Opinion ID: 1926677
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Bessemer Division

Text: A portion of the Oxmoor Area lies within the Bessemer Division of Jefferson County and, although a copy of the map of the area was filed with the Judge of Probate of Jefferson County, Alabama, in the Birmingham Division, such a map was not filed in the Bessemer Division. Plaintiffs argue, as their final point, that this was jurisdictionally fatal. Plaintiffs' argument here is based on the provisions of Section 142, Title 37, Code of Alabama of 1940 (1958 recomp. ed.), which provides, in part, as follows: `The said judge [of probate] shall give notice of the holding of such election by publication in at least one newspaper . . . and such notice must give a description of the territory proposed to be brought within the city . . . and must state that a map showing the territory proposed to be brought into the city is on file in the office of the judge of probate of said county, open to the inspection of the public.' Plaintiffs argue that this language means that two maps were required to be filed. The Court cannot agree. Since a map of the Oxmoor Area was filed with the Judge of Probate of Jefferson County in his office in the Birmingham Division, it was not mandatory that another map or plat be filed in the Bessemer Division as well. The legislation which created the Bessemer Division in Jefferson County did not create a separate county. See Sections 160-168, Title 12, Code of Alabama of 1940 (1958 recomp. ed.). Clearly there is only one Judge of Probate of Jefferson County and the map showing the territory purposed to be annexed was on file in that Judge's office in Birmingham, precisely as the statute requires. Moreover, annexations do not involve title to property or property rights in general, and the filing with the Judge of Probate is not, strictly speaking, intended to be the primary method of notice to the public under Article 2. This follows from the fact that Section 142 speaks primarily of notice by publication with a reference in the published notice that the map is on file. The Election Notice here was published for three (3) consecutive weeks in The Birmingham Post-Herald, a newspaper having general circulation throughout the entirety of Jefferson County, and the map was on file in the office of the Judge of Probate in Birmingham. Under these circumstances, the notice given by Birmingham met the requirements of Section 142. Moreover, there is another fatal flaw in this argument of plaintiffs. Even had the notice here given been defective, it could not conceivably have affected the outcome of the election. The testimony of plaintiffs themselves clearly shows that there were, at best, only two (2) registered voters in the Bessemer Division residing within the Oxmoor Area. In view of the overwhelming vote of 60 to 1 in favor of annexation, even assuming that the two (2) Bessemer voters did not have either actual or constructive notice of the election and that these voters would have voted in opposition to annexation, they still could not have possibly affected its outcome. To reiterate, the Court finds this overwhelming vote in favor of annexation highly significant, particularly since courts have uniformly applied an outcome determinative test to resolve minor questions of voting irregularities. See Edmonson v. Brewer, 282 Ala. 336, 211 So.2d 469 (1968); Swaim v. Tuscaloosa County, 267 Ala. 509, 103 So.2d 769 (1957); Doody v. State, 233 Ala. 287, 171 So. 504 (1936); 1 Yokley, Municipal Corporations, 55; 3 McQuillin, Municipal Corporations, Section 12.10; and 2 McQuillin, Municipal Corporations, Section 7.37.