Attorney-General ex rel. Hosp v. Martin
Attorney-General ex rel. Hosp v. Martin
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The information recites that on the 1st clay of January, 1912, the board of chosen freeholders of the county of Essex duly appointed the relator, Hosp, to the office of warden of the Essex county penitentiary, in the place and stead of the defendant, Martin, whose term had by law expired; that Hosp has filed the bond prescribed by law, has qualified himself as warden of the penitentiary, and has notified Martin that he is the lawful a,nd only warden thereof, and that he is entitled to be recognized as such; that lie has endeavored to perform the duties of warden, and is still willing to perform them, but that the defendant has usurped, intruded into, and unlawfully held, used and exercised the office, and still continues to do so, to the exclusion of Hosp.
The contention contained in the second ground of demurrer, that the wardenship of the Essex county penitentiary is not an office, but a mere employment, was considered by me, sitting alone by consent of parties, in the case of Hosp v. Civil Service Commission, ante p. 10, a certiorari proceeding brought by IIosp to test the validity of a resolution of the civil service commission of the state placing in the classified service the position of warden of the Essex county penitentiary, and thereby making the term of the incumbent indeterminate in character, and entitling him to hold the position until removed for cause. I held in that case that by force of the act of March 22d, 1900 (Pamph. L., p. 168), entitled “An act to reorganize the government of counties of the first class in this state,” the warden of the penitentiary of Essex county was a statutory officer, having a fixed statutory term, and that for this reason the action of the civil service commission which was the subject of consideration in that case was with
But even if the wardenship of the Essex county penitentiary had not been created an office by express statutory declaration, I should, nevertheless, consider it to be so under well-settled common law rules. In the case of Fredericks v. Board of Health of West Hoboken, 53 Vroom 200, an office is defined to be “a place in a governmental system created, or recognized, by the law of the state which, either directly or by delegated authority, assigns to the incumbent thereof the continuous performance of certain permanent public duties.”
' That the wardenship of the Essex county penitentiary is a place^created by the law of the state, or, at least, recognized by it, is apparent from a reading of the sixth section of the act of 1900, which requires the board of freeholders in counties of the first class “to appoint a warden of the penitentiary.” That it is a place in the governmental system of the county carrying with it the continuous performance of certain permanent public duties, is made plain by a stipulation of facts submitted by counsel in this case, from which it appears that the warden has the control and management of the affairs of the penitentiary, subject to the directing and inspecting power of the committee on jail inspection of the board of freeholders, and to such rules and regulations as may from time to time be adopted by the board for the government thereof; that he is responsible for the manner in which the penitentiary is managed and conducted; that it is his duty daily to examine into the condition thereof, visit every department, and see every prisoner confined therein as often as good order and necessity may require; that he must exercise a general supervision and direction in regard to the discipline and police of
The proceeding by quo warranto is, therefore, the proper one to determine whether Iiosp, or Martin, is the lawful incumbent of this office, and the relator is entitled to judgment on the demurrer.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.