Fuller v. Yetter

148 S.E. 751, 40 Ga. App. 58, 1929 Ga. App. LEXIS 16
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJune 17, 1929
Docket19408
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 148 S.E. 751 (Fuller v. Yetter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fuller v. Yetter, 148 S.E. 751, 40 Ga. App. 58, 1929 Ga. App. LEXIS 16 (Ga. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

Bell, J.

Yetter sued Fuller in the municipal court of Macon upon an account for $382.26, and had a verdict for only $150.06. Being dissatisfied, he presented a petition for certiorari, which was sanctioned on October 14, 1927. At the hearing in the superior court on October 26, 1928, the defendant moved to dismiss the certiorari, upon two grounds: (1) Because the notice of the sanction was directed to the defendant in certiorari, “or James C. Estes, his attorney at law,” and was served on the latter; whereas the attorney named was never the attorney of record for the defendant in certiorari, although he was a member of the partnership of Walter DeFore and James C. Estes, who were at all times such counsel of record; (2) the petition was improperly sanctioned and should be dismissed under the act of the General Assembly approved August 7, 1925 (Ga. L. 1925, pp. 463-[59]*59467), and particularly under sections 1 and 3, purporting to deprive the superior court of Bibb county of jurisdiction of such a proceeding, the petition for certiorari containing no attack upon the constitutionality of the act.

The judge of the superior court overruled the motion to dismiss and, after argument upon the merits, sustained the certiorari, on October 36, 1938. Fuller, the defendant in certiorari, then brought the case to this court.

There was no merit in the motion to dismiss the certiorari for alleged defective notice of sanction. Section 5190 of the Civil Code (1910) provides that the plaintiff in certiorari “shall cause written notice to be given to the opposite party in interest, his agent, or attorney.” Service upon one member of a partnership is service upon the firm (Civil Code, § 3167); and since the defendant in certiorari was represented by the partnership, service upon it was service upon him. Render v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co., 33 Ga. App. 716 (2) (127 S. E. 902). The cases of Green v. Willingham, 100 Ga. 224 (28 S. E. 42), and Floyd v. Boyd, 16 Ga. App. 43 (84 S. E. 494), are not in point. In those cases the question was in reference to identity of parties. In the present ease it relates to service, or rather to the manner of perfecting it.

The second ground of the motion to dismiss the certiorari was predicated upon the decision of the Supreme Court in Hutchings v. Roquemore, 164 Ga. 637 (139 S. E. 216), wherein it was held, in effect, that, since the petition for certiorari failed to draw into question the constitutionality of the act of 1935 (Ga. L. 1935, p. 463), the act would be treated as valid, and “prevented the grant of the certiorari sought.” Under the authority of that decision the judge of the superior court should perhaps have refused to sanction the petition for certiorari. But before the motion was made to dismiss it the Supreme Court, to wit, on August 17, 1938, held the act of 1935 to be unconstitutional. See Empire Investment Co. v. Hutchings, 166 Ga. 749 (144 S. E. 209). In view of that adjudication the trial judge was right in treating the act as void, notwithstanding the petition for certiorari had not questioned its validity, and because of that fact the case might have been dismissed or refused consideration at some earlier stage.

In Green v. Hutchinson, 128 Ga. 379 (2) (57 S. E. 353), it was said: “A legislative act of a general nature, and intended to [60]*60have uniform operation throughout the State, duly adjudicated to be unconstitutional and inoperative, can not be given effect in any part or subdivision of the State or of any county. An unconstitutional act of the legislature is not law. It is absolutely void.” In Ray v. City of Lavonia, 141 Ga. 626 (81 S. E. 884), the Supreme Court held that the provision of the act of 1897 (Ga. L. 1897, p. 82, Civil Code of 1910, § 446), having reference to the place of hearing in a proceeding to validate bonds, was unconstitutional in so far as it authorized a hearing outside of the county in which the municipality proposing to issue the bonds was located. In that case there was a due and timely attack upon the constitutionality of the provision in question. In the later case of Murray v. City of Tiflon, 143 Ga. 301 (84 S. E. 967), the question of venue was again urged, but without any attack upon the act relating thereto. However, the court held that, since the decision in the Ray case had adjudicated that the provision purporting to authorize jurisdiction in a county other than that of the municipality was unconstitutional, it was not necessary for the plaintiffs in error in the Murray case to repeat the attack.

In Cooley’s Constitutional Limitations (7th ed.), pp. 259-360, it is said: “When a statute is adjudged to be unconstitutional, it is as if it had never been. Rights can not be built up under it; it constitutes a protection to 119 one who has acted under it, and no one can be punished for having refused obedience to it before the decision was made. And what is true of an act void in toto is true also as to any part-of an act which is found to be unconstitutional, and which, consequently, is to be regarded as having never been, at any time, possessed oE any legal force.” This statement was quoted with implied approval in Zachry v. Mayor &c. of Harlem, 138 Ga. 195 (75 S. E. 4). See also Griffin v. Sisson, 146 Ga. 661 (92 S. E. 278); Lampkin v. Pike, 115 Ga. 827, 829 (42 S. E. 213, 90 Am. St. R. 153); 12 C. J. 800.

Under the circumstances of this case, and in view of the authorities cited, tin’s court will decline to reverse the judgment of the trial judge1, in which be refused to be bound by the act of 1925, after tl 10 Supreme Court had declared it to be unconstitutional and void.

Nor can we say that the court erred in sustaining the certiorari. The suit grew out of a contract for plumbing, and in-[61]*61dueled a claim of $150.06 as the alleged cost price of materials and a charge of $202.19 for labor. The plaintiff contended that after having partially performed the contract he was ordered to quit and was not permitted to finish it. The claim for the cost of the materials was fully supported by the evidence, and, as shown above, the verdict was for the amount of such claim. The real question, therefore, is whether the evidence would have authorized the finding of a further amount for labor; because if the evidence would have warranted a better verdict for the plaintiff, this court will affirm the judgment sustaining the certiorari, it being the first grant of a new trial, and in doing so will make no adjudication as to the merit of any of the special assignments of error in the petition for certiorari. National Union Fire Ins. Co. v. Ozburn, 38 Ga. App. 276 (143 S. E. 623).

The plaintiff in error contends that under the judge’s answer to the certiorari there was no evidence which would have authorized any finding in the plaintiff’s favor for the value of the labor of the plumbers or workmen who were placed upon the job. The petition for certiorari contained the testimony of numerous witnesses, a part of which purported to tell of the quantity of work done and of the number of hours spent by the workmen in doing it; but in the answer to the certiorari the judge said: “The testimony with reference to the time charged was in substance: The general custom in Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
148 S.E. 751, 40 Ga. App. 58, 1929 Ga. App. LEXIS 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fuller-v-yetter-gactapp-1929.