88 Mich. 653 | Mich. | 1891
The information in this case was filed by the Attorney General, and charges that the respondent has, since the 13th day of May, 1891, usurped the fran•chise of being a municipal corporation. To the information the respondent interposed a plea, and to this plea the relator demurred.
The facts necessary to an understanding of the questions involved are these: The respondent was incorporated by Act No. 371, Local Acts of 1889. The village council consisted of six trustees, and the other village officers were the president of the council, clerk, treasurer, assessor, constable, and street commissioner. In 1891 the Legislature passed an act known as “House Bill No. 214," amendatory of the charter of the city of Detroit, and
1. It is first insisted that the detaching act repealed •the respondent’s charter, and that the territory unde
“If the corporators have the power in themselves to supply the deficiency in their body, their rights are not extinguished, but only dormant.”
The power of the respondent in the present case to fill the vacancies by election cannot be doubted.
2. The statute provides that if any officer shall eeaseto be a resident of the village during his term of office the office shall be thereby vacated. How. Stat. § 2787. It would be doing violence to the natural meaning of language to hold that these offices did not become vacant
“One who has the reputation of being the officer he assumes to be, and vet is not a good officer in point of law."
The very action of the council in the present case was predicated upon the existence of vacancies created by the law, and no declaration or resolution by the council was necessary to establish the fact. The participation, therefore, of these removed trustees in the meeting of May 28 was unwarranted, and without any legal effect.
3. The statute provides that a vacancy in the office of president or of any trustee, occurring more than six months before an annual election, shall be filled by a special election. How. Stat. § 2789. So far as this case is concerned, it is unnecessary to determine whether the three remaining trustees constituted a quorum, as respond
-Judgment must be entered for the respondent.
Act No. 324, Local Acts of 1891.