Opinion ID: 1100343
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Was Gnemi's petition filed with the HCDEC properly sworn?

Text: ¶ 19. Waters alleges that Gnemi failed to file a sworn petition when contesting the primary election before the HCDEC. Waters is correct. However, Gnemi was not required to file a sworn petition with the HCDEC. Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-921 (Rev.2001) sets out the procedure to be followed when filing a protest with a county party executive committee. That statute states in pertinent part: [A] person desiring to contest the election of another person returned as the nominee of the party to any county or county district office, or as the nominee of a legislative district composed of one (1) county or less, may, within twenty (20) days after the primary election, file a petition with the secretary, or any member of the county executive committee in the county in which the election was held, setting forth the grounds upon which the primary election is contested. This statute does not state or imply a requirement that the written petition filed with the county executive committee must be sworn. Waters goes further and alleges that the applicable statute governing the filing of a circuit court petition for judicial review requires that not only must the petition for judicial review be sworn, but there must also be attached to this petition a sworn copy of the petition filed with the county executive committee. Waters is correct; however, she misinterprets the meaning of the phrase sworn copy of the petition. The applicable statute governing the filing of a petition for judicial review is Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-927, which states in pertinent part: [T]he contestant shall have the right forthwith to file in the circuit court of the county wherein the irregularities are charged to have occurred .......a sworn copy of his said protest or complaint, together with a sworn petition, setting forth with particularity wherein the executive committee has wrongfully failed to act or to fully and promptly investigate or has wrongfully denied the relief prayed by said contest, with a prayer for a judicial review thereof. This statute specifically governs the circuit court action after a contestant has received no relief from the county executive committee. More than a procedural technicality, the requirement that the circuit court petition for judicial review be sworn insures a subsequent reviewing special tribunal that the matter before it is meritorious and reviewable, having been formerly and properly ruled upon by the county party executive committee. ¶ 20. In Miller v. Oktibbeha County Democratic Executive Committee, 377 So.2d 917 (Miss.1979), we examined the sworn contest requirement at issue in this case. In citing our earlier decisions in Robinson v. Briscoe, 326 So.2d 796 (Miss. 1976); and, Darnell v. Myres, 202 Miss. 767, 32 So.2d 684 (1947), we affirmed the special tribunal's dismissal of a primary election contest petition and stated that [t]he contest must be sworn as originally filed with the Executive Committee, the purpose of the statute being to guard against frivolous interruptions of the orderly progression of the primary election process. Miller, 377 So.2d at 918. We further stated in Miller that the contestant's failure to have the contest sworn as originally filed with the Executive Committee was a jurisdictional defect. ¶ 21. We can understand Waters's reliance on Miller, Robinson, and Darnell. Unfortunately, this Court, in Miller, relied on Robinson, which had misinterpreted Darnell. In a three-paragraph opinion, this Court, in Robinson, affirmed the circuit court's dismissal of an election contest due to the contestant's alleged failure to comply with the statute concerning the protest or complaint which is filed with the county party executive committee. Our opinion in Robinson states in pertinent part: This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of Marshall County which sustained a plea in bar of the appellee, Wayne Briscoe, and dismissed the case against him. The court found the appellant, Sam T. Robinson, had not complied with the requirements of Mississippi Code Annotated section 23-3-45 (1972) [15] wherein `the contestant shall have the right forthwith to file with the circuit court.... a sworn copy of his said protest or complaint, together with a sworn petition.....' The issue before the Court is whether the contestant in an election contest complies with the statute when he files a petition for judicial review and attaches to it an unsworn copy of the protest or complaint filed with the party executive committee. It is the opinion of the Court that all issues presented are controlled by Darnell v. Myres, 202 Miss. 767, 32 So.2d 684 (1947). The statute requires the protest or complaint to be sworn to. 326 So.2d at 796-97. ¶ 22. In Darnell, the winner of the primary election subsequently lost an election contest before the county party executive committee and sought judicial review. Upon commencing an action for judicial review by a special tribunal, the primary election winner failed to attach as an exhibit to his petition a copy of the answer which he had filed as the contestee before the party executive committee; therefore, the petition for judicial review was dismissed by the special tribunal. In upholding the dismissal, we discussed the procedural prerequisite concerning the filing of pleadings with the county executive committee: [W]hen the contestee [the original winner] would complain to the special judicial tribunal, he must show by exhibit with his complaint what he had placed before the executive committee, either by specific denials or by specific cross-complaint, and wherein the executive committee had wrongfully acted or failed to act on what he had thus placed before the committee for its determination and action. Darnell, 202 Miss. at 775, 32 So.2d at 686. The statute thus assures that the special judicial tribunal will not examine into matters not presented by the original contest or protest before the executive committee, save as to matters germane which happened during or since the hearing before the executive committee, and save as to matters merely explanatory or incidental. 202 Miss. at 773, 32 So.2d at 685 (citing Harris v. Stewart, 187 Miss. 489, 507, 193 So. 339 (1940)). Stated clearly, we reasoned: It is plain enough on a careful analysis of Sec. 15, Chap. 19, Laws, 1935, Ex. Sess., Sec. 3182, Code 1942 [now Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-927], that what the special tribunal created under that chapter is to hear and determine is in what respect or respects the party `executive committee has wrongfully    denied the relief prayed by said contest,' meaning of course the contest theretofore filed by the contestant with and before the executive committee under Sec. 3143, Code 1942 [now Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-921]. So it is then that Sec. 15, Sec. 3182 [now Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-927], requires that the petition for a judicial review shall exhibit as an essential part of the petition a sworn copy of his protest or complaint theretofore made before the executive committee, from which it follows that if the contestant made no protest or contest in writing before the executive committee, there can be no jurisdiction in the special tribunal to review the action of the executive committee, and further that unless a sworn copy of his said protest or contest before the executive committee is made a part of his petition for a judicial review, the said petition will present no cause of action for such a review. 32 So.2d at 685 (emphasis added). ¶ 23. It is thus abundantly clear that the Court in Robinson misinterpreted the above language from our decision in Darnell. All we said in Darnell was that the original contestee failed to file any written responsive pleadings before the party executive committee, and that since he failed to attach to his circuit court petition for judicial review a sworn copy of any pleadings he filed with the executive committee, the special tribunal had no jurisdiction to judicially review the action of the party executive committee. The Court in Robinson erroneously interpreted Darnell to require that a circuit court petition for judicial review must have attached a copy of the sworn petition filed with the party executive committee, as opposed to a sworn copy of the petition. ¶ 24. Thus, while we agree with Waters that Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-927 requires that a contestant file in circuit court a sworn petition for judicial review with certain attachments, including a sworn copy of his/her protest or petition which had been filed with the county executive committee, we part ways with Waters when she asserts that the protest or petition filed with the county executive committee must be sworn and that the subsequent filing of the petition for judicial review must have attached thereto a copy of the previously sworn petition filed with the county executive committee. Waters, like the Court in Robinson, misinterprets our decision in Darnell because she interprets Section 23-15-927 to require that there be attached to the petition for judicial review a copy of the sworn petition filed with the county executive committee. The statute does not require this. What is required to be attached to the petition for judicial review is  a sworn copy  of the petition filed with the county executive committee, not a  copy of the sworn petition  filed with the county executive committee. If we accepted Waters's interpretation of Section 23-15-927 and our case law, we would in essence judicially abrogate Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-921, which clearly does not require that a sworn petition be filed with the county executive committee. Further, Waters's interpretation of the statute would have us say that while Section 23-15-921 does not require that the petition filed with the county executive committee be sworn, that same petition has to be sworn when it is attached as an exhibit to the petition for judicial review which is subsequently filed in circuit court. This is an impossibility. ¶ 25. Here is what Gnemi quite appropriately did in today's case. He filed his petition for judicial review in the Circuit Court of Holmes County. There were numerous attachments to the petition for judicial review, including his handwritten note of August 21, 2003, asking for a re-count, the circuit clerk's handwritten note of August 22, 2003, signed by both Waters and Gnemi, confirming that Gnemi had requested an examination of the ballot boxes, and Gnemi's unsworn handwritten protest which he signed and filed with the HCDEC on August 25, 2003. Also attached to the circuit court petition for judicial review is a Verification which states, Personally came and appeared before me, the undersigned authority in and for the aforesaid jurisdiction, James `Danny' Gnemi, who being by me first duly sworn states on oath that the matters and things contained in the above and foregoing are true and correct to the best of his knowledge, information, and belief. This verification was signed by Gnemi before the Chancery Clerk of Leake County, Mississippi and notarized by a Leake County deputy chancery clerk. ¶ 26. In this case, we can thus state with confidence that Gnemi unquestionably complied with the provisions of Section 23-15-927, and our applicable case law, in that he attached to his circuit court petition for judicial review a sworn copy of the unsworn petition which he had filed with the HCDEC. By so doing, the special tribunal was empowered with jurisdiction to hear the case and was clearly informed of the issues which Gnemi wanted the special tribunal to review. ¶ 27. Accordingly, we today expressly overrule Robinson, and to the extent that Miller can be interpreted to have been decided based on Robinson, we likewise overrule Miller to that limited extent. ¶ 28. Thus, this assignment of error is wholly without merit.