Case ID: utah_6/html/0353-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Blackbuhn, J.:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

THE PEOPLE OF THE TERRITORY OF UTAH, Ex Relatione, EDWARD M. BYNON, Complainant, v. HENRY PAGE, Respondent. 
    
    Municipal Corporations. — Amendment to Charter. — Judicial Notice.- — Chapter 48,1 Compiled Laws 1888, is an act for the incorporation of cities. It divides cities into classes and provides a way by which any city may determine the class to which it belongs, but this method is not exclusive. The court will take judicial notice of the fact that Salt Lake City has a population sufficient to make it of the first class, and as such it becomes one of the proper class without any act done upon its part.
    Id. — Id.—Repeal by Implication. — Section 1817,1 Compiled Laws 1888, providing that the sections of the city incorporation act, specifying the number of the wards, and the officers to be elected, in cities of certain classes, shall apply to cities already incorporated, effects an amendment to the charters of such incorporated cities without any repealing clause in the statute.
    
      Obiginal APPLICATION for a writ of mandamus. The petition alleged that on Monday, February lOtb, 1890, a municipal election was to be beld in Salt Lake City, and that there should be chosen on that day one mayor, fifteen councilmen, three from each of the five municipal wards, and other city officers, but that the said Page had given notice for the election of one mayor, five aldermen and nine councillors and other city officers, and prayed that he might be required to give notice as required by law.
    The city charter provided, 1 Comp. Laws 1888, Sec. 308, that “The municipal government of said city is hereby vested in a city council to be composed of a mayor, five aldermen, one from each ward, and nine councillors, who shalL have the qualifications of electors in said city,, and shall be chosen by the qualified electors thereof. The general incorporation law, 1 Comp. Laws 1888, p, 609 et seq., approved March 8, 1888, provided, at Sec. 14, that the municipal corporation(s) in this Territory are divided into three classes: First class, over twenty thousand inhabitants; second class, from five to twenty thousand; third class, all other cities, and that municipal authorities of any city are authorized to take census, mayor to certify the result to governor, and governor to make proclamation assigning city to its class. Section 16 divided all incorporated cities of the first and second classes into five wards; section 17 vested government of each city of first class in mayor and fifteen councilmen, three from each ward. Section 1 of Article 6 provided: “There shall be elected in the cities of the first class a mayor, elected at large, and three councilmen from each municipal ward; provided, that in the case of any incorporated city in which at the time of the passage of this act the members-of the board of aldermen or council are elected from districts or wards, the provisions of this section shall not apply, nor shall this act in any manner interfere with the-existing qualifications of the electors or officers or with the manner of selecting the officers.” Section 5 of Article 20 made Section 1 of Article 6 supra applicable to all incorporated cities now organized in the Territory and cumulative and supplemental to the charters of said cities.
    
      
      Mr. W. H. Dickson and Mr. P. L. Williams for the relator.
    
      Mr. O. W. Poioers and Mr. C. W. Benneit for tbe respondent.
    
      
      Overruling Hays v. Corey, ante p.
    
   Blackbuhn, J.:

Tbis is a petition by tbe plaintiff for a peremptory writ of mandate to require tbe defendant, wbo is tbe proper officer, to give election notices for tbe coming municipal election in Salt Lake City; to put up notices of said election, stating, among other things, that there will be chosen by tbe qualified voters at said election fifteen councilmen, three from each p recinc g of said city; one mayor, one recorder, one treasurer, one marshal, and one assessor and collector at large, and one justice of tbe peace for each of tbe five precincts of said city.

Tbis involves a construction of a portion of tbe act of tbe last territorial legislature (Laws 1888, c. 48) entitled “ An act for tbe incorporation of cities.” Tbe purpose of that act seems threefold: First, to incorporate new cities; second, to provide a mode by which cities already organized can reincorporate under this act; third, to apply to cities already incorporated, certain portions of tbe act as amendments to their charters, without reincorporation. Tbe question raised by tbis petition is, does tbis act require that tbe officers provided for in it shall be elected at the coming municipal election in Salt Lake City, or shall tbe officers provided for in tbe charter of said city be chosen ? I think the officers provided for in tbis act are hereafter the proper ones to govern the city. Section 14, Article 1, by express words applies to cities now organized, and provides that they shall be divided into three classes. All cities having a population of 20,000 and over shall belong to the first class, etc. Other portions of the act point out the way any city may determine the class it belongs to, but the mode mentioned in the act is not exclusive. If Salt Lake City has in fact a population of 20,000 or over, and the court can judicially know the fact, it is a city of the first class, whether it takes any steps to ascertain that fact or not. Courts take judicial notice of all the political acts of the government. The census of 1880 shows this city to have a population of over 20,-000, and that is a political act of which the courts take judicial notice. Therefore I think Balt Lake City, under this act, is a city of the first class, without anything done on its part. Again, Section 5, Article 20, expressly provides that Section 1, Article 6, among other provisions of this act, shall apply to all cities already incorporated. Although there is no repealing clause in this act, yet Section 5, Article 20, has the effect to make these several provisions amendments to the charters of all the cities to which they are applicable. Section 1, Article 6, provides that officers of the cities of the first class to be elected by the people shall be three councilmen from each municipal ward, a mayor, a recorder, a treasurer, an assessor and collector, and a marshal. Another provision of the act provides that cities of the first class shall be divided into five wards, and that one justice of the peace shall be elected from each ward. Both parties _ having appeared, and this application having been argued at the hearing, there is no need of an alternative writ. Therefore the per■emptory writ will issue as prayed for.

ZaNE, C. J., and ANDERSON, J., concurred.

Hendeeson, J., was absent at the hearing of this case, ;and took no part in the decision.