Mississippi Advisory Opinions December 08, 1981: AGO 000003181 (December 8, 1981)

AGO 000003181.

Dear Mr. Martin:

Attorney General Bill Allain has received your letter of request dated December 7, 1981, and has assigned it to the undersigned for research and reply, your letter of request stating:

"We sincerely appreciate your kind assistance with our questions in the past and urgently request your opinion regarding the Special Election where an elected official has been removed from office. On November 6, 1981, a member of this county's Board of Supervisors was removed from office upon being found guilty of a charge of 'fraud in public office.

"A special election to fill this office will be January 5, 1982. Several candidates in this special election have asked us the following questions:

"'If the Supervisor who was removed from office appeals to the Supreme Court, could there be an injunction to hold up the special election?'

"'Is it possible that the supervisor recently convicted eventually be ordered "reinstated" and the winner of the up-coming special election be removed?'"

Your Board of Supervisors, as I understand it, acted pursuant to upon23-5-197, Mississippi Code of 1972, in calling a special election caused by a Supervisor's removal from office by the Circuit Court, the special election to be January 5, 1982. Although, the questions you raise could only be determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, I refer you to (and enclose copies herewith) the following Mississippi cases: Bucklew v State, 192 So. 2d 275 (November 21 1966) Jolliff v State and Jolliff v. Wilkinson County Board of Election Commissioners, 210 So.2d 47 (May 1, 1968), Jolliff v. State, 215 So.2d 234 (October 28, 1968) and Jolliff v. State, 215 So.2d 240 (October 28, 1968).

We do point out the language of the Jolliff case found at page 239 of 215 So. 2d reading:

"Now, we would be confronted with an entirely different situation if a successor had been regularly elected to the office according to law, and we want to make it crystal clear that our ruling is based entirely on the unusual and peculiar facts and posture of this case alone."

Yours very truly,

BILL ALLAIN, ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY:

Richard M. Allen Special Assistant Attorney General

RMA:hs Enclosures