Art. 3901.Definition

Article 3901 defines quo warranto as a writ that puts a direct question to someone exercising authority: by what right do you hold this? It reaches two kinds of situations. First, an individual claiming or holding a public office, or an office within a corporation or limited liability company, can be directed to show the authority behind that claim. Second, a corporation or limited liability company itself can be directed to show its authority for exercising particular powers it has claimed.

Quo warranto differs from mandamus in what each writ assumes. Mandamus, addressed in the preceding chapter, assumes the person or entity properly holds a position or authority already, and compels that person or entity to perform a duty that goes along with it. Quo warranto assumes nothing about the legitimacy of the position itself; it asks whether the person or entity is entitled to hold or exercise it at all.

The article states its own purpose plainly: preventing usurpation, whether of an office or of powers. An officeholder without a valid claim to the office, or a corporation or LLC exercising authority beyond what its own charter or the law allows, is exactly the kind of usurpation this writ exists to stop.