Case ID: ny_245/html/0534-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The People of the State of New York ex rel. Ralph P. Stalter, Appellant, v. Patrick J. Lynch et al., Respondents. The People of the State of New York ex rel. Charles B. Byrnes, Appellant, v. John B. Lawson et al., Respondents.
    (Submitted March 28, 1927;
    decided April 7, 1927.)
    
      Villages — offices — elections ■— no election where person receiving highest number of votes for village office is ineligible.
    
    
      People ex rel. Stalter v. Lynch, 219 App. Div. 1, affirmed.
    
      People ex rel. Byrnes v. Lawson, 219 App. Div. 1, affirmed.
    Appeal in each of the above-entitled actions from a judgment entered December 28, 1926, upon an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the second judicial department, reversing a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a decision of the court on trial at Special Term and directing a dismissal of the complaint. The actions were to have it adjudged that plaintiffs were respectively entitled to the offices of president and trustee of the village of Haverstraw, as having received the next highest number of votes to candidates who were ineligible, and involved a construction of section 53 of the Village Law which reads, “ the person eligible and receiving the highest number of votes for an office shall be elected thereto.” The Appellate Division held that election depended upon “ eligibility ” and “ the highest number of votes,” and where the one receiving the highest number of votes was ineligible, no one was elected to the office in question.
    
      Albert Ottinger, Attorney-General (E. W. Hofstatter of counsel) for appellant.
    
      Frank Comesky for respondents.
   Judgment in each case affirmed, with costs; no opinion.

Concur: Cardozo, Ch. J., Pound, Crane, Andrews, Lehman, Kellogg and O’Brien, JJ.