State ex rel. Platt v. Kirk

44 Ind. 401
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1873
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 44 Ind. 401 (State ex rel. Platt v. Kirk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Platt v. Kirk, 44 Ind. 401 (Ind. 1873).

Opinion

Downey, C. J.

This was a proceeding by quo warranto, on the relation of Platt, against Kirk, to inquire by what right he held the office of director of the stats prison at Jeffersonville.^ Kirk demurred to the information, on the ground that it did not state facts sufficent to constitute a cause of action. This demurrer was sustained by the court, and final judgment was rendered for the defendant. From this judgment Platt has appealed and has assigned the ruling on the demurrer as error. The complaint is as follows:

“The State of Indiana, on the relation and for the use of Samuel T. Platt, complains of John Kirk, and ibr the said State of Indiana, on the relation and for the use aforesaid, [402]*402gives the Honorable, the Floyd Circuit Court, now here to understand and be informed, that the defendant, John Kirk, heretofore, to wit, on the nth day of January, A. D. 1871, was duly elected by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana a director of the Indiana State Prison South, under and in accordance with the provisions of an act entitled ‘An act to provide for the government and discipline of the state prison, and to repeal “An act to provide for the government and discipline of the state prison,” approved March 3d, 1855, and all other laws or parts of laws, inconsistent herewith,’ approved, February 5th, 1857; that thereafter, to wit, on the 30th day of January, 1871, the said John Kirk was duly commissioned by the governor of the State of Indiana as such prison director of said Indiana State Prison South, for the term of four years from and after the said last named day, and until his successor should be elected and qualified; and that thereupon, on the day last named, the said John Kirk took the oath of office prescribed by law, and entered upon the discharge of the duties of his said office as such prison director.

“And the plaintiff further says that the said John Kirk, before and at the time of his election as aforesaid to the said office of prison director, was and ever since has been a resident citizen of the first ward in the city of Madison, Jefferson county, Indiana, and as such citizen was at the time of his said election, and has since continued, eligible to the office of councilman, from the said first ward of the said city of Madison; that before the 1st day of May, 1871, the said city of Madison was and ever since has been a city,, duly incorporated as such under and in accordance with the provisions of an act of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, entitled ‘An act to repeal all general laws now in force for the incorporation of cities and to provide for the incorporation of cities, prescribing their powers and rights, and the manner in which they shall exercise the same, and to regulate such other matters as properly pertain thereto,’approved March 14th, 1867; that at the regular dec[403]*403tion of city officers of said city of Madison, held in said city of Madison on the first Tuesday in May, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and seventy-one, the defendant, John Kirk, was duly elected to the office of councilman, from the said first ward of the said city of Madison; that thereupon, the defendant, John Kirk, duly accepted the said office of councilman, from the first ward of the said city of Madison, and took and subscribed the oath of office and entered upon the discharge of the duties of his said office;, and that the defendant, John Kirk, continued in the discharge of the duties of his said office of councilman, from the time of his said election until the 19th day of February, 1873.

“And the plaintiff further says, that at the time the defendant, John Kirk, was so elected to his said office of prison director, the annual compensation for the services of such director, as fixed by law, was and ever since has been eight hundred dollars; that at the time the said defendant waá so elected as aforesaid to his said office of councilman from the said first ward of the said city of Madison, and ever since, his salary or compensation for his services as such councilman, as fixed under the law, was three dollars for each and every meeting of the common council of said city, or at least seventy-eight dollars per year, but not more than one hundred and fifty dollars in any one year; and that from the time of his said election and acceptance of his said office of councilman, up to the 1st day of January, 1873, the said John Kirk had actually drawn and received from the said city of Madison, for his services as such councilman, as salary or compensation therefor, the sum of one hundred and thirty-two dollars; and so the plaintiff in fact says that the said office of councilman of the said city of Madison, during the time aforesaid, was and since has been, under the laws of the State of Indiana, a lucrative office, and that by the defendant’s election to and acceptance of his said office of councilman as aforesaid, the defendant did, in fact and in law, vacate the said office of director of the [404]*404Indiana State Prison South, to which he had been before that time elected as aforesaid.

"And the plaintiff further says that the defendant, John Kirk, having vacated as aforesaid the said office of director of the Indiana State Prison South, the said Samuel T. Platt, the relator of the plaintiff herein, who was then and there legally eligible in every particular to the office aforesaid, was duly and legally elected, on the nth day of January, 1873, by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, then in joint convention assembled, to the said office of prison director, in the room and stead and as the successor of the said defendant, and to fill the unexpired term of the said defendant, who had vacated the said office of director in manner and form aforesaid; that the said Samuel T. Platt, the relator of the plaintiff herein, was then and there duly commissioned by the governor of the State of Indiana, as such director as aforesaid, to fill the unexpired term of the defendant as such director, in pursuance of the said election last aforesaid; and that the said Samuel T. Platt, the relator of the plaintiff herein, then and there accepted the said office of director of the Indiana State Prison South, to which he had been elected as aforesaid, and then and there took and subscribed the oath of office, as required by law, and then and there proposed to enter upon the discharge of the duties of his said office.

"And the plaintiff says that, notwithstanding the premises aforesaid, the defendant, John Kirk, has continued unlawfully to hold and exercise, and now unlawfully holds and exercises, the said office of director of the Indiana State Prison South, and that by means of the premises, the said Samuel T. Platt, the relator of the plaintiff herein, has sustained damages in the sum of five hundred dollars, which remains unpaid.

“ Whereforethe plaintiff demands judgment; thattherights of the said Samuel T. Platt, the relator of the plaintiff, to the said office of director of the said Indiana State Prison South may be determined and established; that the said [405]*405relator of the plaintiff may be authorized and directed to exercise the functions of his said office, as required by law, without the let or hindrance of the said defendant; that the said relator of the plaintiff may recover of the defendant the said sum of five hundred dollars, the-damages aforesaid; and that the plaintiff’s relator may have aJ> • other proper relief in the premises.”

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Bluebook (online)
44 Ind. 401, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-platt-v-kirk-ind-1873.