Revenue & Road Commissioners v. State ex rel. Campbell

50 So. 972, 163 Ala. 441
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJuly 1, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 50 So. 972 (Revenue & Road Commissioners v. State ex rel. Campbell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Revenue & Road Commissioners v. State ex rel. Campbell, 50 So. 972, 163 Ala. 441 (Ala. 1909).

Opinion

SIMPSON, J.

This appeal is from a judgment of the circuit court granting a peremptory writ of mandamus requiring the revenue and road commissioners of Mobile county to fix a fair salary for Douglas G. Campbell, who has been by the board of health of said county elected as physician to attend the inmates ■ of the poorhouse and jail of said county.

On the 21st day of December, 1908, the petition of the board of health was presented to said revenue and road commissioners, praying the fixing of said salary. Previous thereto, to wit, on November 16, 1908, said revenue and road commissioners had elected W. G. Ward, as “county physician” of said county, and on said 21st day of December, 1908, said revenue and road commissioners amended their previous minute so as to read as follows: “Dr. W. G. Ward, a physician of this county, is hereby elected to attend the inmates of the county poorhouse and the jail, and to perform such other duties as this board may impose, for the term of two years, a.t a salary of $900 per annum, payable monthly out of the county treasury.” The question at issue is whether or not the law makes it the duty of said revenue and road commissioners to fix the salary of the physician elected by the board of health of said county.

The claim of the appellants, who were the respondents below, is that, under the local act of January 31, 1856 (Acts 1855-56, p. 105), which authorized the es[445]*445tablishment of the poorhouse and authorized said respondent “to adopt and put in force such rules and regulations for the management of said asylum for the poor * * * as to them may seem most conducive to the good government and comfort and health of said pauper inmates of the same,” the duty and responsibility rests upon said respondents to select the physician to attend said inmates, and it is insisted, first, that subdivision “G” of section 703 of the Code of 1907, being a part of the act of August 15,- 1907 (Acts 1907, p. 893, § 3), which was passed after the act adopting the Code, and was only inserted in said Code by the Commissioner, must stand upon the validity of the original act, and that said act was not legally passed, because the printed journal of the Senate shows, not that said act ivas “passed,” but only that it was read a third time “and placed on the calendar.” — Senate Journal 1907, vol. 2, pp. 2611, 2613. It is true that the printed journal so reads; but an examination of the original journal, filed in the office of the Secretary of State, shows that this is an error, and should read that said act was “passed.” — Original Senate Journal 1907, vol. 5, p. 2858: The original journal is the official record and must prevail.

It is insisted, second, that the subject matter of said •subdivision “G” (which corresponds with subdivision “G” of 'section 3 of said act of August 15, 1907) is not expressed in the title of said act, in accordance with section 45 of the Constitution of 1901. The title of said act is: “To amend sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, and 19 of, and to add sections 9J2, T61-4, 17)4, 24, and 25 to, an act entitled ‘An act to amend, reconstruct, and provide for the enforcement ■of the laws relating to public health,’ approved Octo[446]*446ber 9, 1903.” Sections 3 of said act of 1903 gives the state board of health general powers with regard to the enforcement of the laws relating to public health, and gives said board the right to inspect all public schools, hospitals, asylums, jails, poor houses, etc.; and section 4 authorizes the county boards to supervise the administration iof health laws in .theiir respective counties, together with a number of similar powers, including the power and duty, to exercise “special supervision over the sanitary conditions of public schools, hospitals, opera houses, theaters, and asylums, courthouses, jails, workhouses, prisons, markets, public dairies, and slaughter pens or houses,” to elect a health officer, and also to elect a health officer for cities, whose salary shall be fixed by the city. — Acts 1903, p. 500. Section 3 of the act of August 15, 1907, amends section 4, among other things, by incorporating therein subdivision “G.” authorizing said county boards of health “to elect physicians to attend the inmates of the county poorhouse and jail, and to fix the term of office of such physicians * '* '* provided * * * that the court of county commissioners or board of revenue shall fix fair salaries for such physicians,” etc.

It is unnecessary to repeat the numerous decisions of this court as to the objects of that provision of our Constitution, to the effect that much must be left to the discretion of the Legislature in framing the titles of its acts, provided that the same are not deceptive or misleading; that the requirement is not to be so exactingly enforced as to cripple legislation; that the title may be very general, and need not specify every clause of the statute, but the requirement of the Constitution is met if they are all referable and cognate to the subject expressed; and, “when the subject is expressed in gen[447]*447eral terms, everything which is necessary to make a complete enactment in regard to it, or which results as a complement of the thought contained in the general expression, is included in and authorized by it.”—Ballentyne v. Wickersham, 75 Ala. 533; Ex parte James Gayles, 108 Ala. 514, 516, 19 South. 12; Lindsay v. United States Savings & Loan Ass’n, 120 Ala. 156, 176, 24 South. 171, 42 L. R. A. 783; Ex parte Mayor and Aldermen of Birmingham, 116 Ala. 186, 189, 22 South. 454.

We have held that “an act to create a new convict system,” and to provide for its government, etc., could not provide what sentence the courts shall impose in certain cases, beeause that is not a part of the convict system (Brown v. State, 115 Ala. 74, 78, 22 South. 458 et seq.); also that “an act to regulate the fine and forfeiture fund, " * * and to better provide for the payment of claims against the same,” could not contain a provision requiring the county to appropriate out of its general fund a certain sum to the fine and forfeiture fund, because the fine and forfeiture fund is a recognized, distinct, and separate fund, and the title did not give any intimation that the general fund of the county was to be invaded (Sanders v. Court of County Com’rs. 117 Ala. 543, 546, 547, 23 South. 788); and also that “an act to provide for the organization, incorporation, government, and regulation, of cities and towns, and to define” their rights, etc., could not legally include a provision requiring the courts of county commissioners to pay over to the cities one-half the amounts collected on road and bridge taxes on property located within the municipality, because the title of the act related only to the organization, etc., of cities and towns, and said provision related solely to the duties of hoards of [448]*448revenue of the counties.—State v. Miller, 158 Ala. 59, 48 South. 496. The title of the act in question being simply to amend certain sections of a previous act, a reference to said previous act is necessary in order to ascertain what were the subjects treated of therein and whether the section objected to is so foreign to the provisions of that act as to render its inclusion a deception or surprise to the members of the Legislature or to the people.

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Bluebook (online)
50 So. 972, 163 Ala. 441, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/revenue-road-commissioners-v-state-ex-rel-campbell-ala-1909.