MINISTERIAL OFFICER. An officer whose functions consist in executing the com mand of a superior, or in performing a duty definitely prescribed by law. Its propriety is not left to his judgment or discretion. Ile is legally bound to perform it; and for a failure to do his duty he is liable in damages to the person in whose favor the duty was to be discharged. A policeman, sheriff, or marshal having a writ for the arrest of a designated person is liable for false imprisonment if he arrests any other person than the one named. Or, he may have arrested the wrong person, because of mistaken information, yet having acted with due caution in making his inquiries. In both cases he is liable. As a rule, the ministerial officer acts at his peril. Perhaps the harshest application of this rule is seen when lie enforces legal process under an unconstitutional statute. lf, on ap peal, the statute is declared unconstitutional by the highest court of the State, the judges of the lower court are not civilly responsible for their blunder, but the sheriff who seized and sold property under the execution must respond to the owner for its value.
Oftentimes a judicial officer or a legislative body is required to act in a ministerial or execu tive capacity. Generally speaking, a judge acts ministerially when an application for a writ of habeas corpus is made to him. The law does not leave the granting or withholding of this writ to his discretion. A justice of the peace who has rendered judgment in a case before him is under a peremptory duty to issue an execution thereon at the request of the judgment creditor. In issuing or refusing it he acts ministerially, not judicially. if a statute charges a county judge with the duty of select ing jurors for the various courts sitting in the county, his acts under the statute are minis terial. Whether an act required by law of an officer is judicial or ministerial dep•nds upon its character, and not on the rank of the actor. See OFFICER, and the articles there referred to.