Opinion ID: 1859740
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure of counterclaim and amended counterclaim to state a cause of action.

Text: For his second point on appeal, Mr. Womack argues that the trial court erred in dismissing his counterclaim and amended counterclaim. [5] The trial court dismissed Mr. Womack's counterclaim and amended counterclaim pursuant to Ark. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state facts upon which relief can be granted. The trial court ruled that Mr. Womack did not allege that by invalidating the votes of the voters named or referenced in the pleadings that a different election result would occur; and that in a majority of instances where voting irregularities were alleged to have occurred, the pleading did not allege for whom the voter voted. Election contests are governed entirely by statute. Reed v. Baker, 254 Ark. 631, 495 S.W.2d 849 (1973). As such, they are statutory or special proceedings under Ark. R. Civ. P. 81. Thus, the rules of civil procedure do not apply where a statute specifically creates a right, remedy, or proceeding that provides a different procedure. See Rubens v. Hodges, 310 Ark. 451, 837 S.W.2d 465 (1992). In construing Ark.Code Ann. § 7-5-801(d) (Repl.1993) (and its predecessor provision), this court has held that a claim for affirmative relief in an election contest must state a prima facie case and plead sufficient facts to give the other party reasonable information as to the grounds of the contest. McClendon v. McKeown, 230 Ark. 521, 323 S.W.2d 542 (1959). The pleading must do more than merely state generalities or conclusions of law to the effect that illegal votes were cast. Jones v. Etheridge, 242 Ark. 907, 416 S.W.2d 306 (1967). To state a cause of action for affirmative relief in an election contest, one must name the voters who allegedly cast invalid ballots, allege that they voted for the other candidate, and allege that the total of the invalid votes is sufficient to change the outcome of the election. Id.; Files v. Hill, 268 Ark. 106, 594 S.W.2d 836 (1980). We recently reaffirmed these requirements for stating a claim for affirmative relief in election-contest cases. King v. Whitfield, 339 Ark. 176, 5 S.W.3d 21 (1999). At a minimum, the complaint for affirmative relief must include the number of votes received by each candidate, so that it appears, after subtracting the alleged invalid votes, that the claimant has more votes than his opponent. Id. In this case, Mr. Womack's counterclaim and amended counterclaim made several requests for affirmative relief. Specifically, he asked the trial court to invalidate all unchallenged absentee ballots that were not marked by election officials in accordance with Amendment 50, section 3, to the Arkansas Constitution. [6] He also asked the trial court to invalidate numerous absentee ballots because of alleged fraudulent and illegal acts on the part of Mr. Foster's campaign workers in the handling of applications for absentee ballots and absentee-ballot materials. Many of these allegations failed to name the voters who allegedly cast the invalid ballots. Voters alleged to have been wrongfully disenfranchised were also not identified. Moreover, in those instances where voters were identified by name, Mr. Womack failed to allege whom they voted for in the runoff election. Without that information, we cannot conclude from the face of the counterclaim and amended counterclaim whether Mr. Womack would have had more votes than his opponent. Finally, the concluding request for relief in both the counterclaim and the amended counterclaim stated as follows: Upon hearing the competent evidence in this cause, the Court will come to the conclusion that more qualified, proper votes were cast for Womack than were cast for Foster. This conclusory statement clearly fails to state a cause of action. This case is controlled by our decision in Wheeler v. Jones, 239 Ark. 455, 390 S.W.2d 129 (1965), where the plaintiff omitted from his complaint which candidate benefitted from the illegal votes. Instead, the complaint set out the total votes per candidate and then asserted that 52 named persons voted in an absentee box and were not qualified electors and that 196 named persons voted in precincts in which they did not reside. The trial court sustained a demurrer, and we affirmed. We held that the complaint did not state a cause of action because the plaintiff did not allege whether the contested votes were cast for the other candidate or that the election results would be different if those votes were set aside. Likewise, Mr. Womack's counterclaim and amended counterclaim did not allege whether all of the contested votes were cast for his opponent or that, after subtracting the alleged invalid votes, he would have had more votes than his opponent. Although Mr. Womack's counterclaim and amended counterclaim asserted numerous general and conclusory allegations of serious misconduct and fraud on the part of Mr. Foster's campaign workers, we conclude that neither pleading stated a cause of action for affirmative relief in an election contest. Thus, we affirm the trial court's dismissal of Mr. Womack's counterclaim and amended counterclaim.