The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-17
MATTHEW'S WINS FIRST
 BLOOD IN THE CONTEST
Man Who Lead Democratic Ticket Is Now Being Chased By Repub- Iican, Who Got Less Than
 200 Votes.

| Seals, seeking to oust the latter rom his l seat on the board of police commission | CTS of Birmingham.
 | Judge Lane granted the petition insofar as 1t sought to oust MT. Seals, ruling
 that he is not qualified to sit on the l police commission under the old election
 because of the fact that he was not a | resident of Birmingham at the time the | election was held. He also sustained the | demurrer insofar as 1t sought to install | MT. Matthews as a police commissioner | but the judge has no authority to say | who shall succeed MT. Seals should he | be ultimately busted The case will be | appealed to the supreme court and Judge
 Lane has fixed the supercedeas bond for I appeal at s200.
 Although MT. Matthews has won the l first point in his fight, the case now hangs
 in more peculiar state than 1t has ever l been before. Judge Lane stated yester- l day afternoon that under the peculiar
 circumstances of this particular case he
 can find no law which provides definitely
 for the filling of the vacancy which would l occur if the supreme court decides that
 MT. Seals is unqualified to sit on the po- l lice commission He states that this oc- 1 CUTS evidently from an oversight on the
 part of the state lawmakers, but that
 the only way he sees for the matter to 1 be definitely and surely decided is for
 the legislature to take special action on | the matter at the coming called session,
 which. he says, he presumes 1t will do. Means Another Shakeup. The decision of Judge Lane causes an- of11 l., | perhaps more serious one than any of
 those proceeding. While MT. Seals will
 continue to sit on the police commission
 until he is finally busted by the supreme
 court in the capacity of de facto officer i and while any official action he may take l during this time will stand as legal as i if there was no litigation, the general 1 opinion seems to be that Judge Lanes de- ] cision will be sustained by the supreme
 court and MT. Seals will be ultimately l busted.
 Owing to the deficiency in the law bear i ing on the case the matter now hangs by
 a thread and there Is no telling where i it will drop or in what manner it will 1 terminate. Since MT. Seals was elected l he has had a continuous fight to retain
 his seat on the police commission and the : confusion seems to have become aug
 mented with each step which has been l taken.
 | It is clearly to be seen that Judge | Lanes decision of yesterday is against l both MT Seals and the petitioner, Mr. 1 Matthews. The decision does not neces-
 sarily mean that MT. Matthews will be
 seated. There are many who believe that a Tndo | Lanes decision MT. Matthews will be l seated onethe police commission, but if l the law applying to the case is inade-
 quate the matter hangs in balance and apparently the fight is by no means near | ing an end. In other words MT. Mat | thews wins the first point by securing | a decree of custer, which might not re- 1 suit in any particular benefit to his case It will be recalled that MT. Matthews l was the republican candidate for police l commissioner in the last municipal eec- | tion. In that election MT. Seals lead i the ticket, securing a majority vote over all of his opponents. F. B. Yielding ran 1 second on the ticket and MT. Matthews l was third with less than 200 votes 1 Thus by the peculiar turns which the | interesting case has taken the leader of | the ticket and the candidate running l third in the race are contesting for the
 seat on the police commission, and ap- | parently the case leans in favor of the republican candidate who ran third. F. l B. Yielding, who ran second, has been | seated without question.
 Caused By Clerical Errors. l The fight in the police commission mat | ter is one of the many difficult prob- | lems which grew out of the clerical er- | TOTS made by the clerk of the senate in ! recording the proceedings of that body. | It grew directly out of the matter of | the King Greater Birmingham bill be- l ing declared unconstitutional by the su- | preme court.
 | It will be recalled that prior to the last municipal primary an election was held at Mountain Terrace, where MT. Seals resided and the Mountain Terrace people | voted to come into Birmingham under the | provisions of the Greater Birmingham l bill. Shortly after this annexation elec- I tion the primary and election followed l and MT. Seals led the ticket in the race | for police commissioner.
 | In the meantime, however, the consti- l nationality of the Greater Birmingham l bill was attacked in the courts here and | a decision in the lower court favored the l bill. However the case was appealed to | the state supreme court, where the Great | CT Birmingham bill was declared uncon- | stitutional and thus rendered invalid. | Shortly after the decision of the sJ- preme court the Seals matter arose and was the source of general interest in Bir- mingham. However, before Mr. Seals was seated on the police commission second annexation election was held at Mountain Terrace under the general law and the territory again voted solidly in favor of joining Birmingham. MT. Seals was seated upon the police commission and then followed the petition in the nature of quo warranto proceedings which was instituted in the circuit court here. Judge Lane has had the case under ad- visement for some time and did not 1en- der his opinion in the case until late yes- terday afternoon.
 An appeal 1t is understood. will be taken immediately and the decision of the supreme court in the matter will be awaited with the keenest interest