Lord v. Dunster

Citations

• 79 Cal. 477
• 21 P. 865
• 1889 Cal. LEXIS 757

Syllabus

<p>Election Contest—Appellate Jurisdiction— Constitutional Construction—Maxim — Contemporaneous Exposition.-—The supreme court has appellate jurisdiction over cases of contested election, under the constitution of 1879. The decisions of this court, regardless of the reasons on which they were originally based, have, by long acquiescence, fixed the construction of the constitution, upon the principle embodied in the maxim, Contemporánea expositb est fortissima in lege; and there being nothing in the constitution of 1879 to restrict or limit the right of appeal in contested election cases fixed by the construction of the former constitution, that right remains under the constitution of 1879.</p> <p>Id. — Continuance — Abuse of Discretion — Affidavits of Election Board. — It is error and an abuse of discretion for the court in a contested election case to deny a motion for a continuance made after the trial has ended and the court has met for decision, but before its decision is announced, if the next day is a legal holiday, and the postponement is asked until the day succeeding such holiday, upon affidavits of an election board showing that they and the voters of their election precinct were greatly surprised by the result of the recount of the votes in that precinct (which recount had turned the scale of the election in favor of the contestant), and that they had since the last adjournment of the court procured the certificates of a sufficient number of voters of that precinct who would testify that they had voted for respondent to insure his election.</p> <p>Id. —Public Nature oe Election Contest—Discovert oe Fraud. — The public at large are deeply concerned in the investigation proposed by an election contest. The public interests imperatively require that the ultimate determination of the contest should in every instance, if possible, reach the very right of the case. When it is made clear to the court that a gross fraud has been committed, either by felonious con