Helena Water Co. v. Helena

216 S.W. 26, 140 Ark. 597, 1919 Ark. LEXIS 174
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 24, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 216 S.W. 26 (Helena Water Co. v. Helena) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Helena Water Co. v. Helena, 216 S.W. 26, 140 Ark. 597, 1919 Ark. LEXIS 174 (Ark. 1919).

Opinions

McCULLOCH, C. J.

This action was instituted by the city of Helena attacking the validity of act No. 571 of the General Assembly of 1919 (regular session), creating the Arkansas Corporation Commission, and defining its duties, and abolishing the Railroad Commission and transferring its powers and duties to said Arkansas Corporation Commission.

There are two points of attack involved in the action: (1) That the statute was not legally enacted by the two houses of the General Assembly, in that the same bill was not voted on by the two houses; and (2) that it is not within the power of the General Assembly to abolish the Railroad Commission or to transfer its powers and duties to another commission.

The bill for the enactment of the statute originated in the Senate as “Bill No. 133” and on second reading seventeen amendments were offered, fifteen of which, according to the journal entries, were adopted, and the bill as thus amended was ordered engrossed. The engrossing committee reported the bill on February 24, 1919, as properly engrossed, but the engrossed bill which we find on file in the office of the Secretary of State does not contain two of the amendments which, according to the recitals of the journal, has been adopted. One of these was an amendment to section 7 of the bill adding a provision, in substance, that the commission was empowered, when deemed proper, to require the filing of an additional bond by a corporation whose schedule of increased ra(es for public' service has been temporarily suspended by the commission. The other amendment was to section 31 of the bill providing that the Railroad Commission should be abolished on January 1, 1921, and perform all the specified duties of the Arkansas Corporation Commission until that date, instead of the original provision of the bill to the effect that the Railroad Commission should be abolished on April 1, 1919, and its powers and duties then transferred to the new commission. The journal of the Senate does not affirmatively show that the Senate at any time receded from either of those two amendments, and it recites the passage of the bill by the Senate February 25, 1919, on yea and nay vote duly recorded. The House journal recites the receipt of the bill on February 25, the reading of it the first and second times February 28, on suspension of the rules, and the third reading and final passage on March 7,1919. Nothing appears on the journal of the House concerning any amendments. The bill as enrolled by the proper committee of the Senate and signed by the presiding officers of the two houses and by the Governor, does not contain those two amendments.

(1) It is settled by an unbroken line of decisions of this court that “where an act was duly signed by the Governor, deposited with the Secretary of State and published as a law, it will be presumed that every requirement was complied with in its passage. Glidewell v. Martin, 51 Ark. 559; Mechanics- Building & Loan Association v. Coffman, 110 Ark; 269; Perry v. State, 139 Ark. 227.

(2) This presumption is not, however, a conclusive one, and the courts, in determining the validity of a statute, may look to the journals and other records of the Legislature to ascertain whether or not the constitutional requirements with respect to the passage of bills have been observed. Chicot County v. Davies, 40 Ark. 200; Webster v. Little Roch, 44 Ark. 536; Rogers v. State, 72 Ark. 565; Butler v. Kavanaugh, 103 Ark. 109; Mechanics Building & Loan Association v. Coffman, supra.

(3) Mere silence of the legislative records concerning the successive steps in the passage of a bill, except as to matters of which the Constitution requires a record on the journals, is not sufficient to overcome the presumption of regularity in the passage of a bill arising from the enrolled copy which has been signed by the Governor and deposited with the Secretary of State. Smithee v. Garth, 33 Ark. 17; Harrington v. White, 131 Ark. 291; Perry v. State, supra.

And evidence outside of the record is not admissible to overcome that presumption. State v. Dorsey County, 28 Ark. 378; State Fair Association v. Hodges, 120 Ark. 131; Greene County v. Clay County, 135 Ark. 301.

The question now under consideration was, we think, definitely settled against the contention of the plaintiff, in the recent case of Perry v. State, supra, where the records of the passage and enrollment of the statute were not materially different from the facts of the instant case. In that case the bill for the statute under consideration originated, as in the present case, in the Senate, and the journal showed an amendement which was duly engrossed by the committee and reported back. The only difference between the facts of the two eases is that in the Perry case the committee engrossed the amendment into a copy of the original bill and the endorsement of the secretary of the Senate showing the final passage of the bill was on the original bill, whereas in the instant case the committee engrossed into the original bill the fifteen amendments now found in the enrolled statute — omitting the two not shown in the enrolled statute — and the endorsement of the secretary showing passage is on the back of the original bill as so engrossed. In discussing the question in that case we said:

“It does not appear affirmatively that the bill, as engrossed, was read a third time and passed. The endorsement appears on the original bill and not on an engrossed bill. After being engrossed, it was within the province and power of the Senate to have ordered the bill placed back on its second reading for amendment and to have receded from the amendment engrossed into the bill, or to have stricken the amendment from the bill, and, should such course have been taken, it would not have been necessary to its validity to have entered these steps concerning the amendment on'the journal. The silence of the record in this regard would not conflict with the presumption that such course was pursued by the Senate. The silence of a legislative journal, on matters not required to be entered on the journal, can not conflict with the presumption of the regularity of the passage of a bill. It is only in matters where the journal does speak, or where it is required to speak, that it could conflict with such presumption. * * * The journals in the instant case only go so far as to show that the amendment was adopted and engrossed in the bill. It does not affirmatively appear that the engrossed bill passed, or that the Senate did not recede from the amendment. Under the rule announced in the cases referred to, the court must indulge the presumption that the Senate did recede from the amendment, and, for that reason, the 'amendment adopted in the Senate did not appear in the enrolled bill.”

(4) So, in adhering to the rule announced in the case just cited, and in applying it to the present case, we must say that the presumption arising from the enrolled statute is not overcome by the recitals of the Senate journal that the two amendments in question were adopted, but on the contrary, we must indulge the presumption that the Senate receded from those amendments before the bill was finally passed.

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Bluebook (online)
216 S.W. 26, 140 Ark. 597, 1919 Ark. LEXIS 174, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/helena-water-co-v-helena-ark-1919.