Case Name: KOENIG v. BRITT et al.
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1912-02-23
Citations: 133 N.Y.S. 839
Docket Number: 
Parties: KOENIG v. BRITT et al.
Judges: 
Reporter: West's New York Supplement
Volume: 133
Pages: 839–847

Head Matter:
KOENIG v. BRITT et al.
(Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.
February 23, 1912.)
Elections (§ 121 )—Ballots—Form and Contents.
Election Law (Laws 1911, c. 891) § 37, provides that the members of the county committees of political organizations shall consist of such number and elected from such units of representation as the regulations of the party may provide, and that where a judicial, senatorial, congressional, assembly, city, and borough, aldermanie, and Municipal Court district is coterminus with, or less than the limits of, but wholly within, an entire county, the members of the county committee from such districts shall constitute committees for the respective purposes enumerated in those districts, unless otherwise provided for by the rules of the party. A county political organization selected the assembly district as its unit of representation, and made no provision adverse to the general law making the members of the county committee ipso facto members of other committees. Held, where the assembly district has not been subdivided, the ballot need not be incumbered by repeating the names of candidates for the county committee for each other committee to be filled, but, where there has been a subdivision and certain borough, congressional, Municipal Court and aldermanie districts are entitled to representation in two or more committees, the right of electors to participate in the election of representatives being limited to election districts in which they are qualified voters, the party organization must apportion the membership in the district committees between the various assembly districts and parts thereof, and repeat on the ballot the names of the candidates for membership upon the county committee as often as there are other committeemen to be elected for smaller units.
[Ed. Note.—For other cases, see Elections, Dec. Dig. § 121.*]
Laughlin, J., dissenting.
Appeal from Special Term, New York County.
Mandamus by Samuel S. Koenig against J. Gabriel Britt and others. From an order on return to the writ, defendants appeal.
Modified.
Argued before CLARKE, McLAUGHLIN, SCOTT, LAUGH-LIN, and DOWLING, JJ.
Terence Farley, for appellants.
A. S. Gilbert, for respondent.
James A. Foley, by permission of court, for Democratic party of the county of New York.
Herbert R. Limburg, for Independence League.
For other cases see same topic & § number in Dec. & Am. Digs. 1907 to date, & Rep’r Indexes

Opinion:
DOWLING, J.
The Legislature in the exercise of a power which is not here questioned has conferred upon party organizations the right to determine the unit of representation from which the members of the county committee shall be selected, as well as the number of members in said committee. Acting under the power thus conferred, the Republican organization in this county has selected the Assembly District as its unit of representation, and has also fixed the ratio for such representation based on the votes cast for its candidate for Governor at the preceding state election. By failing to make any provision adverse to the general provisions of section 37 of the election law (chapter 22, Laws 1909, as amended by chapter 891, Laws 1911), the members of the county committee elected by assembly districts became ipso facto members of the judicial, senatorial, congressional, assembly, Municipal Court, aldermanic, city and borough district committees, and that such is the effect of the section in question is not disputed; but it is contended that the names of the members of the county committee should be repeated as often upon the ballot as there are separate" committees to be filled and appear under the proper committee heading. For this method of election no good argument is advanced. Its sole result would be to incumber needlessly an already cumbersome ballot, for membership in the county committee automatically entitles the person thereupon to membership in all the other committees representing the district as a whole, no matter how numerous they may be. This being so, a single appearance of the names of the candidates for the county committee upon the ballot is sufficient, and, when elected, their membership in the other committees attaches without further action. The sole exception to this result is in a contingency which actually exists in some districts in this county, and for which in the order appealed from no provision has been made nor has the Legislature specifically provided therefor. This question cannot arise in the case of assembly, senatorial, or judicial district committees, in none of which is the assembly district subdivided; but in the case of borough, congressional, Municipal Court, and aldermanic districts there are assembly districts which have been subdivided so that they are entitled to representation in two or more such committees. In these cases it would seem that neither the county committee nor the party organization can distribute or apportion the delegates between the various committees in which the assembly district is entitled to representation.
Under the rule laid down in Matter of Murphy, 126 App. Div. 58, 110 N. Y. Supp. 1020, the right of electors to participate in the election of delegates to conventions was limited to election districts in which they are qualified voters. Any contrary rule was there stated to be opposed to the principles of our government and to the letter and spirit of the statute. Under the conditions, it would seem, therefore, that the only case in which it is necessary to duplicate the names of the candidates for membership upon the county committee is where the assembly district is subdivided in the method indicated, and in those cases it is the duty of the party organization to establish rules for the proper apportionment of membership in the borough, congressional, Municipal Court, and aldermanic district committees between the various assembly districts and parts of assembly districts entitled to participation therein, and in the assembly districts so subdivided the ballot will then contain the names of the candidates' for membership upon the county committee and in the names of such county committeemen repeated as often as there are other committeemen to be elected for smaller units than the entire assembly district, apportioned among the other committees in such numbers as the party rules may determine. Each subdivision of the assembly district would then be entitled to vote in addition to the county committee for the entire assembly district only for such other committeemen as reside therein and are named as delegates to that particular congressional or other committee which represents their section of the assembly district. As to all the other assembly districts, the names of the county committeemen would appear but once. This would give a ballot which it seems to me would as closely as possible carry ¡out the expressed views of the Legislature as carried into effect by the party organization, in that it would be simplified by having but one list of names of committeemen for all assembly districts which were not subdivided for the election of certain officers, and as to districts so subdivided would give a ballot containing the list of county committeemen with only such duplication of part thereof as would be necessary to apportion the representation in the various subdivisions for the purpose of electing other committeemen, and would insure the election of such committeemen for the subdivided districts only by the electors entitled to vote therein and to be represented in such committees.
I believe, therefore, that the order appealed from should be modified so as to provide in the cases of congressional, borough, Municipal Court, and aldermanic districts where part of an assembly district only is included that the names of the members of the county committee designated to act in such other committees must be separately printed and designated upon the ballot.
CLARKE, McLAUGHLIN, and SCOTT, JJ., concur.