Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/921

 IN BE AH LSB. 909 �judge. The last case also held that the legislature could not fin an elective ofSce by appointment so as to give the inoum- bent color of right and make him an officer de facto, and therefore it discharged a party on haheas corpus from arrest, ■where the warrant was issued by a police judge, elected by the trustees of a village, who were themselves appointed to office when the constitution provided for their election. The opinion given by the judge who heard the matter at the special term cites no authorities, and it was affirmed at the general term without an opinion. �As to the third point, it is suffioient to say that the consti- tution in effect creates a circuit court in each county, to be held by a justice of the supreme court or a circuit judge, as the case may be, and such court is the office of the judge who holds it. A circuit judge's office is the circuit court in which he sits — the place which he fiUs — and such is the place or office fiUed by the person who acted as judge upon the trial of the petitioner. �The first and second points cover the general question, what constitutes a person an officer de facto? In The King v. The Corporation of the Bedford Level, 6 East, 356, Lord EUen- borough, citii^, 1 Lord Eayfflond> 660, said : "An officer dg facto is one who has the reputation of being the officer he assumes to be, and yet is not a good officer in point of law." �In this case it was held that a deputy registrar who continued to perform the duties of registrar after the death of his prin- cipal was not registrar de facto, because he entered only as deputy and could not, therefore, acquire the reputation of registrar. . r �In Wilcox v. Smith, 5 Wend. 232, it was held that a person who had acted as justice of the peace for three years, with the reputation of being such justice, was presumably in office Tinder color of an election, and therefore an officer de facto, although there was no direct evidence that he entered the office undex color of an election. In delivering the opinion of the court, Sutherland, J., said: "The principle is well settled that the acts of officers de facto are as valid and effectuai, ����