State ex rel. Niggle v. Kirkwood
State ex rel. Niggle v. Kirkwood
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The respondent was removed from the office of police commissioner by the mayor of the city of Seattle, and appellant Kirkwood was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the removal. Subsequently the respondent, as relator, commenced an action by information in the nature of a quo warranto against the appellant to oust him from the office and reinstate himself. The court refused to hear evidence to impeach the findings of the mayor, took the case from the jury, and found for the relator on the pleadings, upon the ground that the charges and findings were insufficient to support the removal of the relator. The appellant answered the information, denied the intrusion and ouster, and alleged affirmatively the procedure by which the respondent was removed from office and the appointment of the appellant to fill the vacancy.
The first proposition argued by the appellant is that the court had no jurisdiction to determine the sufficiency of the charges or findings,, or to inquire into
The second contention of appellant, however, viz., that the charges were sufficient to support the removal of relator, we think must be sustained. These charges may have been somewhat indefinite,.but no motion was made to make them more definite or certain. No objection was made to them in any way. The appellant went to trial upon the complaint as it was, and the issues were found against him, and we think it is too late for him now to raise the objection that the complaint was indefinite or not specific. We think that there is sufficient in the charges preferred by the mayor and'the findings made to sustain the verdict. It is charged that the relator was interested and part owner in certain -buildings which were occupied for immoral purposes; that their only value arose from such occupation; that under the direction of the mayor of the city the police, in the enforcement of the law against such immoral practices, were proceeding to abate the nuisance b.y driving out these objectionable
Hoyt, C. J., and Scott and Gordon, JJ., concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The State of Washington, on the Relation of John G. Niggle v. William W. Kirkwood
- Cited By
- 10 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- QUO WARRANTO — WHEN LIES — REMOVAL PROM CITY OFFICE — SUFFICIENCY OF CHARGES — REVIEW OF PROCEEDINGS. Where a public officer of a city has been removed from office upon certain charges and findings made against him by the mayor, who has appointed a successor, the proper remedy for the officer removed is by an information in the nature of a quo warranto. The removal by the mayor of a city of a police commissioner is warranted, when it is charged and proved that as such officer he attempted to interfere with the administration of the police department in the enforcement of the law against prostitution, by seeking to influence the chief of police to permit the occupation of certain premises for immoral purposes, which the mayor had ordered abated as a nuisance, and had attempted to remove the chief of police upon failing to influence him, the commissioner being interested as owner in certain of the buildings so occupied for immoral purposes, from which the mayor had directed the objectionable occupants to be removed. Although charges preferred against a public officer by the mayor of a city may be somewhat indefinite, objection thereto on that ground cannot be raised in the superior court, when the person removed from office had gone to trial on them before the mayor without objection and without any motion to make more specific and certain.