Perth Amboy evening news., 1907-01-09

4
|
missioner having expired, and hi
| successor having been duly elected
and qualified, he is no longer mem
ber of the board, and his claim Of
right to act as your president until q
new president is elected is invalid.
CHARLES C. HOMMANN,
| "City Attorney.
January s, 1907.
Judge Lyons Opinion.
January s, 1907.
"Mr. e. B. Walker,
President of Board of Education,
Perth Amboy, N. j.
Dear Sir:
In answer to your question as to
the status of the officers of the Board
of Education of this city, / beg to
submit the following reply. The law
on the subject of holding over by
corporate officers is well settled In
this country. Often where the law
contains no restrictive clause it is
held by implication that the officers
hold over until their successors are
elected. In the face, however, of a
statutory provision expressly directly
that the officer shall serve until his
successor shall be elected, there
seems to me to be no doubt on the
subject whatever.
"The 46th section of the school law
of 1903 provides as follows: Said
board shall organize by electing one
of it's members as president and an
other as vice-president, which officers
shall serve for one year and until
their respective successors shall be
elected 1t is a fundamental rule OF
construction that enactments must be
so construed as to give them an effect
If possible The only construction
that the latter words of that clause
can bear is that it shall be taken lit
orally and that the president shall
continue as president until his sue
cessor shall be elected If he ceased
to be president when his term as
school commissioner expired and be-
fore his successor was elected, then
the clause would have no meaning
whatever and in my opinion cannot
be so construed
"A difficulty may seem to arise in
that the term of office of the commits
sioner who is now president has ex-
pired and new commissioner has
/
a difficulty on the surface only. The
authority for electing a Board OF
Education at all must be derived
from the act of the legislature and il
is that same authority which has pro-
vided that the president shall hole
the Office until his successor shall be
elected. / think the difficulty will
largely disappear when we bear II
mind that the office of the presiden
is a distinct Office created by the
legislature. The commissioner who
has been elected president holds two
offices, one as commissioners pursuant
to his election by the people, another
as president pursuant to his election
by the board. When the law directs
| him to hold over as president it doe!
not necessarily mean that he hold:
| over as commissioner and the power!
which he will therefore exercise by
holding over as president are such a!
| the law provides he should exercise
only in his capacity as president, sucf
as presiding at meetings, signing
warrants and whatever other dutie!
devolve upon him. This does no
give him the right to vote, because
that right he has in his Office as com
missioner and not in his Office a!
| president.
1T seems to me furthermore tina
| the plain intent of the act in question
was to provide for just such case al
has arisen in your board. the law in
tended to provide against boart
without a president.
II have no hesitation, therefore, in
saying that in my opinion you con
tinue to be president of the board
until your successor is elected.
Yours truly,
ADRIAN LYON"