COSTS OF CONTESTED ELECTIONS.

16. The costs of every contested election shall include only the expenses of serving notices, taking of depositions and the allowances to witnesses; and shall be noted at the foot of every deposition or set of depositions, by the person taking the same. If the contestant fail in setting aside the election, there shall be awarded against him the amount of such costs incurred or expended by the person who was returned or declared elected. Otherwise, each party shall pay his own costs; unless it appears that the person returned or declared elected was guilty of fraud or malpractice in the election, or in procuring such return or declaration, in which case costs shall be awarded against him in favor of the contestant, Where costs are awarded in favor of either party, the amount thereof shall be ascertained under direction of the house, joint session, or court which decides the case, and a certificate thereof, authenticated by the signature of the presiding officer, shall be delivered to the party in whose favor they are awarded, which certificate shall have the force of a judgment, and if such costs be not paid within ten days after the date thereof, the clerk of the circuit court of the county in which the party against whom the costs were awarded resides, may issue execution on such certificate upon its delivery to him in like manner, as upon a judgment of the said circuit court. But no person contesting the seat of another in the legislature shall be entitled to pay or mileage if his contest fail.

ACTS REPEALED.

2. All acts and parts of acts coming within the purview of this chapter, and inconsistent with its provisions, are hereby repealed.

CHAPTER VII.

(Acts 1882, p. 73.)

CERTAIN GENERAL PROVISIONS RESPECTING OFFICERS.

THE TERM OF OFFICE.

1. The terms of officers, not elected or appointed to fill a vacancy, shall begin respectively as follows: That of the governor, secretary of state, state superintendent of free schools, treasurer, auditor and attorney-general, on the fourth day of March next after their election; that of a member of the legislature, on the first day of November next after his election; that of the judges of the supreme court of appeals, the judges of the several circuits, the county commissioners, prosecuting attorneys, surveyors of lands, assessors, sheriffs, clerks of the circuit courts, clerks of the county courts, justices of the peace and constables, on the first day of January next after their election. When an officer is elected or appointed to fill a vacancy, his term shall be as prescribed by the first section of the fourth chapter of this code.

2. The term of every officer shall continue (unless the office be vacated by death, resignation, removal from office or otherwise,) untill his successor is elected or appointed and qualified.

RESIDENCE, &C.

3. The governor, secretary of state, state superintendent of free schools, auditor and treasurer, shall reside at the seat of government during their term of office, and keep there the public records, books and papers pertaining to their respective offices. Every judge of a circuit court shall, during his continuance in office, reside in the circuit for which he was elected. Every county and district officer, except the prosecuting attorney, shall, during his continuance in office, reside in the county or district for which he was elected. And the removal of any such officer from the state, circuit, county or district for which he was elected, shall vacate his office.

CERTAIN DISQUALIFICATIONS TO HOLD OFFICE.

4. No person convicted of treason, felony or bribery in an election, before any court in or out of this state, shall, while such conviction remains unreversed, be elected or appointed to any office under the laws of this State; and, if any person while holding such office, be so convicted, the office shall be thereby vacated.

5. If any person holding, or expecting to hold any office under the laws of this State, sell the same, or let it to farm, either in whole or part, or contract to do so, such person and the person who may buy, take to farm, or contract to do so, shall be thereby disabled from holding the said office.

6. Any citizen of this State who shall either in or out of the State, fight a duel with deadly weapons, or send or accept a challenge so to do, or who shall act as a second, or knowingly aid or assist in such duel, shall ever thereafter be incapable of holding any office of honor, trust or profit in this State. Every person who may knowingly have been the bearer of such challenge or acceptance, or otherwise engaged or concerned in any duel actually fought, may be required, in any prosecution against any person but himself for having fought, or aided or abetted in such duel, to testify as a witness; but any statement made by him as such witness shall not be used in any prosecution against himself.

REMOVAL FROM OFFICE OF COUNTY AND DISTRICT OFFICERS.

7. Auy county or district officer may be removed from office for official misconduct, incompetence, habitual drunkenness, neglect of duty or gross immorality. Such removal, in case of the clerk of the circuit court, prosecuting attorney, sheriff, surveyor of lands and county commissioners, shall be made by the circuit court of the county; and in case of the clerk of the county court, county superintendent of free schools, assessor, justice of the peace, and constable, by the county court of the county. The charges against any such officer shall be reduced to writing and entered of record by the court, and a summons shall thereupon be issued by the clerk of such court, containing a copy of the charges, and requiring the officer named therein to appear and answer the same on a day to be named therein, which summons may be served in the same manner

as a summons commencing an action may be served, and the service must be made at least five days before the return day thereof. And the court may, in its discretion, suspend any such officer from the discharge of the duties of his office, and place the records, papers and property of his office during such suspension, in the possession of some other officer or person.

REMOVAL OF STATE OFFICERS FROM OFFICE.

8. The secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, attorney general and state superintendent of free schools, for any of the causes mentioned in the next preceding section, may be removed from office by the legislature, a majority of the members elected to each house concurring in the removal. But the officer to be proceeded against must first have reasonable notice of the charges alleged against him, and of the time they will be investigated; and an opportunity to make his defense in person or by counsel, before the legislature or any committee appointed to investigate said charges.

9. Any such officer as is mentioned in the next preceding section may, for any of the causes mentioned in the seventh section of this chapter, be removed from office during the recess of the legislature by the governor; but in such case, unless the officer so removed be the secretary of state, the governor shall communicate to the legislature immediately after the beginning of its next session the fact of the removal and the cause thereof; and if the legislature by joint resolution disapprove of the removal, the officer removed shall be thereby re-instated in his office.

GENERAL RULE IN RELATION TO REMOVALS.

10. In cases where there is not a different provision made by law, any person appointed to an office may be removed therefrom by the person or persons having the power of appointment for any of the causes mentioned in the seventh section of this chapter. And where the power of appointment is in one person, on the recommendation or with the consent of another or others, the power of removal shall be exercised in like manner. But officers who are appointed by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate, may, during the recess of the legislature, be removed by the governor for incompency, neglect of duty, gross immorality, habitual drunkenness, or malfeasance in office; and he shall in such case communicate to the senate immediately after the beginning of its next session, the fact of the removal and the cause thereof; and if the senate, by resolution, disapprove of the removal, the officer removed shall be thereby re-instated in his office. Provided, nevertheless, that any officer of the State, or any officer of any of the public institutions of the State, may be impeached for any of the causes mentioned in section nine of article four of the constitution, and if convicted thereof, may be removed from office and disqualified to hold any office of honor, trust or profit under the State.

DEPUTIES.

11. The clerk of any court may, with the consent of such court, or the clerk of the supreme court of appeals or of a circuit court may, with the consent of the judge or the judges thereof in vacation, appoint any person his deputy. A sheriff, surveyor of lands or assessor may, with the consent of the county court, appoint any person his deputy. Such consent shall in every case be entered of record. Every deputy so appointed shall take the same oaths his principal is required to take, and may, during his continuance in office, discharge and perform any of the official duties of his principal; and default or misfeasance in office of such deputy shall be deemed a breach of the condition of the official bond of his principal. And when in the opinion of the circuit court the public interests require it, a sheriff may, with the consent of the said circuit court, appoint any person his deputy.

any

12. Such deputy may be removed from office by his principal, or by the court, judge or judges, with whose consent he was appointed. 13. If a sheriff, surveyor of lands or assessor, or the clerk of any court die during his term of office, his deputies in office at the time of his death may continue to discharge the duties of the office in the name of the deceased principal until his successor is elected or appointed and qualified as prescribed in the fourth chapter of this code. And any default or misfeasance in office of any such deputy shall be deemed a breach of the condition of the official bond of the principal, notwithstanding his death; but the personal representative of the deceased principal shall have the same right to remove any deputy from office and to appoint another that the principal would have had if alive.

14. The securities of any such deceased principal, or any of them, may require a new or additional bond to be given by the personal representative of such deceased principal, in the same manner and with like effect as if such new or additional bond had been required to be given by such principal in his life-time; and all the provisions of chapter ten of this code in relation to such new or additional bond shall be applicable to proceedings under this section.

ACTS OF OFFICERS DE FACTO VALID.

15. All judgments given and all acts done by any person, by authority or color of any office, or the deputation thereof, under the restored government of Virginia or of this State, before his removal therefrom, shall be valid, though it may afterwards be decided or adjudged that he was not lawfully elected or appointed or was disqualified to hold the office, or that the same had been forfeited or vacated.

15. (See Acts 1872-3, Chapter 72, as follows:) 1. That all the judicial and ministerial acts of persons in office, and recognized as officers by the public, done and performed by such

persons in all or any of the counties of this State, in which the reorganized government of Virginia or the government of the State of West Virginia, was not in operation or in force between the seventeenth day of April, 1861, and the time of the organization of this State in the said counties, such as sanctioning and protecting marriage, granting license, recording deeds and other writings necessary to be recorded, are hereby declared valid and binding, and to have the same force and effect as though the act done was performed by the proper officers, acting under the restored government of Virginia, or under the government of West Virginia, and any act or deed done and performed by any executor, administrator, or other fiduciary, in any of the counties aforesaid during the time aforesaid, who qualified as such executor or fiduciary in the State of Virginia, shall have the same force and effect as though said executor or other fiduciary had qualified under the restored government of Virginia or under the government of West Virginia: Provided, however, that it shall be competent within two years from the passage of this act, for any person aggrieved by the act herein declared valid, to have such act corrected, set aside or annulled by such proceedings as are provided by law in similar cases.

2. This act shall be in force from and after its passage. Approved March 31, 1873.

CREDENTIALS OF COUNTY AND DISTRICT OFFICERS.

16. The credentials of county and district officers shall consist of the certificate of the county court mentioned in the twenty-second section of the third chapter of this code.

CREDENTIALS OF REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS AND PRESIDEN

TIAL ELECTORS.

17. The governor shall, if demanded, give a certificate under his hand and the great seal of the State, to every person elected a representative in the congress of the United States, or an elector for president and vice-president of the United States, which certificates respectively, shall be to the following effect:

STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA, TO-WIT:

I, , governor of the said State, pursuant to the act of the legislature thereof, in such case made and provided, do hereby certify that A. B., of the county of, was duly chosen on the

day of, a representative in the congress of the United States, for the congressional district of this State, composed of the counties of, for the term commencing on the fourth day of March next (or for the unexpired term ending on the third day of March,, as the case may be.)

Given under my hand and the great seal of the said State of West Virginia, this

day of