DocketNumber: Calendar No. 21,695
Citation Numbers: 144 Mich. 67
Judges: Carpenter, Hooker, McAlvay, Moore, Ostrander
Filed Date: 5/14/1906
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 9/8/2022
Act No. 577, Local Acts 1905, is entitled “An act to disorganize and vacate the township of Atkinson, in the county of Iron, and to incorporate its territory within the adjoining township of Iron River, in
The reasonable intention of the legislature was that the business of the township of Atkinson, including the registration of its qualified electors, should proceed in the usual way so long as it remained, a township. On Sunday, April 1st, by operation of the law, the same people, including the electors, became inhabitants of and electors in the township of Iron River, an organized township possessing the officers and all the machinery of government, and they had the undoubted right to exercise as inhabitants of that township all the rights of citizens possessed by other inhabitants of the same township. The argument that the qualified electors of Atkinson township were disfranchised because they had not for 30 days been inhabitants of the township of Iron River is without force. They had been inhabitants of the territory comprising the township of Iron River. Gibson v. Wood, 105 Ky. 740 (43 L. R. A. 699); Renner v. Bennett, 31 Ohio St. 431. No political right of any inhabitant was or was intended to be abridged. We think all the contentions made against the act and its constitutionality are determined by Attorney General, ex rel. Battishill, v. Township Board of Springwells, 143 Mich. 533.
But respondents further in their answer call attention to the fact that at the same session of the legislature Act No. 596, Local Acts 1905, "was adopted, entitled “An act to provide for a new voting precinct to be known as voting precinct number two, in the township of Iron River, in the county of Iron,” section 1 of which reads:
It is pointed out that three sections of the original township of Atkinson lie south of the north line of township 43 N., range 36 W., and that entire surveyed township 46 N., range 37 W., was apart of the original township of Atkinson; that Act No. 596 took effect March 1, 1906, and can be held to apply only to the territory at that time within the organized territory of Iron River. It is argued that the inhabitants of the three sections and those of the entire surveyed township mentioned, being thus omitted from the territory included within said election district No; 2, were, under any construction of said Act No. 596, disfranchised, because no provision was made for their registration within the township of Iron River. It is made to appear, also, that there were electors residing within the said excepted territory. It is contended that Act No. 596 must be read in connection with and as supplementary to Act No. 577, and that, as so read, the earlier act must be found to be unconstitutional.
This contention has been for the most part already disposed of. There was territory in the township of Iron River at the time Act No. 596 was passed and given effect, both north and south of the north line of township 43 N., and by this act that territory north of the line and east of the west line of range 36 was organized into a separate voting precinct. The remainder of the territory in the township would necessarily be in election precinct No. 1. It is true that the act could have no effect, at the time of its passage, upon any territory, lying either north or south of said line, not a part of said township of Iron River. But on April 1st the inhabitants of Atkinson township became inhabitants of Iron River township, and were, of necessity, if outside of the boundaries of precinct No. 2, within the boundaries of election precinct No. 1. ' A study
The writ must issue as prayed.