State v. Canning
| Decision Date | 20 November 1928 |
| Docket Number | 39358 |
| Citation | 221 N.W. 923,206 Iowa 1349 |
| Parties | STATE OF IOWA ex rel., Appellant, v. R. E. CANNING, Appellee |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Monroe District Court.--LESTER L. THOMPSON, Judge.
This is an action instituted in the name of the State of Iowa, upon the relation of five qualified electors of Monroe County, for the removal of the appellee from the office of member of the board of supervisors. Upon the trial, the court dismissed the petition, and taxed the costs, including an attorney's fee, to the relators. The relators appeal.--Modified and affirmed.
Modified and affirmed.
Anderson & Perry, for appellant.
Miller & Everett, for appellee.
I. Section 1091, Code of 1927, provides for the removal of certain officers, upon various grounds, one of which is "For willful misconduct or maladministration in office." This proceeding is brought under this section of the statute. No useful purpose would be served by an extensive recital of the evidence respecting the different items upon which the claim of maladministration is predicated. We shall refer to them but briefly.
It is charged that the appellee, while acting as a member of the board of supervisors of Monroe County, sold a certain house in the town of Hiteman, Iowa, which belonged to the heirs of one Ellis, deceased, and in which property one Mary Jane Ellis had a life estate; that at said time the said Mary Jane Ellis was an insane inmate of the county farm of Monroe County; and that said house was sold by the appellee without any authority of law, and without the appointment of a guardian for the said Mary Jane Ellis, and without any authority from the administrator or heirs of the estate of the decedent. The only question we can consider in respect to this item is whether the appellee was guilty of any official misconduct in relation thereto. It appears that the property sold for $ 20 or $ 25, and that the money was paid into the county treasury. Whether a good title passed to the purchaser of the premises is a matter with which we have no concern, but the record fails to disclose any corrupt or improper conduct on the part of the appellee in connection with this item.
It is contended that the appellee, as a member of the board of supervisors, was instrumental in procuring the laying of a certain tile drain for the purpose of draining the public highway across a farm belonging to two brothers of the appellee's, and that, in so doing, the appellee caused the tile to be laid at a greater depth across said farm than was essential to furnish proper drainage for the road, and that, because the tile were laid at a greater depth than was necessary, it facilitated in the draining of the farm lands belonging to the brothers of the appellee. We are satisfied from the record that the manner of the construction of this tile drain and the depth at which it should be placed was an engineering project which was planned by the county engineer, and the testimony satisfactorily establishes that the work was done in a proper and efficient manner for the drainage of the public highway. It may be that an incidental benefit resulted to the farm belonging to the brothers of the appellee, by reason of the fact that the tile were necessarily carried across their farm, in order to properly drain the public road, but it entirely fails to establish any official willful misconduct or corruption on the part of the appellee in connection therewith.
It is charged that the appellee was guilty of misconduct and maladministration in his office because, as contended, he voted to purchase certain road machinery the bid for which was higher than that of other bidders for other machinery. The evidence in regard to this transaction tends to show that there was before the board of supervisors the consideration of two different styles of road machinery, of different weights and of different value. There is some doubt in the record as to the difference in price between the two sets of machinery when the freight upon the same is taken into consideration. It appears that two members of the board of supervisors voted to purchase one style of machinery, and that the appellee voted to purchase the other style. We do not find evidence of any corruption whatever on the part of the appellee in connection with said matter. It was a matter for the exercise of discretion and judgment, and we find nothing in the record to impeach the official conduct of the appellee in connection with said transaction.
Evidence was offered respecting alleged misconduct of the appellee in the expenditure of public funds on a certain road, the claim being that useless and unnecessary work was done. Assuming that this was a proper matter for consideration, under the issues, we find nothing in the record that would warrant the conclusion that the appellee was guilty of misconduct or maladministration in connection with the expenditure of public funds upon said road. There has been new construction upon the said road, and there is no evidence to support any conclusion that the appellee was guilty of a "useless waste of money" in connection therewith.
The main complaint in regard to appellee's official conduct relates to certain property which it is claimed the appellee unlawfully and improperly took from the county farm and appropriated to his own use. It is the contention of the relators that the appellee at one time took a ham and a fifty-pound can of lard from the county farm to his own home and used it, and that he subsequently repeated the same transaction, and took another ham and another can of lard from said farm for his own...
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