Cowell v. Lewis

217 N.W. 218, 52 S.D. 229, 1927 S.D. LEXIS 339
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 28, 1927
DocketFile No. 6606
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 217 N.W. 218 (Cowell v. Lewis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cowell v. Lewis, 217 N.W. 218, 52 S.D. 229, 1927 S.D. LEXIS 339 (S.D. 1927).

Opinion

CAMPBELL, P. J.

'Plaintiff applied to the court below for a writ of mandamus requiring the defendant, as commissioner of hail insurance of the state of .South Dakota, to adjust a hail loss suffered by plaintiff on his real estate in Jackson county, S. D., on July 15, 1927, and to treat and recognize said loss when so adjusted as a valid obligation of the state hail insurance department. The application for the writ alleged all facts prima facie necessary to authorize the awarding of the writ, and further specifically alleged that on June 1, 1927, the real estate in question was subject to a rural credit mortgage to the state of South Dakota upon which, the annual interest was then past due and delinquent, and that the real estate taxes assessed against said premises for the year 1926 were then past due and delinquent, and alleged that the refusal of the defendant hail insurance commissioner to adjust the loss and recognize the claim of plaintiff was based solely and entirely upon the specific facts last above mentioned, together with the provisions of section 20 of chapter 187, Laws 1927.

The defendant moved to quash the alternative writ, which motion to quash was denied, and from such order denying his motion to quash the defendant has appealed.

The sole question presented by this appeal is as to the constitutionality of section 20, chapter 187, Laws 1927. The ruling of the learned trial judge necessarily implies that in his opinion this [232]*232section of the statute was unconstitutional, although there is nothing in the record from which we are able to determine the precise reasons which to his mind spelled unconstitutionality.

This section in question reads as follows:

“Hail Insurance.- — -Whenever at the time hail insurance becomes effective under the state hail insurance law in any year, interest shall be delinquent upon any rural credit mortgage owned by the state or taxes shall be delinquent upon said lands covered by such mortgages, no state hail insurance shall attach to any crop produced on said land for that year, and any taxes assessed or levied against said land for hail insurance for such year shall be null and void.”

The title of the act in question is as follows:

“An act entitled, an act providing for the continuance, maintenance and operation by the state of South D'akota of the system of rural credits heretofore established; creating a South Dakota rural credit board for the management and control thereof; defining the powers, duties and functions of said board, and repealing sections [here reciting a list of Code sections and Session Daws specifically repealed] and all acts and parts of acts in conflict herewith.”

Section 20, above quoted, is very similar to the statute that was enacted as section 12, chapter 266, Daws 1925, in the following words:

“Whenever, on the first day of June in any year, interest shall be delinquent upon any rural credit mortgage or land settlement act mortgage owned by the state, or taxes shall be delinquent upon said lands covered by such mortgages, no state hail insurance shall attach to any crop produced on said land for that year, and any taxes assessed or levied against said land for hail insurance for such year shall be null and void.”

Chapter 266, Daws 1925, dealt principally, if not altogether, with the subject of rural credits, as does chapter 187, Daws 1927; but the title thereto instead of being general and comprehensive with reference to that subject was an “index” title, specifying the various phases of the general subject of rural credits purporting to be dealt with by the act, and was therefore exclusive under the established rule of this court. See Bekker v. Railway Co., 28 S. D. 84, 132 N. W. 797. The judges of this court had occasion, in [233]*233an opinion to the governor, to consider the constitutionality of section 12, chapter 266, Laws 1925, and were unanimously of the view that said section 12 was not within any of the provisions of the restricted index title of chapter 266, Laws 1925, and with reference thereto the judges used the following language:

“Upon the most casual survey of the act, it is apparent that section 12, relating to state hail insurance, section 17, relating' to-tax deeds and notices of redemption, and section 18, relating to annual reports by the board, are not provided for in the title and have no logical connection with any of the twelve items of the' title. It is therefore clear that those sections are invalid because of the restrictive title.” Re Opinion of the Judges, 48 S. D. 375, 204 N. W. 905.

It will be observed that the judges in that opinion, in speaking of section 12 of the act, denominated it as “section 12, relating to state hail insurance.” This language was used as a matter of convenient reference. Section 12 of the 1925 act, whether considered as relating to hail insurance or considered as relating to- a certain phase of rural credits, was equally beyond the scope of the restricted index title of the 1925 act. It was not the intention of the judges to indicate, :by referring- to section 12 of the 1925 act as “relating to state hail insurance,” that such section, or a similar section, must in all 'cases and at all events be construed to relate to state hail insurance exclusively, or that it did not have or could not have a relation to rural credits.

Section 12 of the 1925 act, having been now in substance reenacted as section 20 of the 1927 act under a general and comprehensive title sufficient in form to include anything properly germane to the subject of rural credits, this court, as distinguished from the judges of the court, is now confronted with the question of its constitutionality as a part of the 1927 act.

Section 21 of article 3 of the Constitution of South -Dakota provides as follows:

“No law shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be expressed in its title.”

The title to chapter 187, Laws 1927, is broad and comprehensive and embraces but one subject only, to wit, the general subject of “Rural Credits.” Under the uniform holdings of this court since statehood, the Legislature might properly include under [234]*234that title any matter naturally and reasonably connected with the general subject of rural credits and germane thereto. State v. Morgan, 2 S. D. 32, 48 N. W. 314; State v. Carlisle, 30 S. D. 475, 139 N. W. 127; Kirby v. Berdahl, 50 S. D. 293, 209 N. W. 545.

Turning then to section 20 of the Act of 1927, and viewing it as it stands alone, it is apparent that the section has a dual aspect necessarily implicit in its words, and has a relation to, and an effect upon, the subject of rural credits and also the subject of hail insurance. The section, standing alone, viewed through the spectacles of the rural credit board, entails a certain consequence upon the failure of a rural credit borrower to pay his interest when due or his failure to pay the taxes assessed against the security. The hail insurance feature is incidental. If, on the other hand, we view .the section through the spectacles of the hail insurance commissioner, we readily perceive that what it does is to^ establish to some degree a classification of hail insurance risks, and creates a certain class of lands to which the state hail insurance law, otherwise generally applicable by the provisions of section 1 of chapter 209, Laws of 1923, shall have 1101 application. The rural credit feature is incidental.

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Related

Matter of Estate of Gab
364 N.W.2d 924 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1985)
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246 N.W. 874 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1933)

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Bluebook (online)
217 N.W. 218, 52 S.D. 229, 1927 S.D. LEXIS 339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cowell-v-lewis-sd-1927.