Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/226

212 FEDERAL IlEPOBTEB. need not be in court, but may be had before the county judge at any time and place he may^ name ; and for aught that appears may be kept on paper and not entered in any bock. In this particular case it seems the judge likened it to county business, and had the pro- ceedings entered and kept aocordingly as of a regular term of the court. But admitting that he erred in this matter, and that the inquisition should have been kept and entered in the records of the probate bus- iness, as claimed by the plaintiff, still the resuit is not .affected by this mistake of the officer. The act directing the business transacted in the county court to be kept and entered in different books, accord- ing to a certain classification of the same, is so far a mere regulation for convenience, and not of the essence of the thing to be done, and therefore only directory. When a statute gives directions or makes provisions concerning the time and manner of doing an officiai act, affecting the rights and duties of third persons, it will generally be considered directory, unless the nature of thy act to be done or the language of the statute indicates tha contrary. Smith's Com. § 670; Cooley's Const. Lim. 74; Toney v. Milbury, 21 Pick. 67; Corhet v. Bradley, 7 Nev. 107; People v. Cook, leBarb. 290; S. C. 8 N. Y. 67; Rex V. Foxdale, 1 Bur. 447. In this latter case Lord Mansfield said : "There is a known distinction between ciroumstanoes which are of the essence of a thing required to be done by an act of parliament, and clauses meiely directory." In the case under consideration there is nothing in the nature of the act to be done, nor the language of the statutes directing ii to be done, ■that indicates that it was the intention of the legislature to make the validity of a judgment or order of a county court, duly given or made, depend upon the fact that it is recorded in a particular book; and that if, from the ignorance or negligence of the clerk, it is entered in the ■wrong one it is therefore void. The statute requiring the proceed- ings in this inquisition of lunacy to be kept and entered in a partic- ular book with a certain class of business is merely directory ; and, although the officer ought to have obeyed it, third persons are not to suffer for his omissions to do so. The entry of the proceedings in the records of the court was essential, — the essence of the thing to done; but whether in a book of this or that class of business was a mere matter of convenience, and the statute providing for it is there- fore directory. The plaintiff also insists that the inquisition is void because taken upon a petition not verified, because, as counsel stateS it, Pulton was arrested and imprisoned in the asylum without "probable cause,