Case ID: ohio-st_72/html/0584-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The State ex rel. Gunn v. Witt.
    
      Tenure of municipal and other officers — Act of March 17, 190Jf — • Extends term of office to January, 1906 — Interpretation of law.
    
    The act of March 17, 1904, to amend certain sections of the Revised Statutes relating to the tenure of municipal and other officers (97 O. L., 37), extends the official terms of clerks of municipal councils who were in office at the time of the passage of the act until the election of their successor in January, 1906.
    (No. 9493
    Decided June 27, 1905.)
    Quo Warranto.
    It is alleged in the petition that on the fourth of May, 1903, the defendant, Peter Witt, was duly elected by the council of the city of Cleveland to the office of clerk of said council for the term of two years; that he thereupon entered upon the duties of said office and that his- term expired at midnight on May 3, 1905. It is further alleged that on the third day of January, 1905, the council of said city elected the relator, William E. Gunn, to said office of clerk for the term of two years to begin on May 4, 1905, upon the expiration of the term to which said Witt had been previously elected; that the relator thereupon did all the acts required by law to qualify for said office and demanded the office and all hooks and papers belonging thereto, but that the defendant refused to deliver the same and unlawfully continues to intrude into said office after the expiration of his term as aforesaid. The prayer of the petition is for the ousting of the defendant and the induction of the relator. The defendant, answering, pleads title to the office until January, 1906, under the act of March 17,1904 (97 O. L., 37), entitled, An act to amend certain sections of the Revised Statutes relating to the time and manner of holding elections and the terms of certain municipal and other officers.
    
      Messrs. Blandin, Rice & Ginn, for relator.
    
      Mr. Newton D. Baker, city solicitor, for the defendant.
    
      Messrs. Andrews, Earlan S Andrews, also filed a brief in behalf of another party interested in the same question. — [Reporter.]
   By the Court.

Notwithstanding the diverse meanings of which the word, elective, is susceptible in its application to public officers, the scope and purpose of the legislation involved in the present inquiry show that in contemplation of the general assembly it embraces clerks of municipal councils. The effect of the act of March 17, 1904, is to extend the official terms of such clerks as were in office at the time of its passage until the election of their successors in January, 1906.

Petition dismissed.

Davis, C. J., Shauck, Price, Crew, Summers and Spear, JJ., concur.