State ex rel. Police Jury v. Judge Second Judicial District Court

• Decision Date: 01 January 1891
• Docket Number: 10,766
• Citation: 43 La.Ann. 125,9 So. 348
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: THE STATE EX REL. POLICE JURY ET AL. v. JUDGE SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT

9 So. 348

43 La.Ann. 125

THE STATE EX REL. POLICE JURY ET AL. v. JUDGE SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT

No. 10,766

Supreme Court of Louisiana

January 1, 1891

APPLICATION for Mandamus.

J. A W. Lowry, District Attorney, Land & Land and Joannes Smith for the Relators.

Respondent in propria persona.

OPINION

FENNER, J.

Act No. 33 of the General Assembly of 1888 provided for the removal of the parish seat of Bossier parish from Bellevue to one of certain named places, to be determined by the result of elections provided for in the act.

It confided the ordering and the conduct of said elections to the Police Jury of the parish. The Police Jury were to order the elections and to appoint the commissioners to hold the same; said commissioners were to make their returns to the Police Jury; it was made the duty of said jury "to proclaim the result of said election or elections," and of its President to declare the place so proclaimed "to be the parish seat of Bossier parish."

After the last election had been held certain proceedings were taken by the Police Jury and its president, the effect of which was claimed to be the fixing of the town of Houghton as the parish seat; but in the case of the State ex rel. Mayor vs. Police Jury, decided by us at our late Shreveport term we held that said proceedings were inoperative and did not constitute an ascertainment or proclamation of the result of said election.

Since that decision the Police Jury has taken further action. It has proclaimed the result of the election to be in favor of the town of Benton, and its president has, in conformity with the law, declared the parish seat removed to Benton by formal proclamation.

Section 2746, Revised Statutes, and Act No. 111 of 1880 make it the duty of police juries to provide, at the parish seat, a good and sufficient court house, with requisite furniture for the sitting of the District and Circuit Courts, and such offices and furnitures as may be needed by the clerks and sheriff of said courts, and also a good and sufficient jail.

Accordingly the Police Jury has leased a building for a court house at Benton, and has ordered the records and furniture in the former court house to be removed thereto; and the same have been so removed. The clerk of court, the sheriff, assessor, parish treasurer and clerk of Police Jury have removed to Benton, and established their offices in the buildings provided.

In this state of case the Police Jury, joined by certain parties who have suits pending in the respondent's court, bring the present action, in which they set forth the facts and law as above stated, and aver that the town of Benton is de jure and de facto the parish seat; that it is the duty of respondent to hold the terms of his court, as fixed according to law, at said parish seat; but that he openly declares and proclaims that he will not recognize Benton as the parish seat, and will not hold court there; and they pray for a mandamus ordering him to do so.

The respondent in his answer makes no specific denial of the facts alleged, but sets up certain irregularities in the proceedings of the Police Jury under Act 33 of 1888 which, in his opinion, vitiate and render null their proclamation of Benton as the parish seat. He avers that the parish seat has not been changed in accordance with law, but remains at its former site, Bellevue; and concludes with the statement that "until the question is settled he can not...