State ex rel. Rose v. Piper
Decision Date | 16 December 1896 |
Docket Number | 8794 |
Citation | 69 N.W. 384,50 Neb. 42 |
Parties | STATE OF NEBRASKA, EX REL. FRANK L. ROSE, v. JOEL A. PIPER, SECRETARY OF STATE |
Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
ORIGINAL application for mandamus to compel the secretary of state to certify to the county clerks the names of certain persons as republican nominees for certain offices. Writ denied.
WRIT DENIED.
E. H Wooley, W. M. Morning, and C. S. Rainbolt, for relator.
John H Ames, contra.
NORVAL J. IRVINE and RYAN, CC. not sitting. RAGAN, C. concurring in the conclusion.
This was an application by the state, on the relation of Frank L. Rose, for a peremptory writ of mandamus to compel the certification by respondent, as secretary of state, to the county clerks of the names of certain persons as republican nominees for electors of president and vice president and the several state offices. A submission was taken upon the pleadings alone, consisting of the application and the answer thereto of the respondent, shortly prior to the last general election, and an oral decision was then announced, the preparation of a written opinion having been delayed until now. For a proper understanding of the questions involved it is not deemed necessary to set out the pleadings; moreover, to do so would extend this opinion beyond reasonable limits. It should be stated here that after the submission a reply to the answer was filed without leave or consent of the court being first had and obtained, and it was accordingly eliminated from the record. The answer, inter alia, raised the same objections to the jurisdiction of the court which were presented and determined in State v. Piper, 50 Neb. 25, 69 N.W. 378, and which must be overruled for the reasons stated in the opinion therein filed.
It clearly appears that at a state convention of the republican party of this state, duly and regularly held in accordance with the practices of the party in such cases, and pursuant to a call executed and published by the chairman and secretary of its state central committee in obedience to an order by said committee, which convention was composed of more than 900 delegates and representing all the organized counties in the state, a full ticket of candidates for all the state offices and presidential electors to be voted at the general election in 1896 was nominated; that a certificate of said nominations, made out in conformity with law, was executed by George W. Collins and H. M. Wells, respectively the chairman and secretary of said convention, and in due time filed in the office of the respondent, as secretary of state, and that no protest or objection to said certificate or to said nominations was ever presented or filed with him. Subsequently, and on the 7th day of October, 1896, there was filed with the respondent a certificate of nomination of other persons as candidates for the same offices, signed by F. L. Rose as chairman and R. A. Williams as secretary, purporting to be a certificate of nominations made by a convention of the republican party of the state, hereafter called the "Rose convention," held in the city of Lincoln on the 6th day of October, 1896, reciting and stating that said convention was held "pursuant to a call regularly issued for a Nebraska state republican mass convention, which state convention was composed of delegates and legal representatives duly qualified and chosen as such, and the legal representatives of the qualified electors and residents of the state of Nebraska representing the republican party in said state, which said political party, at the holding of the last election before the holding of such convention, polled more than one per cent of the entire vote cast in the state." On October 9, 1896, John P. Maule, a resident and elector of the state, filed with the respondent written objections to said last mentioned certificate of nomination and to the nominees therein named, and thereafter, upon due notice having been given to all persons interested therein, a hearing was had upon said protest before the respondent, who, upon the consideration of the evidence adduced by the respective parties, sustained said objections and declined to certify to the various county clerks of the state to be printed upon the official ballots the names of the persons mentioned in the Rose certificate. Relator being dissatisfied with this ruling and decision commenced this proceeding.
The secretary of state, at the time of his decision, made findings of fact and conclusions of law, which are set forth in full in his answer herein, and which said findings he alleges are in all respects true. The findings are as follows:
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