Thirty-eighth Ward Election

Citations

• 35 Pa. Super. 256
• 1908 Pa. Super. LEXIS 21

Syllabus

<p>Election law — Election contest — Costs—Acts of May 19, 1874, P. L. 208, May 8,1876, P. L. 148, and April 28,1899, P. L. 118.</p> <p>The Act of May 19,1874, P. L. 208, designating the several classes of contested elections in Pennsylvania, and providing for the trial thereof applies to the contest of an election in which a tie vote is returned. If, after a judicial investigation of the election in the mode prescribed in the statute, it is determined that the respondent received a majority of the votes legally cast, and he is given a certificate of election, there is no warrant in the statute for holding that the disposition of the costs is to be different, where a tie vote is returned from what it would be if a plurality of votes had been returned in favor of the respondent.</p> <p>The Act of May 8, 1876, P. L. 148, relating to the apportionment of costs in certain classes of election cases “among proper districts,” has no application to the contest of an election of common councilmen in a city of the first class, for the obvious reason that no occasion for apportionment of the costs can possibly arise in such a case. Prior to the Act of April 28, 1899, P. L. 118, the law governing liability for costs in such a contest was contained in sec. 9 of the Act of May 19,1874, P. L. 208.</p> <p>Under the Act of April 28,1899, P. L. 118, amending sec. 9 of the Act of May 19, 1874, P. L. 208, the petitioners in an election contest over the election of a common councilman in a city of the first class, will be charged with the costs of the contest if the contestant fails to establish his right to the office, and this is the case although the contestant was not a petitioner, and took no part in the contest either as a party or a witness. In such a case the person claiming the right to the office need not be a petitioner, in order to become a contestant within the meaning of the act.</p> <p>Statutes — Amendments—Repeal.</p> <p>A statute amendatory of another declaring that the