70 A.2d 556 | Conn. | 1949
The question presented in this reservation is whether a member of the public utilities commission appointed by the governor to fill a vacancy "until the rising of the next session of the general assembly" continues to hold office de jure after that time, where the Assembly failed to appoint anyone to fill the unexpired portion of the term, or is thereafter merely a de facto officer whom the governor can replace by another vacancy appointment. The answer to the problem depends upon the meaning and effect *314 of certain statutes, all of which as they appear in the 1949 Revision are unchanged from the form which they had in the 1930 Revision or in a subsequent supplement in effect when the appointment was made, and we shall refer to them as they are incorporated in the 1949 Revision.
Section 5391 provides that the public utilities commission shall consist of three electors appointed by the General Assembly upon nomination of the governor, each to serve for a term of six years from the first day of July following his appointment and until a successor is appointed and has qualified. Section 5392 provides: "If any vacancy occurs in said commission at any time when the general assembly is not in session, the governor shall appoint a commissioner to fill such vacancy until the rising of the next session of the general assembly. Any other vacancy shall be filled, for the unexpired portion of the term, in the manner provided in section 5391." Carl M. Sharpe, a member of the commission, died, and on August 26, 1948, when the General Assembly was not in session, the then governor appointed the defendant to serve until the rising of the next session of the Assembly. On April 29, 1949, the present governor submitted to the General Assembly the nomination of Charles W. Knapp to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Sharpe and to serve until the expiration of the term for which the latter had been appointed, that is, until June 30, 1953. The General Assembly adjourned its regular session of 1949 on June 8 without having taken any action on the nomination. On July 1, 1949, the governor appointed the relator, hereinafter called the plaintiff, to serve from that date until the rising of the next session of the General Assembly. If the term of the defendant expired on the rising of the General Assembly, he would continue in office thereafter only as a de facto *315
officer and there was a vacancy which the governor could fill under the provisions of 5392; but, if after the rising of the Assembly the defendant held office de jure, the governor was without authority to replace him. State ex rel. McCarthy v. Watson,
As the plaintiff argues, the word "until" is in itself a word of limitation; as used in 5392 it definitely fixes the time when a vacancy appointment made by the governor is to expire; Whitford v. Lee,
The situation before us falls within the literal meaning of this section. The words "unless otherwise specifically provided by law" refer to other statutes which deal specifically with the subject matter of the general provisions of 260, that is, continuance in office after the expiration of a fixed term. State ex rel. Ryan v. *316
Bailey,
We find in 5391 and 5392 no reason to hold that 260 does not apply to a vacancy appointment by the governor. It is true that 5391 provides that the term of one regularly appointed to the commission continues not only for the six years specified but also until a successor is appointed and has qualified, and that under 5392 a vacancy appointment not within the power of the governor to make is to be for the unexpired *317
portion of the term, which would include a like extension, whereas in the case of a vacancy appointment by the governor there is no such provision. The very purpose of enacting 260 was to provide an extension of the term of office where the particular governing statute did not contain one and so to bring the various offices into harmony in that regard; the section was in effect an amendment to each statute fixing a definite term of office without any provision as to an officer's continuing to hold the position at its expiration; its purpose was "to benefit the public by guarding against the danger of there being no de jure officer to discharge the duties of an office to which it applied, with the consequent confusion and inconvenience which that was likely to involve"; and it is a remedial statute which should receive as liberal a construction as can reasonably be given, to effectuate its beneficial purpose. State ex rel. Ryan v. Bailey,
If we consider the purpose of the statute, its application to such a situation as the one before us is confirmed. In State ex rel. Ryan v. Bailey, supra, 45, we traced the history of the statute and (p. 46) we pointed out that its purpose was to prevent a situation where there would be no person holding de jure the office in question. If we look at the power of the governor to fill vacancies in other state offices the regular appointments to which require confirming action by the General Assembly or one of its houses, we find that the term of the appointee sometimes, as in the case of the important office of commissioner of motor vehicles, is expressed to run until "the next regular session of the general assembly"; General Statutes, 2351; see also 2765, 2996 and sometimes the appointment runs to *318
the second or the third Wednesday of the session of the General Assembly, as in the case of members of the board of pardons, 3019; see also 4041. Under such provisions we can take judicial notice that action by the General Assembly upon appointments to the office will usually not be taken within the time set for the expiration of the vacancy appointment; and certainly such situations fall within the legislative purpose expressed in 260, so that the vacancy appointment would run at least until a successor was regularly appointed. Confirmation for the conclusion that the General Assembly meant 260 to apply to vacancy appointments by the governor is found in the provisions of 92 of the General Statutes; that statute gives the governor general power to fill a vacancy in an office when the General Assembly is not in session and no other provision has been made for filling it, and specifies that the term of the appointee is to run "until the sixth Wednesday of the next session of the general assembly, and until a successor shall be elected or appointed and shall have qualified." See State ex rel. Eberle v. Clark,
We are unable to find any practical reason for a conclusion that the General Assembly did not intend such a result. We must reject the plaintiff's argument that public policy requires that members of the public utilities commission should be persons acceptable to the governor in office for the time being; that body performs quasi-judicial functions; we must assume that in making appointments to it every governor performs *319 his duty to select only men qualified to hold the office; and we cannot believe that any public policy will be served by holding that because a member so appointed by one governor is not acceptable to a succeeding governor he should be supplanted. In fact the requirement as to regular appointments to the commission that they be made by the General Assembly upon the nomination of the governor in itself indicates that the mere personal preference of a governor is not to be the controlling consideration in making an appointment. On the other hand, the great desirability of stability in office of men duly appointed would point to a legislative policy aimed against such a speedy change in personnel as would result by such a replacement of men in office as the plaintiff seeks to effect in this case. It could not but result in a serious inroad upon the efficient operation of the commission. The fact that the terms of members of the commission are six years points to a conclusion that the legislature deemed the office one where experience acquired in the performance of the duties of the commission was of value; and a situation where one man serves on the commission from August 26, 1948, to the rising of the session of the General Assembly on June 8, 1949, and another is appointed on July 1, 1949, to succeed him, not as a regular six-year appointee but to serve only until the rising of the General Assembly in 1951, does not accord with a sound governmental policy.
In State ex. rel. Hendrick v. Heating,
The plaintiff cites to us in support of his contention three Missouri cases: State ex rel. Cosgrove v. Perkins,
To the question propounded in the reservation asking whether Frederick H. Holbrook was on July 1, 1949, a de jure member of the public utilities commission, we answer "Yes"; to the question asking whether Irston R. Barnes is legally entitled to hold office as a member of the public utilities commission, we answer "No."
No costs will be taxed in this court to either party.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.