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2001 Louisiana Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (2001)

handle is hein.sag/sagla0001 and id is 1 raw text is: January 19, 2001 OPINION 01-01 Mr. James Charles, Sr. 77 Officers Until such time as the city council declares an office to be vacant City Councilman because the member no longer meets residency or domicile Post Office Box 379 requirements, that individual is entitled to remain in office. St. Martinville, Louisiana 70582 Dear Mr. Charles: You advise that two members of the City Council for the City of St. Martinville, both of whom hold elective office to the council, no longer reside within their respective districts. You ask whether or not these individuals can continue to serve in office. It is presumed that your legislative charter provides that a councilman must reside or be domiciled within the district which he represents. The Election Code provides that a vacancy is created in an elective office when the person elected to or holding the office no longer meets the residence or domicile requirements of that office. See 18:581. Domicile is defined by Louisiana Civil Code Article 38, providing: The domicile of each citizen is in the parish wherein he has his principal establishment. The principal establishment is that in which he makes his habitual residence; if he resides alternately in several places, and nearly as much in one as in another, and has not declared his intention in the manner hereafter prescribed, any one of the said places where he resides may be considered as his principal establishment, at the option of the persons whose interests are thereby affected. Residence and domicile are not synonymous. A person can have several residences but only one domicile. See McClendon vs. Bell, 2000 WL 1335895; see also Autin vs. Terrebonne, 612 So.2d 107, 108 (La. App. 1st Cir. 1992); writ den., 604 So. 2d 954 (La. 1992). An individual may have many residences but only one domicile, that being the principal place of residence. See Messer vs. London, 436 So.2d 546 (La. 1983). There must be actual, physical use or occupation of quarters for living purposes before residence is established. See Williamson vs. Village of Baskin, 339 So.2d 474 (La. App. 2nd Cir. 1976). The court in Williamson, supra, further noted :

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