Case Name: Jack GADD v. John A. THOMPSON
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1987-12-16
Citations: 517 So. 2d 576
Docket Number: No. 58630
Parties: Jack GADD v. John A. THOMPSON.
Judges: ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN and ZUCCARO, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 517
Pages: 576–583

Head Matter:
Jack GADD v. John A. THOMPSON.
No. 58630.
Supreme Court of Mississippi.
Dec. 16, 1987.
F. Edwin Perry, Oxford, for appellant.
Ben J. Piazza, Jr., Keyes, Moss, Piazza & Woods, Jackson, for appellee.

Opinion:
ANDERSON, Justice,
for the Court:
This is an appeal from a decree of a special tribunal in an election contest. The decree held that Jack Gadd was disqualified for election to State House of Representatives for District Thirteen.
In August 1985, Gadd was hired as an assistant women's basketball coach at the University of Mississippi. Until that time, he and his wife had lived at Hickory Flat in Benton County. Commuting proved inconvenient for Gadd, so he bought a house in Oxford, into which his family moved in January 1986. It is undisputed that after that date, the Oxford house was the family's actual residence. The Gadds owned no real property in Benton County. However, they continued to register their cars in that county, and requested that the county clerk keep them on the voting rolls there. There is evidence that Gadd told a number of people that he meant to return to Hickory Flat after the Ole Miss job was over.
On March 13, 1986, Gadd's wife Merri filed for a homestead exemption on the Oxford house. Item 4 on the exemption application states: "I am a bona fide, legal resident of Mississippi and this is the home of my family group, wherein we did reside on January 1, 19_" The blank is filled in with the numerals "86", and the yes or no boxes at the side are marked "yes." On January 7, 1987, the Gadd's taxes were paid by their mortgage company, a $90 credit for homestead exemption being allowed. The same procedure was followed when their city taxes were paid to Oxford on March 12, 1987.
In the spring of 1987 Gadd began to think about running for the State Legislature for House District 13. This district consists of part of Benton, DeSoto and Marshall counties; it does not include Oxford or any part of Lafayette County. On May 29, 1987, Gadd submitted his qualifying statement of intent declaring his candidacy for the democratic nomination for Representative for District 13. He attested he was a "qualified elector for the County of Benton" giving his mailing address as P.O. Box 161, Hickory Flat.
On June 11, 1987, John A. Thompson, a rival candidate for District 13 nomination, petitioned the State Democratic Party Executive Committee for the de-certification of Gadd on the ground that he was a resident of Lafayette County and therefore, not a resident of District 13. Hearings were held, at which Gadd presented an affidavit from the deputy tax assessor of Lafayette County stating that the Gadd's had received no homestead exemption on their Oxford property in 1986 or 1987. (Gadd, had, in fact, received the exemption, but had refunded the amounts credited as soon as he understood the possible impact of the exemption on his eligibility for office.)
The party committee decided to uphold Gadd's original certification. The first Democratic primary was held on August 4. Jack Gadd received an absolute majority of the vote in District 13, obviating a run-off and making him the official Democratic candidate. (Since no Republican or independent had qualified, victory in the Democratic primary was tantamount to election in that district.)
Meanwhile, Thompson was unsuccessfully pursuing his appeals through the Democratic Party organization. These having been exhausted, at length he filed a petition for judicial review pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated, Section 23-15-927, et seq. (Supp.1987).
After hearing the evidence, the judge found as a fact that, their affidavits to the contrary notwithstanding, the Gadds had obtained homestead exemption on their property in Oxford. His principal conclusion of law was as follows:
Regardless of all these other deep and binding and long-standing attachments to Benton County, the purchase of the home and application and obtaining of homestead exemption and the benefit thereunder in tax relief manifested an intent for that to be their residence and it was until changed in June 1987. Therefore, Mr. Gadd could not become a member of the House of Representatives of Mississippi under Article 4, Section 41 [Miss.Const.]
The judge then ordered a new primary election to be held on the same day as the general election with any necessary run-off to be held two weeks later. As a result of these elections, Andy Morris, who is not a party to this litigation, won the second primary election on November 18 and will thus take his seat in the legislature.
I. IS THE PILING OF A HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE THAT THE PARTY SO FILING IS DOMICILED IN THE COUNTY OF FILING?
Article 4, Section 41 of the Mississippi Constitution provides in part:
No person shall be a member of the House of Representatives . who shall not have been a resident citizen of the State four years and of the county two years, immediately preceding his election.
This Court has consistently held that for election purposes, residency and domicile are synonymous in Mississippi. Hubbard v. McKey, 193 So.2d 129, 132 (Miss.1966); Jones v. State, 207 Miss. 208, 214, 42 So.2d 123,125 (1949). Therefore, the key issue in this appeal is whether or not Gadd's filing for homestead exemption in Oxford created his domicile there.
Our definition of domicile was handed down in 1943. In order to be an actual bona fide resident of a county, "there must have been (1) an actual residence voluntarily established in said county, (2) with the bona fide intention of remaining there, if not permanently, at least indefinitely." Smith v. Smith, 194 Miss. 431, 434,12 So.2d 428, 429 (1943). Accord, Stubbs v. Stubbs, 211 So.2d 821, 824 (Miss.1968). Thus, in the case at bar, the important question is whether filing for homestead exemption establishes Gadd's animus manendi. Is the homestead exemption conclusive evidence that Gadd intended to remain in Lafayette County indefinitely? Thompson relies on the case of Hollowell v. Vandevender, 358 So.2d 1328 (Miss.1978). In that case the Hollowells sought to register as voters in Issaquena County, when they had obtained tax exemptions upon their homestead in Washington County. The Hollowell's homestead exemption application contained the printed attestation: "This is the bona fide and only home of my family group wherein we actually reside and did on January 1." This Court, laying considerable emphasis on the word "only" in the application, held that the Hollowells were estopped from asserting that the representation on the application was not true. 358 So.2d at 1329.
In the present case, a different application for homestead exemption was used by the Gadds. It nowhere represents the Oxford home as being the "only" home of the Gadd family. In addressing this question the special judge's opinion stated, "and the word 'only' does not appear in the application which Mrs. Gadd signed, but the words were 'the home of the parties of the family group,' and 'the' is an exclusive thing as used there and I believe it restricts it to the home."
We could find only one case discussing the restrictive effect of the article "the" in a context even remotely similar to this one. In one Texas case, a deed to a real estate lot contained the building restriction requiring "the" dwelling house on the lot to face the street. The court held that in this context use of the expression "the" dwelling house necessarily implied that no more than one would be built on that lot. Fischer v. Reissig, 143 S.W.2d 130, 131 (Tex.Civ.App.1940). This result comports well with what the special judge did in the present case, since the law does not ordinarily contemplate that a person should have more than one voting domicile.
We hold as a matter of law that the filing of a homestead exemption conclusively establishes domicile for electoral purposes in the county of filing, regardless of circumstances indicating that certain ties to other counties still exist.
II. CAN A POLITICAL CANDIDATE REVOKE HIS APPLICATION FOR HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION AND THE EFFECT THEREOF ON HIS DOMICILE BY REPAYING THE AMOUNT CREDITED UNDER THE EXEMPTION?
It is undisputed that as soon as Jack Gadd understood that his filing for homestead exemption had jeopardized his chances of running for the legislature in Benton County, he went immediately to the Oxford City Hall and Lafayette County tax assessor and repaid the amounts credited to him under the homestead exemption.
Gadd argues that since MCA § 27-33-41(k) (Supp.1987) gives the State Tax Commission a period of a year in which to disallow an application for a homestead exemption, a taxpayer ought to be able to revoke his application during the same period. No authority is cited for this. It must be remembered that Gadd did not refund his credit until after he had received it; his case would be much stronger if he had rescinded his application before receiving the benefit of it. We found no case on this issue, but it seems that sound considerations of policy support the rejection of Gadd's argument. If taxpayers were allowed to do what Gadd proposes, very undesirable consequences could ensue. For example, a debtor could foil his creditors by designating certain property as his homestead, thereby preventing the creditors from levying on it, and then refund his credit and change his homestead as soon as he thought the coast was clear. This would be an open invitation to chicanery and deceit.
For the foregoing reasons, the special judge's decree must be affirmed. Jack Gadd is de-certified as the Democratic nominee for State Representative, District 13. Andy Morris is hereby declared the lawfully elected representative for that district.
AFFIRMED.
ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN and ZUCCARO, JJ., concur.
HAWKINS and DAN M. LEE, P.JJ., and GRIFFIN, J., dissent.