State v. Aldermen of Pierce City.
| Citation | 91 Mo. 445,3 S.W. 849 |
| Parties | STATE ex rel. SNYDER v. ALDERMEN OF PIERCE CITY. |
| Decision Date | 21 March 1887 |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
The aldermen of a city, whose duty it was to canvass the election returns to determine who had been chosen to the various offices, and to direct the clerk to issue certificates of election to the persons elected, determined that the relator had been elected mayor, but declined to direct the clerk to issue the certificate of election, basing their refusal upon the fact that relator was not an inhabitant of the city as required by law. Held, that the election of a person to an office who does not possess the requisite qualifications gives him no right to hold the office or to claim a certificate of election. And as he could not show a clear right to a writ of mandamus against the aldermen, his application for it must be refused.
Mandamus.
Henry Brumback and Smith, Silver & Brown, for relator. D. H. McIntyre, for respondent.
The relator was a candidate for mayor of Pierce City at the April election, 1886. The respondents are the aldermen of that city. An ordinance of the city makes it the duty of the aldermen, on a designated day after each election, to canvass the returns to determine who has been elected to the various offices, and to direct the clerk to issue certificates of election to the persons declared elected. In this case the aldermen determined that relator had received the highest number of votes, but declined to direct the clerk to issue a certificate of election, and he now seeks by the writ of mandamus to compel them to do so.
The law (Acts 1881, p. 38) in express terms declares that no person shall be mayor of these cities of the fourth class unless he be an inhabitant of the city for one year next before his election. On the pleadings as they stand it is admitted that the relator did not possess this qualification. A peremptory writ of mandamus will not be issued unless the relator shows a clear right to the remedy which he asks. State v. Albin, 44 Mo. 348. The election of a person to an office who does not possess the requisite qualifications gives him no right to hold the office. Dill. Mun. Corp. (3d Ed.) § 196. As, by reason of his qualifications, the relator was not entitled to hold the office, surely he has no right at the hand of the court to be armed with a certificate of election, — evidence of title to that to which he has no right.
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