Montana Attorney General Opinion 15-630

Opinion No. 630 Elections-Candidates-Vacancies -Quornm-County Central Committee. HELD: Since a county central com- mittee consists of a definite number of duly elected and qualified members, a majority thereof constitutes a quorum for the purpose of transacting busi- ness, including that of filling a va- cancy occuring in the party ticket. Octoher 16, 1934. You have submitted the question as to what constitutes a quorum of a county central committee for the pur- pose of filling a vacancy among the candidates on the county ticket. Section 662, R. C. M., 1921, as finally amended by Chapter 6, Laws of 1933, which covers the subject of election of county central committees and their powers including that of filling ntcan- cies, does not state what constitutes a quorum. In the absence of such statu- tory provision I am of the opinion that the common law rule would apply. The common law rule is that a ma- jority of all the duly elected and quali- fied members of an assembly or body shall constitute a quorum. This rule was adopted in order to secure fair- ness in proceeding and to prevent as- semblies or groups from splitting up into groups, each group being likely to take action contrary to that of some other section. In Lyons v. Woods, 5 N. M. 327, 21 P. 346, where some of the authorities are collected, the Court quotes from Mr. Wapples as follows: " 'A quorum is a majority of the mem- bers. It. is never less, under the com- mon law of parliamentary procedure. Unless more than half of the members of the body are present, the body is not present. "Then more than half are present, the hody is complete, and is as though all the members were pres- ent. If less than half could do business it would be possihle for deliberath-e bodies to be divided into t.wo or more assemblies, each capable of doing busi- ness, and each liable to adopt measures contrary to those adopted by some other section'." After re,-iewing the authori- ties the Court concluded: "These au- thorities settle the point that there must be a legal quorum before there can be a legal body, and that, in the ab- sence of a special rule on the subject, a quorum must consist of at least a majority of all the legally elected members." In 46 C. J. 1378, sec. 8, under Par- liamentary Law, the text writer states: "In reckoning a quorum the general rule is that, in the absence of a con- trary provision affecting the rule, the total number of all the membership of the body be tilken as the basis; and ordinarily a majority of the authorized membership of a body, consisting of a definite number of members, constitutes a quorum for the purpose of transact- ing business; * • ." The rule is thc same in the case of municipal cor- porations. (43 C. J. 502, secs. 766-767.) This seems to be the rule generally. (51 C. J. 305, note 84.) The one excep- tion to this rule is when the associa- tion or body is composed of an indefi- nite number of persons. (5 C. J. 1346, sec. 42.) For the foregOing reasons, since the county central committee of Petroleum County consists of a definite number of duly elected and qualified members, I am of the opinion that a majority thereof constitutes a quorum of the committee for the purpose of trans- acting business, including that of fill- ing a vacancy occurring among candi- dates of the respecth-e parties.