Art. 222. For any of the causes enumerated in Article 217, members of the State Board of Appraisers except the Auditor, and Railroad Commissioners, District Attorneys, Clerks of Court, Sheriffs, Coroners, Justices of the Peace, JUDGEs of the City Courts, and of other inferior courts of the City of New Orleans and elsewhere, and all other parish, municipal and ward officers, may be removed by judgment of the District Court of the domicile of such officer (in the Parish of Orleans, the Civil District Court). The District Attorney may, whenever in his opinion sufficient cause exists therefor, institute such suit, and it shall be his duty (except when the suit is to be brought against himself) to institute such suit on the written request and information of twenty-five resident citizens and taxpayers, in the case of members of the State Board of Appraisers, Railroad Commissioners, district, parish, or municipal officers, and of ten resident citizens and taxpayers in the case of ward officers. Such suit shall be brought against a District Attorney upon such written request and information by the District Attorney of an adjoining district, or by counsel appointed by the JUDGE for that purpose. In all suits instituted under this article the defendant, the State and the citizens and taxpayers, on whose information, and at whose request such suits may have been brought, or any one of them, shall have the right to appeal, both on the law and the facts, from the judgment of the court. In all cases where the officer sued, as above directed, shall be acquitted, judgment shall be rendered jointly and in solido against the citizens signing the request, for all costs of the suit.
In cases against members of the State Board of Appraisers, Railroad Commissioners, District Attorneys, Clerks and Sheriffs, the appeal shall be to the Supreme Court, and in cases against all other officers named in this article the appeal shall be to the Court of Appeal of the proper circuit.
Such appeals shall be returnable within ten days to the appellate court wherever it may be sitting or wherever it may hold its next session, and may be transferred by order of the JUDGEs of said court to another parish within their circuit, and such appeals shall be tried by preference over all others. In case of the refusal or neglect of the District Attorney or Attorney General to institute and the preceding article, the citizens and taxpayers making the request, or any one of them, shall have the right by mandamus to compel him to perform such duty.
The institutions and pendency of suits brought under this article shall not operate a suspension of the defendant from office.
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