State ex informatione Crow v. Lund

66 S.W. 1062, 167 Mo. 228, 1902 Mo. LEXIS 117
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedFebruary 19, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 66 S.W. 1062 (State ex informatione Crow v. Lund) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex informatione Crow v. Lund, 66 S.W. 1062, 167 Mo. 228, 1902 Mo. LEXIS 117 (Mo. 1902).

Opinions

BURGESS, C. J.

This proceeding was begun ex-officio by the Attorney-General in the circuit court of Jackson county, Missouri, to oust respondent, Hans Lund from the office of city comptroller of Kansas City, Missouri. There was judgment for respondent from which plaintiff appeals.

Eespondent was on the seventeenth day of April, 1899, by and with the advice and consent of the Common Council of Kansas City, Missouri, appointed by its then mayor, J ames M. Jones, city comptroller for said city. The appointment was made under section 14, article 4, of the charter of the city which is as follows:

“There shall be a city clerk, city assessor, city counselor, city comptroller and city physician, who shall be appointed by the mayor, by and with the advice and consent of the upper house of the common council, and shall hold their office for the [234]*234term of two years, unless sooner removed, and who shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by this charter or any ordinance of the city: Provided, however, that the appointments first made under this charter after the general city election of 1890 shall be for one year only, so that the appointments made thereafter shall be made at the beginning of the second year of the mayor’s term.”

No one has ever been appointed and confirmed as the successor of respondent, and his contention is that having been appointed for a term of two years, he holds over until his successor is appointed and confirmed.

It was held in People v. Tieman, 30 Barb. 193, 8 Abb. Prac. 359, and later by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Badger v. United States ex rel. Bolles, 93 U. S. 599, that by the common law, and, in most of the States, when the term of office to which one is elected or appointed expires, his power to perform his duties ceases; that this is the general rule.

In this State, however, if the common-law rule be as stated in Badger v. Bolles, supra, it does not apply with the exceptions as to judicial officers and members of the legislature, and, in the absence of words indicating that the officer is to hold over until his successor is elected or appointed and qualified, “it is sometimes a matter, of doubt whether or not the incumbent can hold over.....Sometimes, however, where. words of holding-over import are omitted, it may remain doubtful whether such a right was intended to be conferred. In which case the prevalent rule of construction in this country appears to be that if no restrictive words be used, no terms expressly or impliedly prohibiting holding over, then such continuance in official power and life is permissible and valid, until a successor be chosen,” etc. [State ex rel. v. Perkins, 139 Mo. 106.]

The same rule is announced in Dillon on Municipal Corpprations (4 Ed.), secs. 219, 220; Tiedeman on Munic. Corp., [235]*235sec. 81; Mechem on Public Offices and Officers, sec. 397; and in Throop on Public Officers, secs. 323, 325.

In almost all of the States it is expressly declared in constitutional or by statutory provision, that all officers shall hold ever until their successors are elected, or appointed, and qualified, and, even when there is no such provision, as a rule they do so; but where there is a constitutional or statutory restriction expressed or implied to the contrary that rule does not obtain, and the term of office fixed by law expires at the end of the term, and, although the officer may hold over after the expiration of his term, he is thereafter de facto an officer (State ex rel. Stevenson v. Smith, 87 Mo. 158; Robb v. Carter, 65 Md. 321) and his acts can not be called in question in a collateral proceeding. Of the adjudications relied upon by defendant the following were proceedings in which the right of some officer to hold over was collaterally called in question: Wier v. Bush, 4 Littell (Ky.) 430; McCall v. Byram Mfg. Co., 6 Conn. 428; Tuley v. State, 1 Ind. 500; Bath v. Reed, 78 Me. 276; Stratton v. Oulton, 28 Cal. 44; Wheeling v. Black, 25 W. Va. 266. State ex rel. v. Harrison, 113 Ind. 434, is also relied upon by defendant, but in that case the organic law of that State upon which the decision is bottomed expressly provides, that, “whenever it is provided in this Constitution, or in any law which may be hereafter passed, that any officer, other than a member of the General Assembly, shall hold his office for any given term, the same shall be so construed to mean that such officer shall hold his office for such term and until his successor shall have been elected and qualified,” so that, it is perfectly apparent from that provision of the Constitution that there was no escape from the conclusion reached by the cortrt, that is, that all officers in that State hold over after the expiration of their terms until their successors are elected, or appointed, as the case may be, and are qualified.

The People v. Blair, 82 Ill. App. 570, 181 Ill. 460, is another case relied upon by defendant. That was a direct [236]*236proceeding by quo warranto against tbe defendant Blair to test his right to hold and execute the office of city marshal of the city of Marengo, which it was averred he had usurped without right, and it was held that municipal officers appointed or elected for a fixed term hold over' till the election or appointment and qualification of their successors, unless.a contrary legislative intent is manifest, and as no such contrary legislative intent appears in the general act for the incorporation of cities, the incumbent Dunwoody held over until his successor was elected, or appointed and qualified.

Now, it is expressly provided by the section of the charter quoted that the city clerk, assessor, counselor, comptroller and city physician, “shall hold their respective offices for the term of two years, unless sooner removed; .. . provided, that the appointments first made under this charter after the general city election of 1890, shall be for one year only, so that the appointments made thereafter shall be made at the beginning of the second year of the mayor’s term.” Thus, by restrictive words fixing the tenure of the office at two years, and at a definite and fixed time. But even if not so expressed it is clearly implied from the language used, that the officers named shall hold their offices for two years only from the date of their appointments, and, “that which is implied in a statute is as much a part of it as what is expressed.” [Sutherland on Statutory Construction, sec. 334.]

By section 14 of the charter of Nansas City all officers of the city including the mayor are required to be elected at an election to be held for that purpose on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in April, every two years; while the appointment of all officers first made under the charter after the general city election of 1890 was for one year only, and the appointments made thereafter were required to be made at the beginning of the second year of the mayor’s term. [Sec. 14, supra.] The object of having the elective officers elected at one time, and the appointment of the appointive officers at another [237]*237time, evidently was that the city administration might not be embarrassed in the conduct and management of its affairs, by too many inexperienced officers. Besides, if the terms of the appointive officers do not expire at the expiration of two years from the time of their appointments, why is it that the charter does not provide that they shall hold over until their

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 S.W. 1062, 167 Mo. 228, 1902 Mo. LEXIS 117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-informatione-crow-v-lund-mo-1902.