Case Name: Mayer, Appellant, v. D'Ortona
Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
Decision Date: 1962-10-05
Citations: 408 Pa. 518
Docket Number: Appeal, No. 426
Parties: Mayer, Appellant, v. D’Ortona.
Judges: Before Bell, C. J., Musmanno, Jones, Cohen, Eagen, O’Brien and Kbim, JJ..
Reporter: Pennsylvania State Reports
Volume: 408
Pages: 518–530

Head Matter:
Mayer, Appellant, v. D’Ortona.
Argued September 25, 1962.
Before Bell, C. J., Musmanno, Jones, Cohen, Eagen, O’Brien and Kbim, JJ..
Edward R. Becker, with him William, A. Meehan and Stanley M. Greenberg, for appellant.
Levy Anderson, First Deputy City Solicitor, and David Berger, City Solicitor, for appellee.
October 5, 1962:

Opinion:
Opinion by
Mr. Justice Cohen,
In view of the exigency with which we are confronted, we will not here determine the standing of the plaintiff taxpayer and elector to maintain an action in mandamus to compel the holding of a special election to fill a vacancy in the office of councilman where he (the taxpayer and elector) is not a candidate for that office, his only interest being identical with that of all other taxpayers and electors of the district even though grave doubt is cast upon his standing by our decision in Dorris v. Lloyd (No. 1), 375 Pa. 474, 100 A. 2d 924 (1953). Nor by this decision will we determine whether the president of council may be required by an action in mandamus to issue a writ for a special election to be held on a specific date even though there is grave doubt that we can control such an act of discretion. Now we will determine only whether a vacancy was created in the office of a councilman who had been elected president of city council and thereafter took a leave of absence to act as mayor pursuant to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter requirement that the president of city council should act as mayor until the mayoralty vacancy is filled.
The facts agreed to by both parties are as follows: At the municipal election held in November, 1959, Richardson Dilworth was elected Mayor of the City of Philadelphia and James H. J. Tate was elected to the office of Councilman from the 7th Councilmanic District for regular terms of four years each. Dilworth and Tate took office on January 3, 1960. On that date Councilman Tate was elected president of council in accordance with the provisions of Section 2-104 of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter.
On January 14, 1962, Dilworth resigned the office of mayor effective at the close of business February 12, 1962. At a special meeting of Council held on February 13, 1962 Tate presented to Council his request for a leave of absence from the meetings of Council during the time when he should serve as acting mayor under Section 3-500 of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter. This leave of absence was granted by Resolution 224 of Council. Thereupon, Councilman Paul D'Ortona, who had been previously elected, took the oath of office as "President pro tempore of the Council" and immediately thereafter Tate was sworn in as "Acting Mayor."
The complaint in substance charged that since Tate was acting as mayor he had vacated the office of councilman of the 7th Councilmanic District and therefore it was the mandatory duty of the appellee to issue a writ of election to fill that vacancy and that the special election for that purpose must be held at the next general election on November 6, 1962.
Appellee filed an answer denying that there was any vacancy in the office of Councilman from the 7th Councilmanic District and asserting that Tate, by acting as mayor, had not vacated the office of councilman from the 7th Councilmanic District.
The court en banc concluded that there was no vacancy in the 7th Councilmanic District and entered its order for the appellee. This appeal followed.
The substantive question here presented is clearly controlled and determined by the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter. Section 3-500 of the charter, in view of our decision in Cali v. Philadelphia, 406 Pa. 290, 177 A. 2d 824 (1962) must be read as follows:
"Section 3-500. Mayor. An election to fill a vacancy for an unexpired term in the office of mayor shall be held at the next municipal election occurring more than thirty days after the vacancy occurs, unless the vacancy occurs in the last year of the term, in which event a Mayor shall be chosen by the council by a majority vote of all its members. Until the vacancy is filled, or in case of the mayor's temporary disability, the President of the Council shall act as mayor; and if the President of the Council should resign or be unable to act, then the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Council shall act as mayor."
Section 3-500 plainly reveals that the president of council shall act as mayor until the vacancy in the office of mayor has been filled. Thus, it follows that the president of council only acts as mayor and continues to act as such by virtue of his office as president of Council. By operation of law, he is required to perform the duties and assume the responsibilities of the office of mayor, but he does not fill the vacancy in that office. Hence, he does not vacate either his office of president of council or as councilman. Indeed, should he cease to be a councilman, or president of Council, he would no longer be authorized to act as mayor. This conclusion is clearly required by the last part of Section 3-500 providing that "if the President of the Council should resign or be unable to act, then the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Council shall act as Mayor."
Councilman Tate asked for and received a leave of absence from his office of president of council. Neither he nor council deemed the office of president of council or his seat in council thereby to be vacated since, in anticipation of Tate being required to absent himself from Council while acting as mayor, Council elected a president pro tempore in accordance with Section 2-104.
Councilman Tate took an oath of office as "Acting Mayor." D'Ortona took an oath as "President pro tempore." All of the foregoing were consistent with the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter provision under which Tate continues to hold his office as councilman and as president of council.
In every situation the underlying statutes, constitutional articles or charter provisions determine the question. However, the general rule consistently followed in other jurisdictions is that where an inferior officer acts in a superior office pending the filling of a vacancy in the superior office, the filling of the superior office by the inferior officer does not require him to vacate his inferior office. State ex rel. Gragg v. Barrett, 352 Mo. 1076, 180 S.W. 2d 730 (1944); State ex rel. De Concini v. Garvey, 67 Ariz. 304, 195 P. 2d 153 (1948); State ex rel. Lamey v. Mitchell, 97 Mont. 252, 34 P. 2d 369 (1934); Clifford v. Heller, 63 N. J. L. 105, 42 Atl. 155 (1899); State ex rel. Hardin v. Sadler, 23 Nev. 356, 47 P. 450 (1897); State ex rel. Marr v. Stearns, 72 Minn. 200, 75 N.W. 210 (1898) ; State ex rel. Murphy v. McBride, 29 Wash. 335, 70 P. 25 (1902) ; State ex rel. Chatterton v. Grant, 12 Wyo. 1, 73 P. 470 (1903); State ex rel. Martin v. Ekern, 228 Wisc. 645, 280 N.W. 393 (1938); State ex rel. Ayres v. Gray (Fla. 1953), 69 So. 2d 187; and Thomas v. State Board of Elections, 256 N. C. 401, 124 S.E. 2d 164 (1962).
Here it is not necessary to look to precedent because the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter expressly provides that the president of council shall act as mayor in the event of a vacancy or in case of the mayor's temporary disability. In other words, he shall be the acting may- or — not the mayor.
There is no doubt that our holding in Cali v. Philadelphia, supra, which eliminated from the charter the provision that a vacancy could be filled at the next general election precipitated this problem since Cali now only permits the election of a mayor to a vacancy at a municipal election. However, even though Cali did precipitate the problem, it does not require us to go outside the charter for its solution; nor does it permit us to write new provisions into the city charter which would create vacancies in the office of city councilman where such vacancies were not created by the charter before our decision in Cali.
At argument it was suggested that Tate is called mayor, conducts himself as mayor, is paid as a mayor and in all of his activities so simulates a mayor that in reality he is the mayor and hence his office of councilman and president of council is vacated. Standing alone this might be a very convincing argument as to the status of Tate. However, Tate's status is not determined by any test other than that set out in the city charter which clearly defines his status to be that of acting mayor. Thus, no vacancy is created in his councilmanic office either by Tate's assumption of the charter imposed duties of acting mayor or by a resignation and hence the lower court properly refused the writ.
Judgment affirmed.