State ex rel. Mickey v. Reneau

Decision Date20 December 1905
PartiesSTATE EX REL. MICKEY v. RENEAU, COUNTY CLERK, ET AL.
CourtNebraska Supreme Court

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Syllabus by the Court.

If a statute is incomplete, so that it cannot be complied with, without additional provisions that are not indicated by the act itself, the court cannot supply such defects, so as to give validity to the act.

Chapter 176, p. 659, Laws 1905, which purports to prescribe the method of selecting juries in counties having less than 30,000 inhabitants, is invalid, because its requirements cannot be complied with. The method provided is impossible of execution.

Application by the state, on the relation of John H. Mickey, for writ of mandamus to L. C. Reneau, county clerk of McPherson county, and others. Writ denied.Norris Brown, Atty. Gen., W. T. Thompson, Deputy Atty. Gen., and E. Falloon, for relator.

Wesley T. Wilcox, for respondents.

SEDGWICK, J.

In this case the writ of mandamus was denied because the “jury law” enacted in 1905 (Sess. Laws, p. 659, c. 176) was held to be invalid. The Constitution (article 1, § 6) provides: “The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate.” And section 13 is: “All courts shall be open, and every person, for any injury done him in his lands, goods, person or reputation, shall have a remedy by due course of law, and justice administered without denial or delay.” Under the provisions of the act in question, it would be impossible to obtain a jury in some of the counties of the state, and justice could not be regularly administered without delay. By section 2 (page 660) of the act it is enacted: “That upon the completion of the canvass of the election returns said board shall select at least 500 names from the tally sheet, provided that the tally sheet contains that many names, if the tally sheet does not contain 500 names, then from the actual number of names contained on said sheet, in all counties having less than 30,000 inhabitants, in the manner following: They shall divide the number of electors to be selected by the number of the voting precincts, and allot to each voting precinct the quotient or number thus obtained; then the board shall divide the number of names found upon each tally sheet of each voting precinct by the quotient or number allotted to each precinct, and then shall count from the top of the tally sheet of the precinct the number of names of this last quotient, the last name of which shall be selected and put into a receptacle as hereinafter...

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