Art. 73. The judicial power shall be vested in a Supreme Court, in District Courts, in Parish Courts and in Justices of the Peace.
Art. 79. All judges, by virtue of their office, shall be conservators of the peace throughout the State. The style of all processes shall be " The State of Louisiana." All prosecutions shall be carried on in the name and by the authority of the State of Louisiana, and conclude "Against the peace and dignity of the same."
Art. 80. The judges of all courts, whenever practicable, shall refer to the law, in virtue of which every definitive judgment is rendered ; but in all cases they shall adduce the reasons on which their judgment is founded.
Art. 81. The judges of all courts shall be liable to impeachment for crimes and misdemeanors For any reasonable cause the Governor shall remove any of them, on the address of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly. In every such case the cause or causes for which such removal may be required, shall be stated at length in the address, and inserted in the journal of each house.
Art. 83. The General Assembly shall divide the State into judicial districts, which shall remain unchanged for four years, and for each district court, one judge, learned in the law, shall be elected for each district, by a plurality of the qualified electors thereof. For each district there shall be one district court, except in the parish of Orleans, in which the General Assembly may establish as many district courts as the public interests may require. Until otherwise provided, there shall lie seven district courts for the parish of Orleans, with the following original jurisdiction : the first, exclusive criminal jurisdiction; the second, exclusive probate jurisdiction; the third, exclusive jurisdiction of appeals from justices of the peace; the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh district courts, exclusive jurisdiction in all civil cases, except probate, when the sum in contest is above one hundred dollars, exclusive of interest. These seven courts shall also have such further jurisdiction, not inconsistent herewith, as shall be conferred by law.
Art. 94. — No judicial powers, except as committing magistrates in criminal cases, shall be conferred on any officers other than those mentioned in this title; except such as may be necessary in towns and cities; and the judicial powers of such offices shall not extend further than the cognizances of cases arising under the police regulations of towns and cities in the State. In any case where such officers shall assume jurisdiction over other matters than those which may arise under police regulations, or under their jurisdiction, as committing magistrates, they shall be liable to an action of damages in favor of the party injured, or his heirs; and a verdict in favor of the party injured shall, ipso facto, operate a vacation of the office of said officer.
No. 967.-STATE OF LOUISIANA, ex rel., EUGENE STAES, V. ARTHUR GASTINEL
Section 130 of the city charter of the city of New Orleans provides, that the right of the Mayor, or any other officer of the city of New Orleans, to fill the office held by him may be tested at any time, by any citizen, by a writ of quo warranto, which shall be tried in a summary manner, both in the inferior and appellate courts.
Where an officer is ineligible from any cause, he cannot take charge of and perform the duties of the office to which he has been elected or appointed.
Article 133 of the Constitution of 1864, conferring on the Recorders of the city of New Orleans the additional powers and functions of Justice of the Peace, does not vest the Recorders with any other character or title of office than that of Recorder.
The prayer for a prohibition against the incumbent in office is not inconsistent with a demand by the relator for the Court to provide for the filling of the office legally.
The fact that a Recorder of the city of New Orleans has been commissioned and sworn, does not protect him against the enquiry into his right to hold the office: nor does it confine the investigation to his right to enter upon the duties of the office.
The divesting of a Recorder of the city of New Orleans of his office, on the ground that he is ineligible to hold the same does not, ipso facto, give the office to his competitor at the election: in such a case it is made the duty of the Common Council by joint action of both Boards to fill the vacancy. City Charter, sec. 15.
APPEAL from the Sixth District Court of New Orleans, Duplantier, J.
