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RATLIFF v. FLEENER et al.

Oklahoma Supreme Court1914-10-24No. No. 6868
43 Okla. 652143 P. 1051

Summary

Holding. The trial court's judgment denying the peremptory writ of mandamus was reversed, and the writ should be granted, requiring the county election board to place Ratliff's name on the ballot as an independent candidate for register of deeds.

Clifton Ratliff sought a writ of mandamus to compel the Oklahoma County election board to place his name on the ballot as an independent candidate for register of deeds. The district court denied his petition. On appeal, the court examined two state statutes passed in the same legislative session in 1913: one consolidating certain county offices and another setting salary schedules for county officers. The court applied the principle that statutes enacted at the same legislative session should be interpreted together as a unified whole, giving effect to each provision if possible. Under this approach, the salary statute for counties exceeding 80,000 population operated as a limitation on the consolidation statute, meaning that in Oklahoma County (which met that population threshold), the offices of register of deeds and county clerk were not actually consolidated. Because the register of deeds position remained a separate office in Oklahoma County, Ratliff qualified as a valid independent candidate and was entitled to ballot access.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Interpretation of two statutes enacted at the same legislative session
  • Whether the consolidation of county offices applied to counties with population over 80,000
  • Eligibility of independent candidates for county office
  • Effect of salary provisions as a limitation on consolidation provisions

Procedural posture

Ratliff appealed from a district court judgment denying his petition for a peremptory writ of mandamus to require placement of his name on the ballot for the November 3, 1914 election.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

TURNER, J-

From a judgment of the district court of Oklahoma county rendered and entered September 26, 1914, refusing to grant a peremptory writ of mandamus, requiring the county election board of Oklahoma county to place his name on the official ballot for the election to be held November 3, 1914, as an independent candidate for the office of register of deeds of that county, Clifton Ratliff, plaintiff in error, plaintiff below, brings the case here.

Whether the writ should run depends upon a proper construction of an act of the Legislature entitled, “An Act consolidating the offices of clerk of the district court, county court clerk, superior court clerk, providing for assistant or deputy clerks for said office, and fixing the salary to be paid to same; consolidating the office of register of deeds and the county clerk, providing for the deputies of said office and fixing the salary for same;providing for the election and duties of said officer of said consolidated offices, and fixing the time when this act shall take effect," approved May 1, 1913 (Sess. Laws 1913, c. 161), and an act entitled, “An Act fixing the salary of county officers in counties having a population of over eighty thousand,” approved May 19, 1913, passed at the same session of the Legislature (Sess. Laws 1913, c. 212). Being passed at the same session of the Legislature, these acts should be construed together as in pari materia and as one act, so that all parts of the act may stand.

In McGrady v. Terrell, Commissioner, 98 Tex. 427, 84 S. W. 641, it is said that where two laws are passed at the same session of the Legislature, they are to be construed as though they were one act, and the later held not to repeal the former unless conflict between them is irreconcilable.

In State v. Rackley, 2 Blackf. (Ind.) 249, it is said that:

“Statutes enacted at the same session of the Legislature are to be taken in pari materia, and should receive a construction which will give effect to each if possible. But if each of them cannot have the same entire effect when taken in connection with the others that it would have if taken singly, they must be so construed as to give effect to what appears to have been the main intention of the Legislature.”

And in 36 Cyc. 1147:

“Statutes in pari materia are those which relate to the same person or things. In the construction of a particular statute, or in the interpretation of any of its provisions, all acts relating to the same subject, or having the same general purpose, should be read in connection with it, as together constituting one law.”

Construed as one act, inasmuch as the function of a proviso is to limit the language preceding it (Shawnee Gas, etc., Co. v. State Corporation Commission, 35 Okla. 454, 130 Pac. 127), section 1 of the Act approved May 19, 1913, should operate as a proviso on section 5 of the Act approved May 1, 1913, and together they should read (section 5) : “The office of the register of deeds is hereby coxisolidated with the office of county clerk in all comities of this state, and said office so consolidated shall be hereafter known as the county clerk, and in addition to the duties now imposed upon the county clerk by law he shall perform the same duties that are now performed by the register of deeds,” provided, however, that this act shall not apply to counties having a population of over 80,000; but (section 1) “in all counties having a population of over eighty thousand, the treasurer shall receive as his full compensation a salary of $2,500.00 per annum, the county judge shall receive as his full compensation a salary of $2,400 per annum and the sheriff, the cleilc of the superior court, the county clerk and register of deeds, shall each receive as their full compensation a salary of $2,100.00 per annum.”

Axid with this intent in view, section 11 should read: That the office of the clerk of the district court, clerk of the comity court, clerk of the superior court, and register of deeds are hereby abolished on and after the first Monday in January, 1915, except in counties having a population of over 80,000. This construction is in keeping with the rule laid down in Garton et ux. v. Hudson-Kimberly Pub. Co., 8 Okla. 631, 58 Pac. 946. In that case a statute upon “conveyances” and another upon “transfers” which contained different forms of acknowledgment were a part of the statutes of the territory in 1890 and were re-adopted as a part of the statutes in 1893. In determining which was proper the court, in the syllabus, said:

“Inasmuch as the statutes relate to the same subject-matter, they should be construed together, and effect given to each, and this rule should be especially held where statutes relating to the same subject-matter have been enacted at the same legislative session, rather than to infer that one of the statutes was meant to destroy the other.”

See, also, 26 Am. & Eng. Enc. of Law, p. 623; M., O. & G. Ry. Co. v. State, 29 Okla. 640, 119 Pac. 117; Curry et al. v. Lehman, 55 Fla. 847, 47 South. 18; Moss v. United States, 29 App. D. C. 189; Twiggs v. State Bd. of Land Commissioners, 27 Utah, 211, 75 Pac. 729; Curtwright v. Crow, 44 Mo. App. 563; Chandler v. Lee, 1 Idaho, 349.

It is unnecessary for us to pass upon the constitutionality of either act to establish plaintiff’s right to the writ. We are therefore of the opinion that the judgment of the trial court was wrong, and the writ should go. It is so ordered.

All the Justices concur.