Opinion
No. 79-958
Decided October 5, 1979.
Elections — Election contest petition — Surety bond requirement — Complied with, when — R.C. 3515.09 construed.
APPEAL from the Court of Common Pleas of Marion County.
Appellants filed a petition in the Court of Common Pleas of Marion County seeking to have the results of the June 1979 primary election set aside and a special election held at the earliest possible time. With the filing of the petition in the office of the Clerk of Courts, appellant J.C. Ratliff paid a $30 filing fee and also presented $500 in cash to the clerk. A deputy clerk accepted the money and gave appellant a written receipt for "Surety Bond for Court Costs***." Subsequently, appellees filed a motion to dismiss the petition, alleging, inter alia, that appellants did not comply with R.C. 3515.09, which requires that a surety bond accompany an election contest petition. The motion was granted, and our allowance of a motion for leave to appeal brings the matter directly to this court. (R.C. 3515.15.)
Mr. Lewis William Dye and Mr. J.C. Ratliff, for appellants.
Mr. John Garnes, Mr. Robert E. Wilson and Mr. John H. Hix, for appellees.
We reverse.
R.C. 3515.09 reads, in pertinent part, as follows:
"Said petition [to contest an election] shall be accompanied by a bond with surety to be approved by the clerk of the appropriate court in a sum sufficient, as determined by him, to pay all costs of the contest."
The record shows that the $500 in cash was accepted by the clerk's office and receipted as "Surety Bond for Court Costs," indicating that the clerk accepted the cash as the equivalent of a bond. Appellees have not shown that they are in any way prejudiced by the clerk's acceptance of the $500 in cash.
Accordingly, on the facts presented herein, we find that the provisions of R.C. 3515.09 have been complied with.
The judgment of the Court of Common Pleas is, therefore, reversed, and the cause is remanded to that court for a hearing on the merits of the appellants' contest petition as expeditiously as possible.
Judgment reversed.
CELEBREZZE, C.J., HERBERT, W. BROWN, P. BROWN, SWEENEY, LOCHER and HOLMES, JJ., concur.