AMORTISE

contracts. To alien lands in mortmain. AMOTION. In corporations and companies, is the act of removing an officer from his office; it differs from disfranchisement, which is applicable to members. The power of amotion is incident to a corporation. 2 Str. 819; 1 Burr. 639. 2. In Rex v. Richardson, Lord Mansfield specified three sorts of offences for which an officer might be discharged; first, such as have no immediate relation to the office, but are in themselves of so infamous a nature, as to render the offender unfit to execute any public franchise; secondly, such as are only against his oath, and the duty of his office as a corporator, and amount to breaches of the tacit condition annexed to his office; thirdly, the third offence is of a mixed nature; as being an offence not only against the duty of his officer but also a matter indictable at common law. And Lord Mansfield considered the law as settled, that though a corporation has express power of amotion, yet for the first sort of offences there must be a previous indictment and conviction; and that there was no authority since Bagg’s Case, 11 Rep. 99, which says; that the power of trial as well as of amotion, for the second offense, is not incident to every corporation. He also observed: We think that from the reason of the thing, from the nature of the corporation, and for the sake of order and good government, this power is incident as much as the power of making by-laws.