; and that he still refused to award said relator said contract. Wherefore he prayed that a peremptory writ of mandamus might issue out of, and under the seal of, the court, requiring and commanding said S. W. Chamberlain, county treasurer aforesaid, to award said contract to the relator in accordance with his said bid. An alternative writ was issued as prayed, to which the defendant, in answer, alleged that the Antigo Herold was a newspaper printed and published in the German language, and not, in law, in the absence of the proper action of the county board of said county, authorized to bid, contract for, or publish said list, and prayed that the peremptory writ asked for be denied. Said matter coming on to be heard by the court upon argument, the court made an order that the writ prayed for be denied, without costs, from which order the relator appealed.

T. W. Hogan, for appellant.

John E. Martin, for respondent.

PINNEY, J. (after stating the facts).

The question to be determined is whether, under the statute, a delinquent county tax list can be lawfully published in a German newspaper, in the English language, if the newspaper is in every other respect...