Ministerial Oficer Law and Legal Definition
Ministerial officer is an officer who is neither a judicial officer nor an executive officer and whose duties are mainly of a ministerial nature, that is, duties involving little or no discretion.
A ministerial officer has been defined as one whose duty it is to execute the mandates lawfully issued by his superiors. Whether a person is or is not a ministerial officer depends not upon the character of the particular act which he may be called upon to perform or whether he exercises judgment or discretion with reference to such act, but whether the general nature and scope of the duties devolving upon him are of a ministerial character as distinguished from executive, legislative, or judicial.
Ministerial officers are sometimes called executive officers, sometimes administrative, and sometimes ministerial, and with slight shades of distinction. What characterizes a ministerial officer is that he has no power to judge of the matter to be done, and usually must obey some superior. His duties, in other words, are of a ministerial character. [State v. Herrman, 115 Ohio App. 271, 272-273 (Ohio Ct. App., Montgomery County 1961)].
