The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-02
HUMPHREYS SAYS
IT IS BRIBERY
cofer appointment Thus Void
Authorities Quoted to
Prove 1t.

DR.. Cofer, chief quarantine officer of
the United States Marine Hospital SER
vice at the port of Honolulu. and the
president of the Territorial Board OF
Health. is, sceerding to the contentious
of the parties back of the quo war
ranto proceedings against him, guilty
of bribery in obtaining his appointment
under the Territory, and Governor
Frear is an aceomplice to the bribery. -
The bribery, if there was any, il of
a purely Technical nature, involving
neither crime nor intent Of crime, either
oa the part of the occupant Of the Office
in dispute or of the Chief Executive
who put him in office, but the charge of
bribery win be raised among other
points as a reason why the office of
president of the Board of Health should
be declared vacant, and why the APP
pointment of Dr.. Cofer should be de.
elared void.
The bribery consists in having agreed
before appointment to serve the Terri
tory in d position for which salary
has been appropriated without drawing
that salary. This, according to the au-
thorities, Is the bribery of the Terri i
tory, the practical giving to the State
of the amount of the salary due.
MecheIn. a standard authority, in his
legal treatise con Public Offieers,'' -
says, in section 372: ''An agreement
by which a public officer agrees to sur
render to the public the fees or salary
of his Office in whole or i'm part is void
and inyalidates the officers appoint
rent, and he may be removed upon quo
warranio. -
DR.. 6'ofer agreed to serve the Terri
tory as president of the Board of
Health and draw no salary.
The authority quotes the decisions in
eight eases in support of this rule, and
there are no eases to be found with
contrary decisions The authorities all
agree on the question. In the reports
of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, the
question was gone into in the State ex
rel Newell VS. Purdy. In this ease a
candidate for county Judge of Vernon
county publicly offered to serve, if
elected, for one-half the salary appro-
priated He was elected and the elee-
tion declared void because he had in
effect bribed the taxpayers with the
portion of the salary due the Office
which he had disclaimed. The decision
of the court in that case Il other
instances, running back te time of
Edward III. of England, IN which IL
was shown that state or county could
be bribed, and that an offer TO accept
an office for less than the established
remuneration would constitute such
bribe. In a case in New Hampshire it
was decided that ''it is against public
policy to sell public offices to those
who will pay the most for them. or TO
bestow them upon those who will dis
charge their duties for the least COM
pensation.
This is not the main argument which
viii be raised by A. s. Humphreys, the
attorney representing those behind the
quo warranto proceedings, but il ~ an
important one. The main contention is
that the appointment Of DIR. Cofer,
Federal officer. is unauthorized by the
terms of the Organic Act.
4 ssI am not at liberty to state the
snames of those who are instituting
these proceedings. said Judge Hum.
phrevs Yesterday. ''It may he deemed
advisable that their names viii not be
announced at all, and ali the proceed
ings brought in my name. am a tax
payer and eligible to commence the ae-
ton 7 viii say. however, that l am
sepresenting in this four or FIVE proml'
CONTINUED on Page Nine.)