LEGAL RECORD PUB. CO. v. MILLER

LEGAL RECORD PUB. CO. v. MILLER
1915 OK 1101
153 P. 1116
54 Okla. 287
Case Number: 5556
Decided: 12/21/1915
Supreme Court of Oklahoma

LEGAL RECORD PUB. CO.
v.
MILLER, Mayor, et al.

Syllabus

¶0 APPEAL AND ERROR--Moot Questions--Dismissal. Where, pending an appeal, the issues have become moot, and no practical relief could be afforded by a reversal of the cause, the appeal will be dismissed.

Error from District Court, Muskogee County; R. P. de Graffenried, Judge.

Mandamus by the Legal Record Publishing Company, a corporation, against W. P. Miller, Mayor, and others. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff brings error. Dismissed

Franklin & Carey, for plaintiff in error
Sumner J. Lipscomb, Owen & Stone, Chas. Bagg, and S. V. O'Hare, for defendants in error

BREWER, C.

¶1 Plaintiff in error brings this appeal to have reviewed and reversed the action of the trial court in refusing to award a writ of mandamus, to compel the officers of the city of Muskogee to award it a contract to do printing during a six-months' period, beginning June 2, 1913.

¶2 Defendants in error have moved to dismiss the appeal, on the ground that the questions involved have become moot, and that no actual relief can be afforded through a decision. The motion should be sustained. Of course a writ could not now be issued compelling defendants to award a contract to do the city printing, during the period from July 2, 1913, to January 2, 1914. The printing has either been long since done, or is not needed, and cannot be done.

¶3 Nor does the fact that costs might be saved plaintiff in error by a decision alter the case. Neither does the claim that plaintiff in error might have a cause of action for damages affect the matter under the circumstances of the case. This is not a decision on the merits; it is a declination to consider the issues originally involved in the appeal. Farquharson v. State ex rel. Calvert, 26 Okla. 767, 110 P. 909; Sneed v. State ex rel. Yoeman, 27 Okla. 259, 111 P. 203; Miller v. Ury, 23 Okla. 546, 102 P. 112; Greer County v. Elliott, 26 Okla. 546, 109 P. 731; Brown v. West et al., 28 Okla. 648, 115 P. 796; Jones v. East, 33 Okla. 604, 127 P. 261; Hodges v. Schafer, 23 Okla. 404, 100 P. 537; Standard Stone Co. v. Greer et. al., 52 Okla. 595, 153 P. 640.

¶4 This appeal should be dismissed.

¶5 By the Court: It is so ordered.