ART. 69] DEFAULTEES. 1543

1904, art. 69, sec. 4. 1888, art. 69, sec. 4. 1860, art. 69, sec. 4. 1856, ch. 16, sec. 4.

4. Whenever the governor shall be apprised that a commission has
been inadvertently issued to any one, he shall cause the state's attorney
of the county or of the city of Baltimore to sue out of the circuit court
for the said county, or from the superior court of Baltimore city, court
of common pleas or Baltimore city court, a writ of quo warranto
directed to the person professing to hold the office mentioned in the com-
mission so improvidently issued to inquire into the right whereby such
office is so held; and if it shall appear on the trial that at the time of
the election or appointment of such person he had not accounted with
and paid into the treasury of the State any money which he should have
accounted for and paid into the treasury before such election or appoint-
ment, then the court shall adjudge said election or appointment to have
been null and void from the beginning and the office to be vacant-

This section and section 5, together with article 23, section 367 of the code
of 1904. the latter relative to proceedings for the forfeiture of charters of
corporations, held to be the only statutory provisions authorizing proceedings
in the nature of quo warranto proceedings. A state's attorney has no author-
ity to institute proceedings to oust an incumbent from a public office. Haw-
kins v. State. 81 Md. 311.

As to stale's attorneys, see art. 10, sec. 20, et seq.

Ibid. sec. 5. 1888, art. 69, sec. 5. 1860, art. 69, sec. 5. 1856, ch. 16, sec. 5.

5. The state's attorneys for the several counties and for the city of
Baltimore, whenever they shall be informed that any one has been com-
missioned in their respective counties or in the said city who was at
the time of his election or appointment to office in default to the treas-
ury of the State for not accounting for and paying over to the treasury
any moneys which he ought to have accounted for and paid into the
treasury, shall cause inquiry to be made of the comptroller for a state-
ment of the account of the party so commissioned and, if it shall appear
from the certificate of the comptroller that said person is in default,
shall cause to be had the proceeding authorized by the preceding sec-
tion; and the failure of any state's attorney to comply with this sec-
tion shall be a misdemeanor in office, and on conviction thereof he shall
be removed.

See notes to sec. 4.

Ibid. sec. 6. 1888, art. 69, sec. 6. 1860, art. 69, sec. 6. 1856, ch. 16, sec. 8.

1876, ch. 206.

6. The comptroller shall furnish each officer of the State, whose
accounts are in arrears, at least sixty days prior to a general election, a
full statement of his accounts, and in default of his accounting for such
deficiencies within thirty days, then it shall be the duty of the comp-
troller to publish weekly for one month in one or more newspapers in
the county or city in which said defaulters have held or may be holding
office, and in no other newspapers, the names and titles of said officers
with the amount of said deficiencies; and the cost of advertisement of
the account of every such defaulter may be recovered in the name of
the State against the official bond of such defaulter; but no defaulter
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