State ex rel. Windom v. Prince
| Decision Date | 17 December 1915 |
| Docket Number | 19,501 - (23) |
| Citation | 155 N.W. 628,131 Minn. 399 |
| Parties | STATE EX REL. WILLIAM L. WINDOM v. WILLIAM I. PRINCE AND OTHERS |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Upon the relation of William L. Windom, the district court for St Louis county granted its alternative writ of mandamus directed to William I. Prince, mayor, Roderick Murchison William A. Hicken, and Leonidas Merritt, commissioners, the city council of the city of Duluth, commanding them to declare relator the person who received the highest number of votes at the municipal election in Duluth on April 6, 1915 for the office of judge of the municipal court, to declare him elected and to issue to him a certificate of election, or show cause why they had not done so. Respondents' motion to quash the writ was granted, Cant, Dancer and Fesler, JJ. From the judgment entered pursuant to that order, relator appealed. Affirmed.
City of Duluth -- election of municipal judge.
1. The relator, a candidate for the office of municipal judge under the provisions of the city charter of Duluth determining the election by a preferential system of first, second and additional choice votes, held unconstitutional and void in Brown v. Smallwood, 130 Minn. 492, 153 N.W. 953, was not elected to the office because of having received a plurality of first choice votes, though under the constitutional general election law a plurality elects.
Election -- de jure officers.
2. The holding that the preferential election was unconstitutional and void does not affect officers elected under the preferential system, or their terms, no contest having been instituted or equivalent remedy sought.
Fryberger, Fulton & Spear, for relator.
H. H. Phelps, for respondents.
Proceeding by the relator, William L. Windom, by mandamus against the respondents, commissioners of the city of Duluth, and by law the canvassing board, to compel the issuance to him of a certificate of election to the office of municipal judge. The court granted respondents' motion to quash the writ. From the judgment entered the relator appeals.
1. At the April 6, 1915, election, relator and three others were candidates for the office of judge of the municipal court. The votes cast at the election are shown in Brown v. Smallwood, 130 Minn. 492, 153 N.W. 953. It was there held that the preferential system of voting was unconstitutional.
At this election the relator received a plurality of the first choice votes. Captain Smallwood received a plurality of the total of the first, second and additional choice votes. Under the preferential system a candidate was elected by first choice votes only when he received a majority, and by first and second choice votes only when he received a majority; and, if no candidate was so elected, the one receiving a...
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