from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
AMOTION. In corporations and companies, is the act of removing an officer
from his office; it differs from disfranchisement, which is applicable to
members, as such. Wille. on Corp. n. 708. 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. 2 Binn. R. 448. 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 bylaws." Doug. 149.
See generally, Wilcock on Mun. Corp. 268; 6 Conn. Rep. 632; 6 Mass. R.
462; Ang. & Am. on Corpor. 236.
from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
AMOTION, tort. An amotion of possession from an estate, is an ouster which
happens by a species of disseisin or turning out of the legal proprietor
before his estate is determined. 3 Bl. Com. 198, 199. Amotion is also
applied to personal chattels when they are taken unlawfully out of the
possession of the owner, or of one who has a special property in them.