People ex rel. Attorney Gen. v. Brown

Citations

• 16 Cal. 441

Syllabus

<p>The Constitution of. this State does not fix the term of the office of District Attorney, but merely directs (Art. 6, sec. 7) that the Legislature shall provide for his election by the people, and shall fix by law his duties and compensation.</p> <p>The Act of 1851, (Wood’s Dig. 64) providing for the election of a District Attorney in each county, at the general election of that year, and every two years thereafter, etc., and the Act of 1855, (Wood’s Dig. 561, secs. 46 and 49) providing that the Board of Supervisors in each county shall fill vacancies in the office of District Attorney, their appointee to hold until the next general election, the person then elected to hold for the balance of the term of the person whose place he is elected to fill, apply to the city and county of San Francisco, and are not repealed by the ninth, nor by the last section of the Consolidation Act of 1856.</p> <p>The policy of the Act of 1851 was to create uniformity in the official terms of District Attorneys, by filling those terms at fixed periods.</p> <p>The object of the ninth section of the Consolidation Act of 1856, was not to repeal the general law of 1855, relative to filling vacancies, but to provide for cases not embraced by the general law—that is, for certain local offices, made elective by the people, peculiar to San Francisco, and for which no provision had been made.</p>