Relators, a committee of qualified electors and residents of city, whose petition to amend the city charter to establish a recall procedure for elected officials was denied by the city clerk, petitioned for a writ of mandamus to order the city council to adopt an ordinance certifying their charter-amendment petition to the county board of elections, and to order the board of elections to verify the petition’s signatures and, if the signatures were sufficient, to place the proposed amendment on the general-election ballot.
The Supreme Court held that:
- Relators satisfied requirement for obtaining mandamus relief that there was no plain and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law;
- Statute requiring that certified copies of initiative or referendum petitions be filed before they were circulated did not apply to relators’ petition to amend city charter;
- Relators could not obtain the specific mandamus relief they sought; but
- Limited writ of mandamus was appropriate ordering city clerk to transmit charter-amendment petition to board of elections to determine petition’s sufficiency and, if sufficient, ordering city council to provide by ordinance for submission of proposed charter amendment to city’s electors;
- Relators’ request for mandamus relief directed to the board was premature;
- Relators could not obtain attorney fees; and
- The parties had to bear their respective costs.