130 Ga. 733 | Ga. | 1908
(After' stating'the facts.) Under the views which we entertain upon the controlling question in this case, it is unnecessary for us to decide whether the office from which the respondent in the quo warranto proceedings was ousted was a State or county office. Counsel for the defendants in error insist that at the time of McWilliams’ election to the legislature he was a public officer of the State, and that such an office was incompatible, under the constitution and the laws of this State, with membership in the General Assembly. Without determining whether he was an officer of the State as here contended, but conceding that he was a State officer in the sense in which that term is employed in the briefs of counsel for both parties, we are clear that the conclusion reached by the judge below did not follow; for the fact of his being such an officer would have rendered him ineligible to membership in the General Assembly. Paragraph 7 of section 4, article 3 of the constitution of this State (Civil Code, §5754) is as follows: “No person holding a military commission, or other appointment or office having any emolument or compensation annexed thereto, under this State, or the United States, or either of them, except justices of the peace and officers of the militia, nor