OFFICE (OF., Fr. officicr, from NL. officio rsus, officer, froin Lat. officials!, office, from upi jieium, performance of work, from opifes, work man, from opus, work + facere, to do). In gen eral, a service or authority of a public or character. In practice the term is usually limited to positions of trust or au thority under the Government or in a corporation or voluntary association. At the common law public office was not regarded as a public trust, hut as a private emolument, and Blackstone in his book on property enumerates offices among incorporeal hereditaments. Thus conceived, a public office may. like other real property, be held in fee simple, in fee tail, for life, or for years, and it may even be made the subject of sale and be alienable by deed or will. Offices of this char acter have generally become obsolete or have been abolish6d, but in England certain honorary of fices are still held by a species of tenure and descend to the heirs of the holder thereof. See CIVIL SERVICE.
An appointment to office carries with it, as an incident thereof, the right to its emoluments. Civil or public offices are usually classified as ministerial and judicial. An office is minis terial when its exercise depends on the com mand or direction of others: judicial, when the officer is- called upon to employ his own dis cretion. An example of the first is a sheriff. of the second a judge of a court of law. The two are sometimes united in one. The office is held for the benefit of the public, and may be abolished by legislation, unless such action lie expressly forbidden by the Constitution. When the office is in its nature judicial, the duties cannot be performed by deputy, as the personal skill and judgment of the officer are the reasons for his holding the office. With ministerial offices the reverse is the ease. Thus a sheriff or other court officer may appoint deputies, and their acts are good in law; and the appointing officer remains responsible for such acts.
Statutes in most of the States provide that offices shall not be sold, and such a sale would be void anywhere as contrary to the policy of the common law. So any agreement between the officer and one who' by influence procures his ap pointment. to divide the compensation received,
would be altogether void. It a principle of the common law that no term of office should be created so as to end at a certain time in the future, nor for a fixed term of years. hut should be held for life or during good behavior. This was to prevent the holding of office after com petency to perform the duties had ceased, and to render it impossible that the office should sur vive the officer. It is common in this country to limit the term to the life of the incumbent and to the attaining; of a certain age, as seventy years. Two offices cannot be held by the same person where one is in the nature of its duties inconsistent with the other. This inconsistency may be patent from the nature of the offices or it may be declared to exist by act of legislation. Where an office is filled in common by several persons, it has been held that if the rave is of a public character all the officers must meet for consultation. but that a majority may act, while if the office is private, all must concur; but this is often governed by statute, and a decision by a majority, or even it majority of those present at any meeting, is made binding. Members of State or national legislatures are not usually termed officers. time word being confined in usage to those having executive or judicial authority. A de facto officer is one who is in possession of the authority and emoluments of an office without a good title thereto. while a de fare officer is one who has the legal right, hut not necessarily ac tual possession. It is evident that it would make much confusion and cause great injustice if all official acts of a de facto officer were to be con sidered as of no effect. Thus, in the ease of a judge who was wrongfully on the bench. it would be a great hardship if all judgments given by him, and all criminal convictions of his court, should be set aside. But if suit be brought by a de facto officer in his public capacity, he may be debarred from recovery on the ground of defect in title. and the de jure officer may test the question of title by bringing a writ of quo warrant°. See DE FACTO.