Thorne v. Jones

• Decision Date: 12 February 1953
• Docket Number: No. 89,89
• Citation: 57 N.W.2d 40,335 Mich. 658
• Parties: THORNE v. JONES et al.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

Page 40

57 N.W.2d 40

335 Mich. 658

THORNE v. JONES et al.

No. 89.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Feb. 12, 1953.

Rehearing Denied March 10, 1953.

Michael Berry and Stanley E. Beattie, Detroit, for plaintiff and appellee.

Marx & Fewlass, Detroit, for defendants and appellants.

Before the Entire Bench, except BOYLES and SHARP, JJ.

BUSHNELL, Justice.

This is an appeal by defendants from a declaratory decree in which it was ordered that each of the defendants be certified as a candidate for nomination for office, at the ensuing primary election, on only one party ticket.

Petitions were filed with William H. Thorne, the township clerk by defendant Howard F. Jones as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the office of township supervisor. Later a group of citizens presented petitions for Jones for nomination on the ticket of the Republican party. Similar groups filed petitions on behalf of defendant Robert Claude Jendron for nomination as a candidate on both the Democratic and Republican tickets for the office of township trustee. Petitions were also filed for defendant Carl H. Roth for nomination as a candidate of both of these parties for the office of township treasurer. The township clerk, acting upon the advice of counsel, notified Jones that the petitions which he had personally filed designating himself as a candidate for the Democratic nomination would be accepted, but that the petitions naming him as a candidate for the Republican nomination would be rejected. Jendron and Roth were each notified that they must determine upon which ticket they would stand for their respective nominations. In response to these notices each of the defendants demanded that their names be printed on the primary election ballots as candidates for nomination by both the Democratic and Republican parties.

A declaratory decree was sought by the clerk under the provisions of C.L.1948, § 691,501 to 691.507, Stat.Ann. § 27.501 to 27.507. Counsel agreed that the pertinent statute relative to the filing of petitions for primary elections is C.L.1948, § 163.6, as amended by P.A.1951, No. 191, Stat.Ann.1951 Cum.Supp. § 6.230, which reads:

'All votes cast at such caucus shall be by ballot and there shall be separate ballots for the nomination of candidates for each political party or organization in such village or township. In order to secure the placing of the name of any candidate upon any ballot, it shall be necessary for such candidate to file with the village or township clerk, on or before the seventh Monday before the day designated for the holding of such caucus, a petition signed by not less than 1 per centum nor more than 4 per centum of the electors of such village or township, as shown by the registration books thereof, asking that his name be placed upon such ballot and designating the office and the political party or organization upon whose ballot he desires to have such name so placed: Provided, That petitions shall be filed not later than 4 o'clock, post meridian, on the last filing day.'

It was also agreed that the word 'caucus' as used in the statute is synonymous with the words 'primary election'.

A primary election, as defined in the general election law, C.L.1948, § 145.6, Stat.Ann. § 6.6, is an election held for the purpose of deciding by ballot who shall be the nominees of political parties for the offices named in part 3 of the act. The statute which governs the form of nominating petitions states that the signers nominate a certain person 'as a candidate of the ........ party'. C.L.1948, § 157.7, Stat.Ann.1951 Cum.Supp. § 6.125. The first section of part 3 of the general election law, which provides for nomination by direct vote, states that candidates for office shall be selected by the qualified and registered voters of 'each political party participating therein'. C.L.1948, § 155.1, as amended by P.A.1951, No. 136, Stat.Ann.1951 Cum.Supp. § 6.110.

Primaries for the selection of nominees for township offices are provided for in chapter 9 of part 3 of the election law. C.L.1948, § 163.1 et seq. Stat.Ann. § 6.225 et seq., as last amended by P.A.1952, No. 247. Section 6 of this chapter, as amended by P.A.1951, No. 191, provides for separate party ballots for 'each political party or organization' in the township. This chapter does not contain any specific prohibition against the names of candidates appearing on more than one party or organization ballot. Because of this legislative silence defendants insist that the trial judge erred in ordering that each could be certified as a candidate for nomination upon only one party ballot.

It is elementary that statutes in pari materia are to be taken together in ascertaining the intention of the legislature, and that courts will regard all statutes upon the same general subject-matter as part of one system.

"In the construction of a particular statute, or in the interpretation of any of its provisions, all acts relating to the same subject, or having the same general purpose, should be read in connection with it, as together constituting one law." Remus v. City of Grand Rapids, 274 Mich, 577, 581, 265 N.W. 755, 756.

This rule of construction was applied in recent election cases. See Foster v. Delta Board of Education, 326 Mich. 272, 40 N.W.2d 310, and People ex rel. Angel v. Smith, 328 Mich....