Lears v. Seaboard Air-Line Railway

60 S.E. 343, 3 Ga. App. 614, 1908 Ga. App. LEXIS 392
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 14, 1908
Docket690
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 60 S.E. 343 (Lears v. Seaboard Air-Line Railway) 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
Lears v. Seaboard Air-Line Railway, 60 S.E. 343, 3 Ga. App. 614, 1908 Ga. App. LEXIS 392 (Ga. Ct. App. 1908).

Opinion

Russell, J.

In June, 1906, Lears sued out an attachment in a justice’s court in Atlanta against Causey, a non-resident, and had the same levied by serving summons of garnishment on the Seaboard Air-Line Railway. In July the garnishee answered that it was indebted to the defendant for wages earned, due, and payable in the State of North Carolina. At the hearing which took place in November, 1906, the grounds of the attachment, and also'the facts set forth in the answer of the garnishee, were admitted to be true. The garnishee relied on the act of the legislature approved August 20, 1906 (Acts 1906, p. 120), by which the act of 1904 [616]*616(Acts 1904, p. 100) was amended so as to read as follows: “Be-it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, that from and after the passage of this act, when any suit is brought by attachment in this State against a non-resident of the State, and the attachnjent is levied b}' service of summons- of garnishment, the situs of any debt due by the garnishee to the defendant shall be at the residence of the garnishee in this State, and any sum due to the defendant in attachment shall be subject to said attachment; provided, that the writ of attachment shall not be used to subject in this State wages of persons who.reside out of the State, and which have been earned wholly without the State of Georgiá.” The amendment made by this act was the addition of the words contained in the proviso. The justice of the peace decided that the amendment of 1906 was not applicable to cases which were pending at the time of its passage, and entered judgment against the garnishee. The garnishee sued out certiorari. The bill of exceptions to this court complains of the judgment of the superior court sustaining the certiorari.

The controlling question before this court is whether or not the legislature intended the amendment of 190C to apply to eases pending at the time of its passage and approval, but which at that time had not been reduced to judgment. A correct answer to this question necessitates a consideration of the state of the law at the time the amendment was passed, and the mischief which it was intended to prevent or remove. “For this purpose the court should put itself in the place, at the time of its enactment,- of the legislature which passed it, investigating the then existing state of the common or statutory law on the subject, contemporaneous circumstances, and the external or historical facts which led to its enactment, and make such application of the provisions of the statute as will best promote the object of the legislation.” 26 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2d cd.), 632; Erwin v. Moore, 15 Ga. 361; Western & Atlantic R. Co. v. State of Georgia (W. & A. Railroad Commission, 1891), 14 L. R. A. 446 (6); United States v. Union Pac. Ry. Co., 91 U. S. 71 (2 L. ed. 224); People v. Columbia County, 134 N. Y. 13 (31 N. E. 322). What, then, was the condition of our law at the time of the passage of the amending act of 1906, and what was the mischief which it was intended to prevent or remove? Our Supreme Court had, by repeated de[617]*617eisions, established the rule that the situs of a debt for the purposes of garnishment was at the domicile of the creditor, and that such debt could not be attached in this State. Central Ry. Co. v. Brinson, 109 Ga. 354 (34 S. E. 597, 77 Am. St. R. 382). Eor the purpose of changing this rule, the General Assembly passed the act which was approved August 13, 1904 (Acts 1904, p. 100), the effect of which was to change the rule which had previously existed. Harvey v. Thompson, 128 Ga. 147 (2), (57 S. E. 104, 9 L. R. A. (N. S.) 765). The remedy given by this statute denies to non-resident wage-earners the exemptions which are accorded to our own citizens. For example, the “monthly wages of a locomotive engineer” who is domiciled in Georgia are exempt from the process of garnishment Smith v. Walker, 119 Ga. 615 (46 S. E. 831); but if the locomotive engineer happens to be a nonresident, engaged exclusively in work beyond the borders of Georgia and residing in a sister State with his family, his creditors in that State can come into our courts and subject his wages to the payment of any debt. Harvey v. Thompson, supra. In other words, this statute creates a remedy which can be used by nonresidents for the collection of debts contracted, due, and payable in other States, and owing to them by citizens of such States, when no such remedy is afforded by their domestic law. Harris v. Balk, 198 U. S. 215 (25 Sup. Ct. 625, 49 L. ed. 1023). For instance, wages which are exempt from garnishment in Florida where they are earned, due, and payable, are not exempt in a suit in our courts by a Florida creditor against a Florida debtor. Harvey v. Thompson, 2 Ga. App. 569 (59 S. E. 11). While such a law is undoubtedly constitutional (Harris v. Balk, supra), it is, when applied to non-resident laborers, a harsh exercise of legislative power, and, if left unrestricted, would have the effect of making the courts of this State a forum for the collection of debts owing by non-residents to non-residents where the lex loci did not afford a remedy. Rood on Garnishment, §104 et seq. Such were the conditions when the amendment of 1906 was passed. Can it be doubted that the purpose of the legislature in enacting this amendment was to prevent and remove the particular evil, or possibility of evil, above pointed out in the original statute? It was no doubt felt by the legislature that the law of 1904 was too broad and too harsh as to non-resident laborers, and that it would be [618]*618more in accord with, comitj'- and justice to protect the wages of such laborers from the grasping hand of creditors.' It has been said that the object of 'exemption laws is to guard against the “readiness of men to make contracts which may deprive them and their families of articles indispensable to their comfort, . . and to promote the comfort of their families and protect them against the improvidence of. their head.” Per Denio, J., in Kneetle v. Newcomb, 22 N. Y. 249, 253 (78 Am. Dec. 186), cited in Traders Investment Co. v. Macon Ry. & Light Co., 3 Ga. App. 125 (59 S. E. 454, 457). The act of 1904 failed to recognize that the families of laborers in our sister States need protection, and failed to provide for them any exemption whatsoever; the amendment, of 1906 is purely remedial, and was passed by our legislature for the purpose of according to non-resident' laborers protection under our law, in line with the protection which is accorded to our own laborers. Two years’ experience under the original law convinced the legislature that it was defective, and the amendment was passed' for the purpose of curing the imperfection.

This being so, the question recurs as to whether the legislature intended that the amendment should apply to pending suits which had not reached final judgment. It is a general principle of statutory construction that remedial legislation will be so construed as to include, if possible, all cases within the mischief intended to be remedied (2 Lewis’s Sutherland on Statutory Construction (2d ed.), §519); and where it can be done without violence to the legislative intention, such statutes are held applicable to pending proceedings. Sidway v. Larsen, 58 Ark. 117 (23 S. W. 648); Windsor v. DesMoines, 110 Iowa, 175 (81 N. W. 476, 80 Am. St. Rep. 280); Surtees v.

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Bluebook (online)
60 S.E. 343, 3 Ga. App. 614, 1908 Ga. App. LEXIS 392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lears-v-seaboard-air-line-railway-gactapp-1908.