The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-02-03
The Wyandof Mandamus Cases In
the Supreme C0urt-The soldiers
Voting Law.

The Supreme Court of Ohio, on Tuesday,
disposed of the Wyandot County Mandamus
Cas.s, growing out of the Soldiers Voting
Law. 1t will be seen, that the question as to
the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of
the law was not passed upon:
supreme Court of Ohio.
MOTION DOCKET.
No. %. The State of Ohio ex rel. An
drew R. Ingerson v. Curtis Berry, Jr., Clerk
of the Court of Common Pleas of Wyandot
County. Motion for a peremptorv Mandamus.
SCOTT, J.. The Clerk of the Court of Com
mon Pleas of Wyandot County, with two JUS
tees of the Peace of his County, having open
ed the returns of votes peeled by the electors
Of said County at the election for State AMI
County officers held on the I'd Tuesday of Oc-
tober, 1868, rejected, in good faith, a part of
said returns, as illegal, and refused to incor-
porate them into the abstract exhibiting the
result of the election, and thereupon de-
clared NJ. duly elected Sheriff of said County,
in conformity with the result of the abstract
they made, and gave him a certificate Of cleo
ton. Had the votes included in the rejected
returns, been counted, the election for Sheriff
would have resulted in favor of l. Notice of
intention to contest the right of NJ. to the
Office, was ~thereupon given by [. who took
the necessary Steps IOf p6rIcCClpg MS appear
and giving Jurisdiction of the whole case to
the Court of Common Pleas of Wyandot coun-
ty. Pending this appeal, and after the ex-
p:ratiou Of the time limited by statute for in
shutting q contest in regard to the result of
the election, application was made, on the re-
lation of I. for a peremptory writ OF manda-
mus, requiring the Clerk to proceed to the
proper discharge of his statutory duties, by
counting the returns which were alleged to
Io1a haan m nronorlv ovoludad hv him and
declaring the relator duly elected to the office
of Sheriff, and giving him a certificate accor-
dinghy. Held-That, assuming the CLERK to
have erred in the attempted performance of
his duty, and that the ~relator had a clear le-
gal right to have the rejected returns counted
by the Clerk and Justices, and to demand aud
receive a certificate of his election, at the
proper time, yet the remedy by mandamus
would, under the circumstances, stated, be no
longer adequate, or appropriate.
A contest, on appeal to the Court of Cons
men Pleas, is the specific remedy provided by
statute for the correction of all errors, frauds,
and mistakes, which may occur in the process
of ascertaing and declaring the public will as
expressed through the bailct-bexes.
When such appeal is perfected, the whole
subject matter is withdrawn from the sphere
of the Clerk and Justices statutory power of
action, and they become funct c6ficio.
Where an inferior board or tribunal had
failed to perform a ministerial duty at the
proper time, and its execution is no .longer
consistent with the substantial rights of other
parties, or with public interests, the writ will
not be issued to compel its performance nor,
when it can be seen, that the writ, in its oper-
alton, must prove abortive, and ~fruitlehs to the
~reiator.
Peremptory writ refused.
Nos. "a, Is, 26, 81, %, 90, 80, 81, and 80
being motions, by other REALTORS, candidates
at the election in Wyandot County, for a per-
emptory Mandamus against the Clerk, are dis
posed of in the same way that No. % is &C.
cording to previous engagement between coun-
sci.