Case ID: ohio-law-abs_1/html/0866-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "JONES, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

No. 898
    HILTON, Police Justice, v. STATE ex rel
    Ohio Supreme Court
    To Appear in- Ohio State Reports
    No. 17890.
    Decided June 12, 1923
    259. MUNICIPAL LAW.
    Statute conferring power on City Council to appoint police justice held unconstitutional. (For official Syllabus, see infra.)
    Attorneys — James A. White and Chas. M. Earhart, Columlbus, and Harold L. Hilton, Norwood, for Hilton; Charles S. Bell, Pros., and Chester S. Durr and Nelson Schwab, all of Cincinnati, for State.
   JONES, J.

Epitomized Opinion

Hilton was duly elected -and qualified as justice of the peace for Columbiana Township, Hamilton county. While holding that office, the Mayor of the Village of Terrace Park, acting under authority of 4544 GC., recommended, and on Oct. 13, 1922, the council appointed Hilton to be police justice of the village and to serve in that capacity during the term of the mayor. The resolution of the council invested Hilton as police justice with concurrent jurisdiction with the mayor.

The State brought an action in quo warranto in the Court of Appeals, alleging that Hilton was un-. lawfully holding the office and exercising its functions by virtue of such appointment; that the appointment was void because GC. 4544, by conferring the power of appointment upon council, was unconstitutional, and because the section did not receive the number of legislative votes required by the constitution for its enactment.

The case went to trial before the Court of Appeals, which held that GC. 4544 did not receive the necessary number of votes, and that it was unconstitutional in attempting to create the office of police justice by fappointment. The Court of Appeals accordingly awarded a writ ousting Hilton from office, whereupon he prosecuted error to the Supreme Court. In sustaining the judgment of the Court of Appeals, this court held, in its Syliabus, 25 Abs. 467, as follows:

“The provisions of Section 4544, General Code (98 O. L. 159), to the extent of conferring power upon the council of a municipality to appoint a police justice, are unconstitutional and therefore void.”