McCall v. Calhoun Circuit Judge

109 N.W. 601, 146 Mich. 319, 1906 Mich. LEXIS 900
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 7, 1906
DocketCalendar No. 21,923
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 109 N.W. 601 (McCall v. Calhoun Circuit Judge) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCall v. Calhoun Circuit Judge, 109 N.W. 601, 146 Mich. 319, 1906 Mich. LEXIS 900 (Mich. 1906).

Opinion

McAlvay, J.

Petitioner, regularly informed against, and arraigned in the circuit court for Calhoun county for the crime of forgery, prays for a writ of prohibition against the circuit judge of said county, restraining and prohibiting him from proceeding to try petitioner in the city of Battle Creek, in said county, according to the terms of an order heretofore duly made and entered by said circuit judge in said court, and also for a writ of mandamus compelling the vacation of said order.

The questions raised in the case challenge the constitutionality of an act of the legislature, being Act No. 272 of the Public Acts of 1905, entitled “An act to designate the places for holding the circuit court in the 37th judicial circuit.” The provisions of said act necessary to be examined in the determination of the case are as follows:

“ Section 1. After the year nineteen hundred five, two of the regular terms of the circuit court for the thirty-seventh judicial circuit, said circuit being made up of Calhoun county, shall be held each year within the city, of Battle Creek, in said county: Provided, That the common council of said city of Battle Creek, or the citi[321]*321zens thereof, shall furnish and provide, free of expense to said county, a suitable place, including light, heat and janitor, for holding said court within said city and transacting the business thereof, and also a suitable and sufficient jail for the .incarceration of prisoners, who may be held therein for trial, during the sittings of said court, and also a fire-proof safe or vault within which to keep the files and records of cases on the calendar for any such terms of court; the place for the holding of said court and the jail, together with the sufficiency of said vault or safe, to be inspected and approved by the judge of said court or the prosecuting attorney of said county, which approval shall be in writing and shall be filed with the clerk of said county.

“ Sec. 2. After the year nineteen hundred five, two of the regular terms of the circuit court for said thirty-seventh judicial circuit shall be held each year within the city of Marshall, the county seat of said county.

“Sec. 3. After the year nineteen hundred five, the terms of court to be held at the city of Battle Creek, under the terms of this act, shall be respectively alternated with the terms of said court to be held at the said city of Marshall, the county seat of said county of Calhoun; and the judge of said circuit court shall, after this act takes effect, when fixing and appointing the times of holding the several terms of said court within said county as provided by law, shall designate which of the regular terms thereof shall be held within the said city of Battle Creek, and which of the regular terms thereof shall be held within the said city of Marshall, which designation shall be in writing and shall be immediately thereafter transmitted by him to the clerk of said county.”

The remaining sections authorize' the court, in its discretion, when expedient and proper, to adjourn court from one of these places to the other for the trial and hearing of cases and other proceedings, and when the court is held in Battle Creek the county clerk is required, under the direction of the circuit judge, to deposit the necessary records and files of the court in. the building designated for that purpose.

The authority of the legislature under the Constitution to enact legislation of this character is not questioned; it being admitted that the case of Whallon v. Ingham [322]*322Circuit Judge, 51 Mich. 503, has determined that proposition affirmatively. The provisions of the act under consideration in that case are in many respects identical with those of the act now before us, and it is conceded that the body of this act is substantially borrowed'from the Ingham county act.

The first objection discussed is that the object of the law is not expressed in its title, as required by section 30, art. 4, of the Constitution. This act is entitled “An act to designate the places for holding court in the 37th judicial circuit.” The Constitution provides that no law shall embrace more than one object, which shall be expressed in its title. We do not discover any force in this objection. There is nothing in the body of the act incongruous with the title. In a leading case in this State it was said by Justice Cooley :

“ The purpose of this provision is accomplished when the law has but one general object, which is fairly indicated by its title.” People v. Mahaney, 13 Mich. 481, 495.

The sole object of the act, as gleaned from its provisions, is to designate the places for holding court in the judicial circuit named. This object the title expresses in apt terms. The details provided for rendering the act effective are not objectionable because confined “to the means supposed to be important to the end indicated.” People v. Mahaney, supra. The act provides that after the year 1905 two of the regular terms of said court shall be held each year within the city of Marshall, the county seat of said county, and two of the terms within the city of Battle Creek. Provision is made how and by whom the place for holding said court in Battle Creek is to be provided and designated, but nothing is said designating the place at Marshall. This is urged as not being within the object of the law as expressed in its title, and further, that it alters and amends section 305, 1 Comp. Laws, which provides that the terms of the several circuit courts in each county shall be held in the court-house therein if there be [323]*323one; such amendment being contrary to the provisions of section 25, art. 4, of the Constitution, relative to amendments of laws. This court in the case of Whallon v. Ingham Circuit Judge, supra, decided that it was within the power of the legislature to designate a place other than the county seat for holding certain terms of the circuit court. This is conceded by the petitioner. No necessity-arose for the legislature to make other designation of the place for holding the terms of court at Marshall than the statement that it was the county seat. In that regard section 305, 1 Comp Laws, which provides that the place of holding the terms of the circuit court in each county shall be the court-house therein, controls and determines. Such would seem to have been the legislative intent. This act, as far as Calhoun county is concerned, modifies section 305 only in so far as it is repugnant to it, and leaves the remainder of the section in force. Connors v. Iron Co., 54 Mich. 171; Musselman v. Wright, 107 Mich. 639.

It is next urged that the legislative power of the State has been delegated by the proviso of section 1 to the common council of Battle Creek or its citizens, upon the theory that the furnishing of a building in the city of Battle Creek by such parties at their own expense is a designation by them of the place for holding court in that circuit, and that the statute was not effective without such action. This act when it left the legislature was complete. Every required legislative step had been taken to make it a law. The places, Marshall and Battle Creek, had been designated as the places for holding court. The law was tó take effect provided the parties mentioned furnished the building in which court was to be held.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
109 N.W. 601, 146 Mich. 319, 1906 Mich. LEXIS 900, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccall-v-calhoun-circuit-judge-mich-1906.