The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-13
the author, that I might make due
acknowledgment to genius"
CITY ATTORNEY HALL.

City Attorney Hall, for the respon-
dent, said that two questions in con-
Sideration of the case were presented:
1. What was Pratt's status during
the last four months of 1897, while ne
was under suspension and did not per-
form the duties of Office?
2. What was and is his status under
the law since Jan. !, 1898, and has he
any right whatever under the new
charter?
AS to the first said Mr.. Hall, ''it
only raises the question whether under
the law, as it stood previous to Jan.
l. 1898, Pratt is entitled to the salary,
as chief of police. while he was under
suspension and did not perform the
duties of the office. Under the charter
of Salt Lake City, as it stood previous
TO Jan. l, 1894, the Office of chief of
police had its existence only by virtue
of city ordinance. 1t never had been
created by any legislative act, but the
city council, under authority vested in
it to ordain and establish police regu-
lations and create the office, had Gre
ated il. Mr.. Hall then read from the
statutes, which, he said, gave the
board of police and fire commissioners
power to suspend the chief of police,
and that upon such suspension he
ceased to exercise the functions of his
Office.
Mr.. Hall, therefore. submitted that
Mr. Pratt is not entitled to his warrant
Tor the last four months of 1897, be-
cause he was legally under suspension,
ana legally disqualified from, and did
not perform the duties of, chief of DO
ice, and that, therefore, he was not
entitled to the reward for the services
ne was incompetent and legally barred
from performing
AS 10 the other proposition, the whole
question, counsel argued, is, did the
Diaintim continue to be- after Jan. /,
IesS, and is he still chief of police of
SAT- Lake City. In other words, does
the appointment to the Office of chief of
ponce made in 1894 still continue under
the new charter This question depends
wholly upon the construction of the re-
VlSed statutes of 1898. Plaintiffs claim
is that under the revised statutes the
Office of chief of police of Salt Lake
CITY is continued in existence, and that
ne is continued in its possession under
the original appointment
1t IS conceded by appellant that the
pew statutes went into effect on Jan.
l, 1898. and that Salt Lake City was
changed from its old charter to its new
one. the old law having been repealed
and that all of the offices of the old
Incorporation We're abolished and the
inoumbents ont OF Office
II. as contended by the appellant, that
the office of chief of police of Salt Lake
City is created and continued under the
revised statutes, it would not be the
same office: it would be one created
under the new charter, having different
tenure, different powers and different
duties, but we contend, said counsel,
that IT is not continued by the revised
, statutes.
JUDGE HENDERSON.
Mr.. Hall was followed by Judge Hen
derson, who said that there was no such
thing as Il property right or estate in
an office.
There is 10 such thing as an office
de facto," he argued. 1T is created by
the governing authority and can be dis
continued ct any time, and that there
is no adherence at all to discontinue
ance of it, in fact, it is rather favored
than otherwise. 1t is argued that the
necessity of the occasion requires this
construction, or anarchy would result,
that there would be no police control,
etc
THE appellant, in his desire and am
bition to obtain and hold this office,
seems to be unable to understand that
there could be any good government
without him; or that there could be
any proper police control unless he is
continued in office. BY examination of
the new charter, it will be seen that
careful provision is made for the ex-
eTciSe of all these powers under all
conditions, and in any emergency.
IF counSefs contention is correct,
and Mr.. Pratt is still chief of police un-
der the new charter, and the power to
try him has been transferred from the
commission to the council, then he is
still under suspension