New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1916-05-03
COUNTY CLERK LAW
GIVEN DEATH BLOW
~ STATE SUPREME COURT HOLDS
EXTENSION VIOLATION OF
CONSTITUTION.
DECISION RENDERED IN TWO
OTHER IMPORTANT CASES
OF INTEREST.

tending the terms of about IS county
clerks received knockout blow Friday
when the supreme court held the legis-
lative act to be unconstitutional. AS
a result elections will have to be held in
the case of each of the clerks involved.
In order to make the election of clerks
of the district court throughout the
state uniform the last legislature passed
law that there shall be no election in
1916 of successors to clerks who were
elected in 1912 for terms commencing
on the first Monday in January, 1917.
The law provided further that such
clerks should continue in office until the
first Monday in January, 1919, until
their successors had been elected.
This, the court says constitutes an
extension of the four-year term and is,
therefore, unconstitutional as respects
the office of clerks. There cannot be
any hold-overs, the court says, and an
election must be held this year for those
: affected.
Attorney General Smith was asked
Friday by Julius Schmahl, secretary of
state, to rule on the question of whether
the decision covers also the cases of
county officials who are filling vacancies
caused by death, and those who are
holding temporary appointments for
other causes. More than SO such
officials are involved, the secretary of
state says.
The syllabus reads as follows:
1. By the constitution the office of
clerk OF the district court is elective,
the term is for four years, it commences
and terminates on the first Monday in
January, and upon it's termination there
is vacancy and not a right in the in
cumbent to hold over.
2. The term cannot be extended by
the legislature; and the statute, Laws
1915, C.. 1853, which in effect provides
that there shall be no election in 1916 of
successors to clerks who were elected in
7 1912 for terms commencing on the first
Monday in January, 1913, and terminal
ing on the first Monday in January,
1917, that such clerks shall continue in
office until the first Monday in January
1919, and that their successors shall be
elected in November, 1913, constitutes
an extension of the four-year term and is
unconstitutional as respects the office of
clerk.
8. Under the constitution providing
that the clerk shall be elected, that hit
term of office shall be four years, thas
the official year shall commence on the
first Monday in January, that all terms
of office shall terminate at that time,
that the general election shall be held
on the first Tuesday after the first Mon
day in November, commencing with the
year 1884, that thereafter elections shall
be biennial, and that the county officers
shall be elected at the general election,
the legislature cannot provide that at the
general election in 1916 successors of the
clerks who were elected in 1912, and
whose terms expire in January, 1917.
shall not be elected, but that they shall
be elected in 1918, and thereby create a
vacancy commencing in January, 1917,
to be filled by appointment; and Laws
1915, c. 1853, construed as intending to
create such vacancy, is unconstitutional,