State ex rel. Lightle v. Glass, 83-1626
| Decision Date | 03 November 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-1626,83-1626 |
| Citation | 8 OBR 72,455 N.E.2d 1275,8 Ohio St.3d 1 |
| Parties | , 8 O.B.R. 72 The STATE, ex rel. LIGHTLE, Relator, v. GLASS, Auditor, Respondent. |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
Spater, Gittes & Terzian, Frederick M. Gittes and Gordon G. Hobson, Columbus, for relator.
James A. Berry, Pros. Atty., Kenneth M. Elder and Thomas W. Wilson, Springfield, for respondent.
On March 29, 1983, the Clark County Board of Commissioners, pursuant to R.C. 5739.021 and 5741.021, adopted two resolutions imposing additional sales and use taxes in Clark County. Relator, Frank R. Lightle, as a citizen and a taxpayer of Clark County and a member of the Committee for More Effective Taxation ("CMET"), participated in the circulation of a petition seeking to submit these resolutions to a referendum as provided by R.C. 305.31. On April 28, 1983, a petition containing several part petitions was submitted to respondent, Clark County Auditor.
The petition remained in respondent's hands without event until August 5, 1983, when certain Clark County taxpayers filed a complaint for a writ of prohibition in the Court of Appeals for Clark County, seeking to prohibit respondent from certifying the resolutions subject to the petition to the Clark County Board of Elections ("board of elections") on the ground that the petition was invalid. CMET participated in the action as amicus curiae.
On October 5, 1983, the court of appeals held that the petition was defective, but refused to issue the writ of prohibition on the ground that it sought to control a discretionary act. The court held that it was within respondent's discretion to evaluate the petition's validity and act accordingly. State, ex rel. Suver, v. Glass (Oct. 5, 1983), Clark App. No. 1875, unreported.
On October 7, 1983, respondent announced that the petition did not comply with R.C. 305.32 or 305.33. He refused to certify the petition to the board of elections.
On October 18, 1983, relator filed an original action in mandamus in this court seeking to compel respondent to certify the texts of the resolutions to the board of elections ostensibly to be placed on the ballot for November 8, 1983.
R.C. 305.31 states in part that the "county auditor shall, after ten days, and not later than * * * the seventy-fifth day before the day of election, certify the text of the resolution * * *." (Emphasis added.) Applying this time frame to the facts of the instant case it can be seen that if respondent has a clear legal duty, the time during which he should have performed it was somewhere between May 9, 1983 and August 25, 1983. Relator's right, if one exists, ripened on August 25, 1983. He nevertheless waited more than fifty days to exercise his right.
In State, ex rel. Friedlander, v. Myers (1934), 128 Ohio St. 568, 192 N.E. 737 , this court was faced with a case similar to the...
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State ex rel. White v. Franklin Cty. Bd. of Elections
...complaints or otherwise denied extraordinary relief in election-related cases due to laches. See, e.g., State ex rel. Lightle v. Glass (1983), 8 Ohio St.3d 1, 8 OBR 72, 455 N.E.2d 1275 (writ of mandamus to certify resolutions for placement on ballot denied because complaint filed approximat......