Thе relator claims the office of county commissioner, and for the purpose of sеcuring the office filed the information against the appellee who asserts a right to the same office. The information charges that the relator was elected commissiоner for the second district of Elkhart county, at the general election in October, 1880, and that he was duly inducted into office in November of that year; that William McVitty, an eligible candidatе, was duly elected as the relator’s successor at the general election held in Nоvember, 1882, and within ten days from the time of receiving the (Certificate of election, duly subscribed the proper oath of office, which was endorsed on the back of the certificаte as the statute requires; that on the 2d day of March, 1883, Mc-Vitty died, and that, at the time of his death, his term of office had not commenced; that on the 3d day of December, 1883, the board of commissioners declared that a vacancy •existed by reason of McVitty’s death, and elеcted the appellee to fill the vacancy.
The contention of the relatоr’s counsel is that as McVitty died before his term of office commenced, he was never qualified, and, therefore, no successor to the relator was ever elected and quаlified. This position is not tenable. The right of McVitty to the office was vested at the time he took the oath in .the manner and form required by law, and his subsequent death did not entitle the relator to hоld over. A vacancy resulted for the reason that a successor to the relator had been duly elected and qualified, and this having taken place his right to hold over terminated. It can not be legally possible that when the right to an office has once been destroyеd or terminated, the subsequent death of the person who had been elected and who had duly qualified, revives the right which .the election and qualification had put an end to, for the right to hold over exists only in cases where
The term “ qualified ” as used in the statute does not mean possessed of the nеcessary political, mental and moral endowments, but means the acts performed аfter election, as taking an official oath and executing an official bond. The-term “ eligible ” expresses the meaning which the relator asks' us to affix to the term “ qualified.” Carson v. McPhetridge,
We are satisfied that the right of the relator to hold the office ended at the time McVitty qualified, and that upon his death a vacancy occurred, which it was proper for the board of commissioners to fill by appointment.
Judgment affirmed, at the costs of the relator.