The King against Ramsden and Others
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 01 January 1835 |
| Date | 01 January 1835 |
| Court | Court of the King's Bench |
English Reports Citation: 111 E.R. 487
IN THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH.
the king against ramsden and others. 1835. Held, by Littledale and Pattesot Js., Lord Denman C.J. dubitante, that a quo warranto information does not lie for the office of governor and director, elected annually by rated inhabitants, under a local Act for the government of the poor, and the maintenance of the nightly watch ; and having power to make orders to regulate the poor and the watching; to determine how much money shall be raised for the poor and the watch (for which amount the inhabitants are to make rates, subject to a power in the governors to rectify omissions or mistakes, and to an appeal at Quarter Sessions); to purchase and hold real and personal property, including all the money raised under the Act; to erect buildings; to borrow money on the credit of the rates, for the purposes of the Act; to appoint and remove treasurers, and salaried clerks, collectors, and other officers, who are to account to them ; to appoint watchmen and beadles, who are to be sworn in as constables before a justice, and to be under their control; to name sixteen persons, from whom the justices are to select four overseers; and to sue and be sued in the name of one of themselves, or of their clerk. Erie had obtained a rule, in Easter terra last, calling upon the defendants to shew cause why an information or informations in the nature of a quo warranto should not be exhibited against them, to shew by what authority they respectively claimed to exercise the office of governors and directors of the poor of that part of the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, which lies above Bars, in the county of Middlesex, atid St. George [457] the Martyr in the same county. The rule specified various grounds of objection to the title of the defendants, which it is not necessary here to mention. The defendants claimed to exercise their offices, as having been legally elected under the provisions of stat. 6 G. 4, c. clxxv. (local and personal, public), entitled " An Act for the Better Ascertaining, Charging, and Collecting of Rates for the Relief of the Poor within that Part of the Parish of St. Andrew, Holborn," &c.; "for the better maintenance, employment and regulation of the poor thereof; and for regulating the nightly watch thereof." Section 5 of that Act provides that the inhabitants of the places comprised in the Act, and other persons assessed to the poor thereof, shall assemble annually, and elect persons to be governors and directors of the poor, together with the justices being resident householders, and the rectors, churchwardens, and overseers for the time being, who are made governors and directors ex officio; which governors and directors (by the same and the fortieth sections) may make orders, rules, and regulations for the government, relief, maintenance, and employment of the poor, and for ascertaining, charging, collecting, managing, and regulating the poor-rates, and for the appointment, regulation, and management of watchmen and beadles, and for the regulation of constables. By sect. 8 they are to present annually a list of sixteen persons to the justices, from whom the justices are to name four as overseers. By sect. 10 all messuages, watch-houses, edifices, and lands, used for the poor or the watchmen and beadles, all monies raised under the Acts, and all other monies, fixtures, furnitures, materials, and other things provided for the poor or the [458] watchmen and beadles, are vested in the governors and directors for the time being, and are to be treated as their property, in civil or criminal proceedings; and the governors and directors may sue and be sued in the name of 488 THE KING V. RAMSDEN 3 AD. ft B. 9. oria of them, or of their clerk, and actions shall not abate by the death, removal from office, or default of the party. Sect. 12 provides that they shall calculate, ascertain, and...
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