
    RAWLS v. LINDSEY.
    No. 5249.
    Court of Appeal of Louisiana. Second Circuit.
    Feb. 13, 1936.
    Rehearing Denied Feb. 18, 1936.
    R. E. Gahagan, of Natchitoches, for appellant.
    Henry W. Bethard, Jr., of Coushatta, for appellee.
   DREW, Judge.

This suit involves an election contest in which the plaintiff’s suit was dismissed upon an exception to the jurisdiction ra-tione materias.

Plaintiff appealed to this court and the case was fixed for trial for this day, and due notice given attorneys for both appellant and appellee. At the hour fixed for trial, appellant made no appearance, -either in person, by counsel, or by brief. We therefore conclude that the appeal has been abandoned, and it is dismissed at appellant’s cost.

On Application for Rehearing.

PER CURIAM.

Since the dismissal of the appeal in this case on the ground of apparent abandonment, counsel for appellant has filed an application for a rehearing. Therein it is shown that he was ill on the date fixed for hearing, and that counsel for appellee has consented to the granting of a rehearing and to our passing on the merits of the case on briefs submitted.

Under the express wording of the statute governing contests in primary elections, we are specifically prohibited from entertaining applications for rehearing. Section 27, Act No. 97 of 1922, as amended-by Act No. 28 (Second Extra Session) 1935.

Plowever, should a rehearing be authorized and granted, we would not have jurisdiction of the subject-matter. According to the unambiguous terms of the above-mentioned statute, and as announced by the Supreme Court in the case of Reid v. Brunot, 153 La. 490, 96 So. 43, the courts are powerless to act in primary election contests unless the contestant is able to claim, with some substantial basis to rest on, that he has been nominated. The contestant herein does not claim to have been nominated.

Rehearing refused.  