Craig E. Davids v. Stan Akers

Plaintiffs appeal from a judgment dismissing their action. We affirm.

I. The Facts.

Sixteen of the plaintiffs are members of the House of Representatives of the Thirty-second Legislature of the state of Arizona. They were elected in November, 1974, and ran as nominees of the Democratic party. They are joined by eight Democratic voters who voted in the November, 1974 election for successful Democratic candidates for the Arizona House of Representatives. These plaintiffs purport to sue on behalf of all other persons similarly situated; the 16 members of the House do not claim to be representatives of a class.

• The trial court, on plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and defendants’ answer and motion to dismiss, which raised defenses of lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, gave judgment for defendants.

The facts stated in the complaint and admitted in the answer, supplemented by affidavits in support of the motion for summary judgment, are these: Sixty persons were elected to the House in November, 1974. Of these, 33 are Republicans and 27 are Democrats. Thus 55 percent of the members are Republicans and…