Case Name: The State ex rel. The Attorney General v. Beal; The State ex rel. The Attorney General v. Canary
Court: Supreme Court of Ohio
Jurisdiction: Ohio
Decision Date: 1899-04-25
Citations: 60 Ohio St. 208
Docket Number: 
Parties: The State ex rel. The Attorney General v. Beal. The State ex rel. The Attorney General v. Canary.
Judges: 
Reporter: Ohio State Reports, New Service
Volume: 60
Pages: 208–215

Head Matter:
The State ex rel. The Attorney General v. Beal. The State ex rel. The Attorney General v. Canary.
Prosecuting attorney and infirmary director — Beginning of official term — Invalidity of acts of April 19, 1898, and April $6, 1898— Constitutional law.
The act of April 19, 1898, “To amend section 1267 of the Revised Statutes” (93 O. L., 125) postponing the beginning of the official terms of prosecuting attorneys from the first Monday in January to the first Monday in September, and the provision of the first section of the act of April 26, 1898, (93 O. L., 261) to effect a like postponement as to the office of infirmary director, are void, being in violation of the tenth article of the constitution, which requires that county officers shall be elected, and not within the authority to provide for the filling of vacancies conferred upon the general assembly by the twenty-seventh section of the second article. {State ex rel. v. Heffner, 59 Ohio St., 363, followed and approved.)
(Decided April 25, 1899.)
In Quo Warranto.
In The State ex rel. v. Luther Beal the petition charges that the defendant usurps and intrudes into the office of infirmary director of Butler county in violation of the constitution and laws of the state. In his answer the defendant pleads title' to the office for the term beginning on the first Monday in January, 1899, and ending on the first Monday of September, 1889, by virtue of his appointment by the commissioners of the county, there being a vacancy in the office resulting from the operation of the act “To revise and improve the statutes of Ohio in relation to the care of the poor” (93 O. L., 261), amending- section 957 and the following sections of the Revised Statutes, and deferring the commencement of the official term of the infirmary director from the first Monday in January to the first Monday in September. The case is submitted on demurrer to the answer.
In The State ex rel. v. John Canary the petition charges that the defendant usurps and intrudes into the office of prosecuting attorney of Wood county. In his answer the defendant pleads title by virtue of his appointment to fill a vacancy in the office resulting- from the operation of the act “To amend section 1267 of the Revised Statutes of Ohio” (93 O. L., 125), the amendment contemplated in the terms of the act being the deferring of the beginning of the official term, of the person elected to the office of prosecuting- attorney from the first Monday in January to the first Monday in September. The case is submitted on demurrer to the answer.
F. S. Monnett, attorney general, and C. C. Blanhnev, for the Relator.
M. 0. Burns, for Luther Beal.
John W. Canary and James (& BeverstooJc, for John W. Canary.

Opinion:
By the Court.
The titles of both defendants depend upon the validity of the legislative acts to postpone from, the first Monday in January to the first Monday in September the beginning of the official terms of the persons elected to the offices which the defendants claim by appointment to fill vacancies for the interim which the legislature so attempted to create.
There was not in either of the acts referred to, or in any other statute in force at the time of their passage, any provision for the election of a prosecuting attorney or an infirmary director for the interim contemplated. The acts are therefore void according to the views defined in the first and second propositions of. the syllabus in State ex rel. v. Heffner, 59 Ohio St., 368, which involves the same sections of the constitution that are pertinent to the statutes now under consideration. It follows that there was no vacancy to be filled by appointment and that the persons elected to these offices at the November election in 1898 are entitled to enter upon them.
Demurrers sustained and judgments of ouster.