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APPOINTMENT Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

In chancery practice. The exercise of a right to designate the person or persons who are to take the use of real estate. 2 Washb. Real Prop. 302. The act of a person in directing the disposition of property, by limiting a use, or by substituting a new use for a former one, in pursuance of a power granted to him for that purpose by a preceding deed, called a “power of appointment:” also the deed or other instrument by which he so conveys. Where the power embraces several permitted objects, and the appointment is made to one or more of them, excluding others, it is called “exclusive.” Appointment may signify an appropriation of money to a specific purpose. Harris v. Clark, 3 N. T. 93, 119, 51 Am. Dec. 352. In public law. The selection or designation of a person, by the person or persons having authority therefor, to fill an office or public function and discharge the duties of the same. State v. New Orleans, 41 La Ann. 156, 0 South. 592; Wickersham v. Brit- tan, 93 Cal. 34, 28 Pac. 792, 15 L. R. A. 100; Sliced v. Crawford, 3 Mete. (Ky.) 210. The term “appointment” is to be distinguished from “election.” The former is an executive act, whereby a person is named as the in cumbent of an office and invested therewith, by one or more individuals who have the sole power and right to select and constitute the officer. Election means that the person is chosen by sl principle of selection in the nature of a vote, participated in by the public generally or by the entire class of persons qualified to express their choice in this manner. See McPherson v. Blacker, 140 U. S. 1, 13 Sup. Ct. 3, 30 L. Ed. 809; State v. Compson. 34 Or. 25, 54 Pac. 349; Reid v. Gorsuch, 67 N. J. Law, 396, 51 Atl. 457; State v. Squire, 39 Ohio St. 197; State v. Williams. 60 Kan. 837, 58 Pac. 476.

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