The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-09-28
Judge Dickenson To
 Rule On Mandan1us
Itc0ntlnued iron, Page 1

v" (C0ntlnueu they had checked various of the signatures against the. s1936 voting list and detailed. the routine of ob- taining signatures. .jy...
 The city contended that irIsufh- cient time had been given the per- sons who signed 'blIe petition to con- sider the matter of amending the city charter and suggested in their reply to the writ that the matter be deferred until such consideration had been given, to be taken up at a special election. ,y .t -..
 In the early portion of the courts ruling, interrupted by adjournment, Judge Dickenson had concurred with this opinion. ,.l ','
 City Clerk FitzmaIrice
 City Clerk John P. F'itznaurice was summoned as witness by At torney Smedley and presented the original petition of the merit SyS- tenn packers which was accepted as Exhibit. B" by the court. The city clerk Identified the petition as that presented to, the board of aldermen on July 26, and a sup plement as additional names pre- sented to the board at 8 meeting August 3. The latter document was. accepted as Exhibit C..
 William F. Burke, chairman 70: the Waterbury chapter of the Merit System association of Connecticut was called as a witness and spent more than an hour on the stand.
 Objections by the corporation counsel and Claims Attorney Win. cent A. Scully, were sustained, ir the main, by the, court when Atty Smedley attempted to have the wit ness testify as to validity of the sig natures. 8,3S4 Names on Petition
 Mr Burke admitted that of the 8,354 names on the petition, severa hundred had not been checked against the voting list. He sait that 163 of the names had beer ruled out by pencil marks wher the merit system committee decided that they were signatures of non. voters. A I1additional 754 names he testified, were not checked against the 1886 voting list, Exhibit A. a. ..',r Testimony that workers for the petition were, in most cases, volun- teers, included the stsaetment by the witness that one man, "who had promised to get, 30 signatures, hired someone else to get them when he found he was unable to spare the time" It also was stated by the witness that L. c. Smith, executive secretary of the state merit system association, Is "a salared employee and that he helped the workers ,tr Waterbury.
 MT. Burke claimed that 7,437 names on the petition had been checked against the 1886 voting list
 Claims Attorney Scully objected tot testimony regarding the obtain ing of names, saying that the ques- ton of the respondents was whether the Signatures are real" He said that the city granted that the num- Der of names claimed is a fact.
 The court twhen asked whether the merit counsel could not get the workers to swear to the sigma lures, in that manner removing, in a legal sense, the objection raised by the city,s attorneys. .'&
 Alderman .Du Bols Called
 Alderman c. Arthur DuBois was called as a witness for the merit system and was questioned by coun. sel as to his position when the vote of the aldermen was taken. He said that he was one of the four who voted in favor of placing the proposal on the machines, against the majority of ten aldermen.
 He was dismissed from the witness stand after the corpora ton counse had objected to questions by Attor. ney Smedley which related to ths committee report. The ourt sustain. ed the objections.
 The answer to the alteraatiy, writ of 'mandamus obtained by thu merit system counsel and on which today's court procedure was based was as follows: -
 RETURN OF RESPONDENTS.
 The Respondents i'm the above
 entitled action hereby make Ee-
 turn to the Alternative Writ of
 Mandamus issued by Order Of the, Court on September Hath, 1S27, and for reasons why ., peremptoFy
 Writ of Mandamus should not is-. sue, submit the following: a 4.
 IL Paragraphs, I. 2, A 4 B. 6, ., 8, g. 10. III, 13, 14, 15, l6, IT, l93 and 20 of said Alternative Writ; of M&ndaInus are admitted. 'F
 '2. Conoerning paragraph IA,
 Respondents have insuffiClent knoRledge or information on t which tO form . relief and leave
 Rslators to proof sG saiA allesa-- ton. s7-. ..i
 3. 'ConcerninG paragraph 3G %, much Of said pif ifagrAtA AssStatcs,