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Appeal of Pearce

Supreme Court of Rhode Island
Jan 1, 1861
6 R.I. 589 (R.I. 1861)

Opinion

MARCH TERM, 1861.

Any resident of a school district, qualified at the time as a registered vote to vote in town meeting, is entitled to vote in the district meeting to assess a tax for the repair or improvement of the district school-house provided he be liable on account of his personal estate to contribute to the tax for which he votes, although he has never been assessed for such personal estate, and his name is not upon the last list of town voters.

APPEAL to the commissioner of public schools, from the vote of a district meeting of school district No. 2, Cranston, ordering a tax of $500 to be assessed upon the ratable property of the district, for the purpose of repairing and improving the school-house in said district.

By the statement of facts of the commissioner, it appeared that the vote was passed at a district meeting held on the 21st of May, 1859, by eighteen affirmative, against sixteen negative, votes; and that the appellants contested the validity of the order of assessment by impeaching the right to vote, at said meeting, of Horatio N. Randall and Charles O. Bennett, residents in said district, both of whom voted in the affirmative. It further appeared from the statement, that Randall was in September, 1858, assessed in the town of Cranston for town taxes, the sum of $3.65, upon real estate valued at $1200, which he paid to the town collector on the 8th day of March, 1859; and that having, in January or February, 1859, sold his real estate, he was in July of that year, assessed for town taxes in Cranston, the sum of $1.07 1/2, upon personal estate valued at $500; — the same estate for which he was assessed for his proportion of the tax in question. Bennett's name, though upon the registry, was not upon the list of voters of the town of Cranston, prepared for the April or June election, 1859.

Upon these facts the commissioner decided that Randall was entitled to vote at the district meeting of the 21st of May, 1859, and that, consequently, the vote of assessment then passed was valid, and it was unnecessary to pass upon Bennett's right to vote, at said meeting; whereupon, the commissioner was requested by the appellants to lay a statement of the facts before the chief justice for his opinion in matter of law.


By sect. 8, ch. 62, of the Revised Statutes, every resident in a school district is entitled to vote in a district meeting, who is qualified at the time to vote in a town meeting, with this further restriction, — that to vote upon any question of taxation of property, or of expenditure of money raised thereby, he must either have paid, or be liable to pay, a portion of the the tax. He need not, however, be upon the last list of town voters; since such lists are not prepared or made up for district, as they are for town, meetings; and there is, therefore, no mode provided by which he could get upon the list, however well qualified he might be at the time to vote.

In this view of the statute, it is plain, that Randall was entitled to vote for the tax ordered to be assessed by the district meeting of school district No. 2, of Cranston, held on the 21st day of May, 1859. Though not upon the town voting list made up for the April election, 1859, he was qualified, as a registered voter, to vote at the meeting in question, by the payment of a tax to the amount of a dollar, upon property valued at a sum exceeding one hundred and thirty-four dollars, assessed within the year next preceding, and more than four days prior to the time of his voting; (Rev. Stats. ch. 22, § 1, ch. 23, § 14,) and although he had parted with the real estate upon which this tax had been assessed, he was, on account of personal estate to the amount of $500, liable to contribute to, and therefore entitled to vote for, the school district tax in question.

For these reasons I affirm the decision of the commissioner, that the vote of school district No. 2, of Cranston, passed May 21, 1859, was a valid order of assessment.


Summaries of

Appeal of Pearce

Supreme Court of Rhode Island
Jan 1, 1861
6 R.I. 589 (R.I. 1861)
Case details for

Appeal of Pearce

Case Details

Full title:APPEAL OF SYLVESTER R. PEARCE others

Court:Supreme Court of Rhode Island

Date published: Jan 1, 1861

Citations

6 R.I. 589 (R.I. 1861)