State ex rel. Robert v. Murphy

Citations

• 32 Fla. 138

Syllabus

<p>1. The fourteenth section of Article XVI of the Constitution of 1885, providing;that all State, county and municipal officers shall continue in office after the expiration of their official .terms, until their successors.are duly qualified, is not a limitation upon the power of the Governor to fill vacancies. Its purpose is; to prevent an hiatus in government until the appointing power acts and the appointee qualifies, wherever there is a vacan, oy and an incumbent of a former term to hold over until such, qualification.</p> <p>.3. County commissioners are appointed by the Governor by and ■with, tlie advice and consent of the Senate, and their term of office is two years. The Governor recommended to the Senate certain persons for county commissioners, and the Senate adjourned sine die without taking action on the nominations. The terms of the former incumbents appointed by the Governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate having expired, the Governor made appointments to hold until the end of the next ensuing session of the Senate, unless appointments should be sooner made and confirmed by the Senate: Held, That the right of the former incumbents to continue in-office ceased when the appointees of the-Governor qualified and were commissioned.</p> <p>'3. A mere defacto officer is one who is without lawful right to exercise the functions of the office which he is exercising. To constitute a defacto officer it must be shown that he is acting under such circumstances of reputation or acquiescence as are calculated to induce people, without inquiry, to submit to or invoke his action, supposing him to be the officer he assumes to be. One official act does not show that the persons doing such act are de faeto officers, when it also appears that other persons have been commissioned and have met and organized as occupants of the same office.</p> <p>4. There can not be two defacto officers, or sets of officers, in one office at the same time.</p>