Schieffelin v. Britt

Headnote

Schieffelin v. Britt, 150 App. Div. 568 , affirmed.

Appeal, by permission, from an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered May 3, 1912, which affirmed an order of Special Term denying an application for an order prohibiting the defendant board of elections from preparing ballots for a primary election with the emblem of the Citizens’ Union thereon.

The following questions were certified:

“1. Has a faction of a political party the right to appropriate and use, in order to identify itself and its candidates to the voters at the official primary, the political emblem of a continuing independent body, which emblem has been duly adopted and exclusively used by such independent body for a considerable period of years to identify itself and its candidates to the voters at the secondary elections, and which emblem such independent body intends to use further in the same manner, such use

by the party faction being duly protested against by the . independent body ?

“2. Under such circumstances, has the Supreme Court the power to enjoin such a use of such an emblem in a summary proceeding brought under the Election Law ?

“ 3. Does the record herein disclose a right in the plaintiff to prevent in a proceeding like this the use of the Citizens’ Union emblem by a party faction upon the primary ballot ? ”