Acting Senior Assistant Attorney General.To submit a Quo Warranto application, or to ask questions about how to submit an application, please contact: 11, §§ 1-11.) The application and supporting documents must be prepared by a licensed attorney. In order to obtain the Attorney General’s approval, a private person or a local agency must file an application pursuant to the rules and regulations issued by the Attorney General. The requirement of obtaining approval also serves the important purpose of protecting public officers from frivolous challenges. The remedy of quo warranto is vested in the People, and not in any private individual or group, because the question of who has the right to hold a public office is a matter of public concern, not a private dispute. How Does a Quo Warranto Action Get Filed?Ī quo warranto action may not be filed without the approval of the Attorney General (except in those cases where a public agency is authorized to file for itself). The statutes relating to quo warranto are in the California Code of Civil Procedure, starting at section 803. Current California law provides that the action may be brought either by the Attorney General or by a private party acting with the consent and under the direction of the Attorney General. Quo warranto originated in English common law as a process initiated by the crown to find out whether a person was legitimately exercising a privilege or office granted by the crown, or whether the person was instead intruding into a royal prerogative.Įarly California law abolished the writ and substituted a statutory action, identical in purpose and effect to the common-law writ. The term “quo warranto” (pronounced both kwoh wuh- rahn- toh, and kwoh wahr -un-toh) is Latin for “by what authority”-as in, “by what authority does this person hold this office?” The term “quo warranto” is still used today, even though the phrase no longer appears in the statutes. Other processes are available for that purpose. A person who commits misconduct in a public office may be penalized or even removed from office, but quo warranto is not the proper forum for those cases. Quo warranto is not available to decide whether an official has committed misconduct in office. For example, a quo warranto action may be brought to determine whether a public official satisfies a requirement that he or she resides in the district or whether a public official is serving in two incompatible offices. Quo warranto is used to test a person’s legal right to hold an office, not to evaluate the person’s performance in the office. Quo warranto is a special form of legal action used to resolve a dispute over whether a specific person has the legal right to hold the public office that he or she occupies.
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