Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 9 of 9
Full-Text Articles in Law
Liability Of Public Officer For The Loss Of Private Funds Entrusted To His Keeping, W. Gordon Stoner
Liability Of Public Officer For The Loss Of Private Funds Entrusted To His Keeping, W. Gordon Stoner
Articles
There is much contrariety of decision concerning the liability of public officers for the loss of funds with which they have been entrusted. A recent case illustrates some of the more important phases of the law of such a situation. People for use of Hoyt et al. v. McGrath et al. (Ill. 1917), I17 N. E. 74. In this case the public brought an action of debt on the official bond of the clerk of court for the use of Hoyt and others. Usees had tendered into court a sum of money which the clerk took under the court's order …
The Sheriff's Return, Edson R. Sunderland
The Sheriff's Return, Edson R. Sunderland
Articles
When William the Conqueror found himself military master of Britain, he was confronted by a governmental problem quite different from that which has usually accompanied foreign conquest. He did not subdue a nation already organized, substituting his power for that of its former ruler in the conventional way of conquerors. Britain was a geographical unit but politically and socially it was a congeries of loosely related communities. The natural law of survival of the fittest normally operates upon peoples as upon individuals, and develops centralized power as a means of self-preservation. But Britain had a substitute for this. The sheltering …
Legislating The Incumbent Out Of Office, W. Gordon Stoner
Legislating The Incumbent Out Of Office, W. Gordon Stoner
Articles
Under the English common law the officer's right or interest in the office which he held was regarded as a property right, an incorporeal hereditament.1 Largely because of the inherent difference between the nature and incidents of the public office at common law and those of the public office in this country, this conception never gained general acceptance here.2 In a few cases,3 and particularly in the decisions of the courts of North Carolina,4 offices have been asserted to be the property of the rightful incumbent. In these decisions the officer's right has been regarded as less absolute, perhaps, than …
Compulsory Service In Office, W. Gordon Stoner
Compulsory Service In Office, W. Gordon Stoner
Articles
It was "the policy of prudent antiquity," as Lord COKE has said, "that officers did ever give a grace to the place, and not the place only grace (to) the officer."1 A modern expression of a similar thought is found in the maxim, "the office should seek the man and not the man, the office." Have we Americans reversed the process? Have we lost sight of these ideals? Certain it is that some popular notions which are not consistent with the spirit of these maxims have grown up in this country. Offices have come to be regarded too much as …
Recovery Of Salary By A De Facto Officer, W. Gordon Stoner
Recovery Of Salary By A De Facto Officer, W. Gordon Stoner
Articles
The de facto doctrine in the law of officers has been a continual source of difficulty to the courts for more than a century. Many questions connected with the application of this doctrine to this branch of the law have been settled beyond controversy. Even the phase of this question which the writer proposes to discuss cannot be classed as new or novel. Recent years, however, have seen the development of certain tendencies on the part of some of the American courts in the application of this doctrine, which will furnish the subject for the major part of our consideration.
Quasi-Contractual Obligations Of Municipal Corporations, Jerome C. Knowlton
Quasi-Contractual Obligations Of Municipal Corporations, Jerome C. Knowlton
Articles
We have constructive fraud, constructive trusts, constructive notice, and why not constructive contract, a contractual obligation existing in contemplation of law, in the absence of any agreement express or implied from facts? With this apology we shall use the term quasi contract as covering an obligation created by law and enforceable by an action ex contractu. We are not for the present interested in the circumstances which may give rise to this obligation as between individuals; nor as between an individual and a private corporation, or quasi public corporation, so-called, as a railroad or other public utility. In these cases …
Are Too Many Executive Officers Elective?, Bradley M. Thompson
Are Too Many Executive Officers Elective?, Bradley M. Thompson
Articles
We propose very briefly to call attention, to so much of the present constitution of Michigan as has to do with the executive department, and to consider the methods which the people have adopted for selecting those public servants whose official duty it is to enforce the law, to maintain public order and protect private rights.
Power To Appoint To Office--Its Location And Limits, Floyd R. Mechem
Power To Appoint To Office--Its Location And Limits, Floyd R. Mechem
Articles
At no other time in the judicial history of this country, if the evidence of the reported cases is to be relied upon, have there been so many and so bitter contests over all of the questions growing out of the title to public offices, as during the last ten or twelve years. This is undoubtedly largely accounted for by the fact that within that period a large number of the states have put in operation radically changed methods of conducting elections, based upon or practically incorporating what is popularly known as the Australian ballot system. In making these changes, …
Liability Of Public Officers To Private Actions For Neglect Of Official Duty, Thomas M. Cooley
Liability Of Public Officers To Private Actions For Neglect Of Official Duty, Thomas M. Cooley
Articles
A public office is a public trust.The incumbent has a property right in it, but the office is conferred, not for his benefit, but for the benefit of the political society. The duties imposed upon the officer are supposed to be capable of classification under one of three heads: the legislative, executive, or judicial; and to pertain, accordingly, to one of the three departments of the government designated by these names. But the classification cannot be very exact, and there are numerous officers who cannot be classified at all under these heads. The reason will be apparent if we name …