§ 1 Coroners 18 C.J.S Page (218)
| § 1 CORONERS 18 C.J.S | ||
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| I. IN GENERAL | ||
| § 1. Scope of Title This title concerns public officers authorized to make judicial inquiry as to the causes and circumstances of sudden or violent deaths.
In this title are discussed the appointment, qualification and tenure of such officers, as well as the rights, powers, duties, acts, proceedings and liabilities of coroners, medical examiners, and their assistants and deputies, as well as inquests and proceedings thereon. Excluded from this title and discussed in other titles are the results of coroners inquests and the findings therein in relation to insurance cases, the use of inquest results and findings as evidence in homicide prosecutions, and the use of the coroner’s testimony and the admissibility of autopsy and inquest results in evidence in criminal prosecutions. Autopsies and dead bodies generally, as well as the liability of a coroner or his assistants for improper or negligent autopsy are discussed in C.J.S. Dead Bodies. The powers and acts of coroners in performing the duties of sheriffs is treated in C.J.S. Sheriffs and Constables, and the election of coroners is considered in C.J.S. Elections. § 2. Nature of Office A coroner is a public officer of a county or city charged with certain public duties. |
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Library References Coroners 1, 2.
The office of coroner is a very ancient one at common law, and an office of great dignity. A coroner is a public officer 6 of a county or city selected to discharge certain public duties, among them being, as appears infra § 10 et seq., that of holding inquests over the bodies of persons supposed to have died by violence or unlawful means, and, as discussed infra § 8, in particular jurisdictions, of acting as conservator of the peace, or magistrate. The ministerial or judicial character of a coroner’s powers and duties is considered infra § 9. A coroner is also a medical expert rendering expert opinion on medical questions. Although the coroner enjoys only limited territorial jurisdiction within the state in the discharge of his functions, the office of coroner has been held to be a state, rather than local, office and an agency of the state. Particular statutes abolishing the office of coroner and transferring his duties to other officers have been upheld. Under the provisions of some statutes, medical examiners, or medical referees, have, in legal and functional effect, been substituted for coroners. Where the office of coroner is created by the constitution, a local governing body has no power to abolish a constitutionally created office. |
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