People ex rel. Attorney-General v. Squires

Citations

• 14 Cal. 12
• 1859 Cal. LEXIS 227

Syllabus

<p>The Legislature, having vested certain duties in a public officer, for whose services compensation is allowed, may take those duties and the fees from the office before the expiration of the term, and confer them upon another officer.</p> <p>It seems the office of Sheriff and Tax Collector are constitutional offices.</p> <p>The Sheriff is not a judicial officer. And, though the offices of Sheriff and Tax Collector are distinct by the Constitution, yet they may be united in the same hands.</p> <p>Merritt v. Gorham, (6 Cal. 41,) and People v. Mimarás, (9 Id. 393,) affirmed.</p> <p>The Sheriff, being ex officio Tax Collector of foreign miners’ licenses, by an Act of the Legislature, may be deprived of the office of Tax Collector, before the expiration of his term.</p> <p>The Constitution affixes no period of tenure to the office of Tax Collector, nor does it provide any mode of appointment. So far as this office exists in the incumbent, it is an office created by legislative act. The Legislature may direct how it shall be filled, and how its duties shall be discharged.</p> <p>Smith v. Stillman, decided in 1853, (not reported,) to the effect, that after the Legislature has created an office contemplated, or provided for, by the Constitution, it cannot destroy the office of the incumbent during his term, overruled.</p> <p>People v. JluslceU, (5 Cal. 357,) affirmed.</p> <p>An Act of the Legislature, authorizing Boards of Supervisors to appoint a Collector of foreign miners’ licenses, is not unconstitutional. Assessors and Tax Collectors are constitutional officers, but it is not necessary, under the 13th Section of Article 11 of the Constitution, that every portion of the revenue pass through their hands. The Legislature may authorize the tax payer to pay his taxes directly into the treasury.</p> <p>The foreign miners’ license, though in some sense a tax, yet, probably, it is not so in the sense involved in the necessary duties of a Tax Collector—as a tax on land or pe