State ex rel. Jones v. Washington County

• Decision Date: 22 January 1973
• Citation: 514 S.W.2d 51
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee ex rel. Carl. A. JONES, et al., Complainants-Appellants, v. WASHINGTON COUNTY, Tennessee, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals

Page 51

514 S.W.2d 51

STATE of Tennessee ex rel. Carl. A. JONES, et al Complainants-Appellants, v. WASHINGTON COUNTY, Tennessee, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

Court of Appeals of Tennessee, Western Section.

Jan. 22, 1973.

Frank Bryant and Bryant, Price, Brandt & Jordan of Johnson City, for complainants-appellants, State of Tenn. ex rel. Carl A. Jones and others.

Judson D. Thornton and Robert M. May, Jonesboro, for defendants-appellees, Washington County and others.

CARNEY, Presiding Judge.

Plaintiffs below, Carl A. Jones, T. W. Atkins, and Frank Bryant, citizens and residents of Washington County, Tennessee, have appealed from a decree of the Chancery Court of Washington County dismissing their original suit seeking to hold illegal and void a plan of reapportionment of the Justices of the Peace of Washington County adopted by the Washington County Court of date August 25, 1971, and amended January 24, 1972. The appellants' bill petitioned the Chancery Court to reapportion the county as provided by T.C.A. Section 5--111 and in accordance with the 'one man, one vote rule' established by Reynolds v. Sims (1963), 379 U.S. 870, 85 S.Ct. 12, 13 L.Ed.2d, 76, and other decisions of the Federal Courts.

The reapportionment plan divided Washington County into sixteen voting districts from each of which two Justices of the Peace were to be elected and also provided for eleven additional Justices to be elected from the county 'at large' making a total of 43 Justices of the Peace.

One of the grounds of illegality alleged by appellants is that the reapportionment of the districts was made from registration lists as furnished by the Election Commission Registrar of Washington County and not from actual census records of 1970.

The other ground of attack is that the reapportionment plan is in direct conflict with Article 6, Section 15, of the Tennessee Constitution which limits the Justices to two from each district except the district containing the county town which is allowed three.

First, we copy pertinent sections of the Tennessee Code and Constitution:

T.C.A. Section 5--110. 'District maps and boundaries.--The quarterly county court shall make or have made, a map showing civil districts of the county and, on the same or on a separate map, the county districts from which the members are elected to the quarterly county court and shall have typed or printed, a description of the boundaries of the civil districts and the county districts. A copy of the map or maps and the accompanying descriptions of the civil district boundaries and the county district boundaries, shall be filed with the county court clerk and a copy also shall be filed with the secretary of state. The quarterly county courts shall have until July 1, 1969, to comply with the foregoing provision as it concerns civil districts and until April 1, 1972, as it concerns other districts from which members of the court are elected. Revised maps shall be filed within ninety (90) days of any revision in any civil district or any other district from which members of the court are elected.'

T.C.A. Section 5--111. 'Reapportionment of justice of peace districts--Election.--Prior to January 1, 1972, the county courts of the different counties shall meet and, a majority of the acting justices of the peace being present and concurring, shall change the boundaries of districts or redistrict a county entirely if necessary to apportion the justices of the peace among the districts substantially according to population, so as to provide for substantially the same number of persons per justice of the peace in each of the districts. At the August 1972 election, justices of the peace shall be elected from the districts so provided.

'To determine the population within a district, United States census of population shall be used, but when United States census of population is not available the court may presume that the number of registered voters in a district is in direct proportion to the population within a district.

'Not later than each six (6) years following the first apportionment under the terms of this section, and each six (6) years thereafter the county courts, a majority of the acting justices of the peace being present and concurring, shall apportion the justices of the peace among the districts substantially according to population. A county court may reapportion the districts at a lesser interval than every six (6) years so that at the first election of justices following publication of the census results, justices may be elected from districts of substantially equal population.

'Upon application of any citizen of the county affected the chancery court of said county shall have original jurisdiction to review the county court's apportionment, and shall have jurisdiction to make such orders and decrees amending that apportionment to comply with this section, or if the county court fail to make apportionment, shall make a decree ordering an apportionment. (Acts 1968 (Adj.S.), ch. 599, §§ 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 12; 1972 (Adj.S.), ch. 615, § 1.)'

T.C.A. Section 5--112. 'Civil districts boundaries and record keeping.--The record keeping role of the present civil districts, shall be left undisturbed and the boundaries of civil districts shall be preserved as they exist at the time of the apportionment of the quarterly county courts. (Acts 1968, (Adj.S.), ch. 599, § 8.)'

Tennessee Constitution--Article 6, Section 15--'Districts in Counties--Justices and constables--Number--Term--Removal from district.--The different Counties of this State shall be laid off, as the General Assembly may direct, into districts of convenient size, so that the whole number in each County shall not be more than twenty-five, or four for every one hundred square miles. There shall be two Justices of the Peace and one Constable elected in each district by the qualified voters therein, except districts including County towns, which shall elect three Justices and two Constables. The jurisdiction of said officers shall be co-extensive with the County. Justices of the Peace shall be elected for the term of six, and Constables for the term of two years. Upon the removal of either of said officers from the district in which he was elected, his office shall become vacant from the time of such removal. Justices of the Peace shall be commissioned by the Governor. The Legislature shall have power to provide for the appointment of an additional number of Justices of the Peace in incorporated towns.

T.C.A. Section 19--102--'Number from each district.--For each district of every county, except those districts including county towns, two (2) justices of the peace shall be elected by the qualified voters therein. (. . . Acts 1968 (Adv.S.), ch. 599, § 11.)'

T.C.A. Section 19--103--'Number elected from county town district.--No district shall elect more than two (2) justices of the peace, except the district wherein the county town is located, which shall elect three (3). (Acts 1968 (Adj.S.), ch. 599, § 4.)'

The leading cases on the subject of reapportionment of state legislatures and subordinate legislative bodies are the cases of Baker v. Carr, (1962), 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663; Reynolds v. Sims, 379 U.S. 870, 85 S.Ct. 12, 13 L.Ed.2d 76; Vann v. Baggett, 379 U.S. 871, 85 S.Ct. 13, 13 L.Ed.2d 76; McConnell v. Baggett, 379 U.S. 871, 85 S.Ct. 13, 13 L.Ed.2d 77; Burns v. Richardson, 384 U.S. 73, 86 S.Ct. 1286, 16 L.Ed.2d 376; Avery v. Midland County, Texas, 390 U.S. 474, 88 S.Ct. 1114, 20 L.Ed.2d 45.

In the case of Hyden v. Baker (D.C. Cir.), 286 F.Supp. 475, and companion case of Bennett v. Elliott (D.C. Cir.), 294 F.Supp. 808, the Federal Court held that Article 6, Section 15, of the Constitution of Tennessee and T.C.A. Sections 19--101, 19--102, and 19--103, as applied to the apportionment of the Quarterly County Courts of Shelby and Washington Counties were void as violative of rights secured by the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

In Otis v. Boyd (D.C. Cir.), 294 F.Supp. 813, the Federal District Court approved a reapportionment plan for Sullivan County, Tennessee, which allowed 48 Justices of the Peace from 16 magisterial districts. One district had as many as eight Justices of the Peace, some districts elected three, and some districts elected only one. Hyden v. Baker, supra, approved the election of Justices of the Peace at large in Shelby County.

In Bennett v. Elliott, supra, the District Court disapproved of a proposed reapportionment plan for Washington County but overruled a contention by some of the parties that the plan which provided for the election of some Justices of the Peace at large was in violation of the Tennessee Constitution, Article 6, Section 15, which limited Justices of the Peace to two from each district. The Court, in Bennett v. Elliott, 294 F.Supp. 808, said, 'The ultimate measure of the plan's validity is the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and not state law.'

In Sudekum v. Hayes, Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (1969), 414 F.2d 41, the Circuit Court of Appeals, in a per curiam opinion, upheld the action of the District Judge in modifying a reapportionment plan for Sumner County, Tennessee. The modified plan provided for the election of six Justices of the Peace from four magisterial districts making a total of 24 Justices for the entire county.

The plan of reapportionment for Washington County, which was finally adopted on January 24, 1972, has never been reviewed by any federal court nor any other court in the State of Tennessee except the Chancery Court of Washington County from which court this appeal is taken.

Appellants insisted in the Court below and in this Court that Article 6, Section 15, of the Tennessee Constitution is no longer in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution because the General Assembly of Tennessee, by enactment of ...