State ex rel. Clyatt v. Hocker

Citations

• 39 Fla. 477

Syllabus

<p>• CONSTITUTIONAL LAW — OFFICE AND OFFICER -STATE OFFICER — CHAPTER 4539 LAWS APPROVED JUNE 5, 1897, CREATING A STATE BOARD OF LEGAL EXAMINERS DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL.</p> <p>.1. The term “office” implies a delegation cf a portion of the sovereign power to, and possession ot it by, the person filling the office, a public office being an agency for the State, and the person v hose duty it is to perform the agency being a public-officer. The term embraces the idea of tenure, duration and duties, and has respect to a public trust to be exercised in behalf of government, and not to a merely transient, occasional or incidental employment. A person in the service of the government who derives his position from a duly and legally authorized election or appointment, whose duties are continuous in their nature and defined by rules prescribed by government, and not by contract, consisting of the exercise of important public powers, trusts or duties, as a part of the regular administration of -the government, the place and the duties remaining, though the incumbent dies or is changed; every office in the constitutional meaning of the term implying an authority to exercise some portion of the sovereign power, either in making, executing or administering the laws. A State officer is one who falls within this definition and whose field for the exercise of his jurisdiction, duties and powers is co-extensive with the limits of the State and extends to every part of it.</p> <p>2. Chapter 4539 laws approved June 5, 1897, entitled: “An Act toSeguíate Admissions to the Bar of this State, to Create a Board of Legal Examiners, and to provide for a Uniform System of Legal Examinations,” held, to be unconstitutional and void because it creates State officers in the Board of Legal Examiners therein provided for, and fails to provide for their election by the people or appointment by the Governor, as required by the Constitution, but makes them appointive by the Supreme Court, contrary t