REPRESENTATIVE. One who represents or is in the place of another.
In the law of decedents' estates any per son who has succeeded to the rights of the decedent, whether by purchase, descent, or operation of law. Kroh v. Heins, 48 Neb. 691, 67 N. W. 771.
A representative of a deceased person, sometimes called a "personal representative," or "legal personal representative," is one who is executor or administrator of the person described. 6 Madd. 159 ; 5 Ves. 402. See Cox v. Curwen, 118 MasS. 200; Lodge v. Weld, 139 Mass. 504, 2 N. I). 95.
A gift in a will to the "representative" of a person is a gift to his legal personal rep resentatives, in the absence of any context in the will showing that the word is to have a different meaning; 45 Ch. Div. 269.
See PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVES; LEGAL PERSONAL In legislation, it signifies one who has been elected a member of that branch of the legis lature called the house of representatives.
The securing of fair apportionment' of rep resentatives in legislative bodies is one of the most serious problems in modern con stitutional law, there being no subject as to which the legislation is more frequently af fected by partisan bias. In many of the states there has been an effort to control the matter by constitutional provisions uuder which it is usually required that the districts shall be formed of contiguous territory and contain as nearly as possible an equal num ber of inhabitants. These are the principal provisions in the constitution of Illinois, in which state it was held that an apportion ment act was valid which was a substantial compliance with the constitution, though the rule of compactness was only applied to a limited extent; People v. Thompson, 155 Ill. 451, 40 N. E. 307. The subject has been very carefully considered in Indiana. Among the conclusions reached there are: that under the state constitution requiring a sexennial enumeration of the male inhabitants over twenty-one years and an apportionment at the next legislative session thereafter, the legislature, having once made a valid appor tionment after an enumeration, is prohibited from making a reapportionment and from re pealing such valid apportionment during the enumeration period ; that if the first appor tionment is invalid, even before it has 'been declared so by the courts, a second may be passed ; that the question of the validity of such a law is not a political one. to be de
termined only at the discretion of the legis lature, but that it is entirely within the juris diction of the courts to determine its consti tutionality; that where the question of con stitutionality has been determined by a lower court in an action between the citizens, and an appeal is dismissed, the subject is not res judioata as against the state; and that the state is not estopped from objecting to the constitutionality of an apportionment by the fact that a legislature has been elected under an unconstitutional act ; Board of Com'rs of Huntington Co. v. Heaston, 144 Ind. 593, 41 N. E. 457, 43 N. E. 651, 55 Am. St. Rep. 192.
In New Jersey it was held that the con stitutionality of such acts is a subject of judicial inquiry and not a mere political question, but that the courts cannot over turn a law passed within constitutional limi tations on the ground that it is unwise, im politic, unjust, or oppressive, or even that it was procured by corporate means ; State v. Wrightson, 56 N. J. L. 126, 28 Atl. 56, 22 L. R. A. 548, where it was held that manda mus to compel officers to proceed under prior laws in respect to elections instead of folloi ing an unconstitutional statute is not prema ture because no demand and refusal has been made or the time arrived when it is the duty of the officers to act.
In a Virginia case it was said that the laying off and defining of districts under a constitutional requirement that they should be of contiguous counties, etc., compact, and, • as nearly as may be, equal in population, was an exercise of political and discretionary power of the legislature for which they are amenable to the people ; Wise v. Bigger, 79 Va. 269; but this, it is remarked, "was a mere declaration of the court without dis cussion of the question and without any facts reported which show any attempt at a gerrymander" ; 15 L. R. A. 561, note.