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In these actions, five in number, Alexander Ramsey, A. S. Paddock, G. L. Godfrey, A. B. Carleton, and J. R. Pettigrew, defendants in all, were persons who composed the board appointed under section 9 of the act of congress, approved March 22, 1882, entitled 'An act to amend section fifty-three hundred and fifty-two of the Revised Statutes of the United States, in reference to bigamy, and for other purposes.' 22 St. 30. E. D. Hoge, also a defendant in all the cases, was appointed registration officer for the county of Salt Lake, in the territory of Utah, by that board, in pursuance of that section of the act. The other defendants, one of whom is joined in each action, to-wit, Arthur Pratt, John S. Lindsay, Harmel Pratt, and James T. Little, were respectively deputy registration officers in designated election precincts in which the plaintiffs in the actions severally claimed the right to be registered as voters. The object of the actions was to recover damages, alleged to have arisen by reason of the defendants' wrongfully and maliciously refusing to permit the plaintiffs, respectively, to be registered as qualified voters in the territory of Utah, whereby they were deprived of the right to vote at an election held in that territory on November 7, 1882, for the election of a delegate to the forty-eighth congress.
In the case in which Jesse J. Murphy is plaintiff below and appellant here, the complaint is as follows:
'The plaintiff above named complains of the defendants, and, on information and belief, alleges that after the twenty-second day of March, 1882, and prior to the first day of July, 1882, under the provisions of section 9 of an act of the congress of the United States, approved March 22, 1882, and entitled 'An act to amend section 5352 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, In reference to bigamy, and for other purposes,' the president of the United States, by and with the consent of the senate of the United States, duly appointed the defendants, Alexander Ramsey, A. S. Paddock, G. L. Godfrey, A. B. Carleton, and J. R. Pettigrew, to perform the duties mentioned in said section to be performed by a board of five persons, and by virtue of said appointment they became a board of five persons with the powers named in said section.
'And, on information and belief, the plaintiff alleges that after such appointment, and prior to the first day of August, 1882, the last-named five defendants duly qualified as such appointees, came to Utah and organized as a board, and entered u on the exercise of the powers and the discharge of the duties granted and imposed by said section 9 of said act of congress; that after said organization said five defendants were commonly called 'commissioners,' and are hereinafter referred to and called the 'board of commissioners;' that said board of commissioners afterwards ordered, directed, and supervised a registration of the voters of the territory of Utah, for the general election in said territory, to be held on the seventh day of November, 1882, for the election of a delegate for said territory to the forty-eighth congress, and for such other elections as might be held prior to another registration of voters of said territory, and on or about the tenth day of August, 1882, the said board of commissioners made and published rules providing for said registration, for the appointment of registration officers and judges of election, and the canvass and return of the votes; directed said registration to be made during the week commencing on the second Monday of September, 1882, and, among other rules, willfully and maliciously made and published the following:
"RULE I.
"There shall be appointed one registration officer for each county, and one deputy registration officer for each precinct thereof.
"RULE II.