The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1869-07-01

shall have no trouble In ascertalnlng /
a Quorum of it. And until we have /
a House the question of quorum can
not arise. A quorum OF a house Is
not House.
The Constitution, as we have seen,
saws the Honse shall not exceed a
hundred. and the statute says 1t s1dtC
consist of one hundred members
Must then. the House. to make IL
one actually, be composed OF one
hundred members? If so, there is
no House In existence while there IS
less than one hundred members, ana
the question of quorum cannot In
sueb case arise. We must first have
a House. then we can fix quorum of
Il. The word shall often means may,
and man often means shall, in leglsla
ton; aud | believe it never has been
contended before, and is not now,
that 1t requires one hundred members
to constitute a legal House of Repre-
seutatives Now, if it does not re
quire one hundred, how many does it
require?
A legal House of Representatives
may be defined as consisting of all
the members existing at given time,
be they few or many, who have a right
to, or may be compelled to, take seats
10 the House when In session.
And it may abbreviate our aTgu-
ment to here get tolerably clear idea
of the nature and mode of settling a
quorum: A quorum is the smallest
number of members of a corporate
or legislative body that can bind the
whole by official action. 1t IS not a
necessity to the existence of a corpo-
rate or legislative body, or to the
validity of the acts of either, that the
| quorum should bear any given pro-
portion to the whole. The number
Of which the quorum of any body
consists depends on the charter OF
constitution of that body, and may be
entirely arbitrary.
If the charter or constitution OF
the body does not fix the quorum OF
give the basis for fixing it, the courts
by the common law, determine 1t
| thus:
l. IF a definite number of persons
constitute the body, majority is g
quorum Of it by common law.
2. If an indefinite number, then
any number present can act.
3 But if the charter fixes the
quorum. that controls. If the char
ter or constitution fixes the number
that ends the question. The number
so fixed, be it few or many, cOnsti
tutes the quorum. Ang. & Ames
sec. 500.
Sometimes the charter or consti
tuition, instead of fixing the exac
number of the quorum, gives the
basis and rule for determining it
and thus The question is, ia determ-
ming it, what are the basis and rule
| The question is not then one of gene
raj corporation law, but simply O
ascertaining the basis and rule In the
given case. When they are aseer-
tanned, the case is at an end. Such Is
the case at bar. The constitution
has given the basis and rule for the
quorum of the legislative House
What is it? is the subject of inquiry
Having ascertained what. under
article 2 of section 3, is a House Of
Representatives and what the nature
of quorum, we are enabled to pro-
coed understandingly in ascertaining
what is a quorum of the Indiana
House under the Indiana Constitu
ton. The basis is explicitly declared
In another part of the Constitution
article 4, sections 10 and IL. They
are as follows:
SEC. 10. Each House, when assem-.
blcd, shall choose its own officers, (tht
President of the Senate eXcepted)
judge the elections, qualifications. anC
returns Of its own members, deter
termine It's rules of proceeding, and
sit upon its own adjournment. Blu
neither House shall, without the con.
sent Of the other. adjourn for more
than three days, nor to any place other
than that in which it may be sitting
Sec H. TWo-thirds Of each House
shall constitute a quorum to do bust
ness; but a smaller number may meet
adjourn from day to day, and compel
the attendance of absent members
A quorum being in attendance, il
either house fail to effect an organiza.
ton within the first five days there
after, the members of the House sc
failing, shall be entitled to no com.
pensation from the end of the said
five days, until an organization shall
have been effected
The word House is used in the
same sense in the eleventh section
that it is in the tenth, and nobody will
contend that it requires one hundred
members to constitute the House in
the tenth section. Then it is equally
clear that it does not require two.
thirds of one hundred members tc
constitute a quorum of the House in
the eleventh section. Had the quo
rum been fixed in the section of the
Constitution providing for the House
had section two, of article four
Of the Constitution read: The House
shall not exceed in number one hun.
dred members, and wo-thirds of the
highest number at which it shall be
fixed shall constitute a quorum y
. then the quorum would properly be
} determined with reference to the pos
slble, not the actual existence of the
House. But such, as we have seen
is not the case.
Let Us now examine little more
closely section II, above quoted. Il
speaks Of two thirds of each House
as a quorum; of compelling the at
Tendance Of absent members, and of g
quorum being present. etc., etc. II
thus appears that the House may BIZ
I composed Of two parts-of present anC
absent members-that the aggregate
of these two constitute the House, and
that the present can compel the at.
tendance Of those who are absent
The House, then, is composed of the
present members and the absent,
whose presence can be compelled.
But the present members cannot
compel the attendance of a person
not elected land there may be many
districts which have failed to elect)
of person dead, or of one who has
i l. L. +.