Rogers v. Citizens Bank

101 S.E. 674, 149 Ga. 568, 1919 Ga. LEXIS 323
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedDecember 9, 1919
DocketNo. 1371
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 101 S.E. 674 (Rogers v. Citizens Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rogers v. Citizens Bank, 101 S.E. 674, 149 Ga. 568, 1919 Ga. LEXIS 323 (Ga. 1919).

Opinion

George, J.

In Februaryj 1919, J. J. Rogers filed a petition for mandamus against the Citizens Bank of Douglas, the depository for the County of Coffee, to require the bank as such depository to pay to the petitioner his salary as judge of the city court of Coffee county. To the petition a demurrer was filed, and it was agreed, by counsel for both parties that the judge of the superior court should determine the demurrer in vacation. Upon consideration the demurrer was sustained and the petition dismissed. The petitioner excepted.

The petition alleged that “by due and legal action of the grand jury of Coffee county,” on February 14, 1918, and at and during the February term, 1918, of the superior court of said county, the city court of Coffee county was established “under the ¡rrovisions of the laws of Georgia contained in sections 4831 (a) to 4831 (nn) of Park’s Annotated Code of 1914;”-that the salary of the judge thereof was fixed at $1200 per annum, to be paid monthly in installments out of the treasury of the county; that the petitioner was, by the Governor , of the State, appointed judge of said court, and received his commission as such in due form on March 21, 1918; that he inñnediately qualified by taking the oath of office, and “entered upon the discharge of the duties of said office, and petitioner has since continued and still continues to hold said office and discharge the duties thereof;” that his appointment as judge of said court was confirmed by the Senate at the regular session of the General Assembly held in the year 1918; that on December 23, 1892, and on February 14, 1918, on which latter date the recommendation of the grand jury was received, published, and ordered admitted to record by the judge of the superior court of Coffee county, said county had a population in excess of 10,000, and that no city court of any description was in existence in said county on either December 23, 1892 or February 14, 1918; that the General Assembly, by an act approved August 2, 1916, abolished the office of treasurer of Coffee county, and, by an act approved August' 19, 1916, created the Citizens Bank of Douglas tire county depository in and for Coffee* County, for the purpose of receiving and disbursing all county funds as theretofore received and disbursed by the county treasurer; that since the passage of the act last referred to all the public funds of the County of Coffee have been and aro now in the custody and control of said depository; that taxes were [571]*571levied in the year 1918 by the duly constituted authorities of Coffee County for the payment of the court expenses of said county; that the funds arising from such levy are now held by the said depository and are available under the law for the payment- of the petitioner’s salary as judge aforesaid; that the petitioner has made demand upon the depository for the payment of his salary as such judge, and said depository has declined to pay his salary as such judge, or any part thereof; and that there is now due the petitioner as salary from the date of his qualification as such judge to December 1, 1918, the sum of $836.66.

The demurrer questions the authority of the grand jury of Coffee county to establish a city court fox said county by a recommendation of its body, upon several grounds. The General Assembly, by an act approved October 19, 1891, provided “that upon the recommendation of the grand jury of any county of this State, having a population of fifteen thousand or more, where the same does not now exist, there shall be, and the same is, hereby established a city court for said county.” The second section of the act provided that the grand jury, shall fix the salary of the judge'of the court. Acts 1890-91, p. 96. By an act approved December 23, 1892, the foregoing act was amended by striking the words “fifteen thousand” and inserting in lieu thereof the words “ten thousand,” so that city courts - “may be hereafter established in counties having a population of ten thousand or more, whenever the grand juries of such counties may so recommend as provided by said act.” Acts 1892, p. 107. The act of 1891, as amended by the act of 1892, supra, was codified in the Code of 1895. Civil Code of 1895, §§ 4270-4309; Penal Code of 1895, §§ 777-790. The act was omitted from the Code of 1910, but is contained in Park’s Annotated Code of Georgia (1914). ' Park’s Annotated Code has not been adopted by the legislature, but by resolution of the House of Representatives ' and the Senate its publication was approved and its use commended to the courts, the officers of the State, and the public. Georgia Laws 1914, p. 1242.

1. It is insisted that the act of 1891 as amended by the act of 1892, supra, was repealed by its omission from the Code of 1910, and that the act adopting the Code of 1910, and especially the repealing clause thereof, operated to repeal all laws relative to grand:jury city courts. It is further contended that the codi[572]*572fier purposely omitted the act in question from the code, because certain portions thereof had been declared unconstitutional. This court in Stewart v. State, 98 Ga. 202 (25 S. E. 424), and Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Jackson, 98 Ga. 207 (25 S. E. 264), held that the provisions of the act of 1891 which authorized the judge of a court created under that act to grant new trials, and which provided that writs of error should lie directly to the Supreme Court, were unconstitutional. These decisions left the act of 1891 otherwise intact, and expressly'ruled that certiorari would lie from a court created under the act to the superior court. It is a well-established principle that unless the main purpose of the statute is affected by the unconstitutionality of a particular provision, the whole act is not thereby defeated. Carswell v. Wright, 133 Ga. 716 (66 S. E. 905); Pearson v. Bass, 132 Ga. 117 (63 S. E. 798); Sister Felicitas v. Hartridge, 148 Ga. 832 (2), 837 (98 S. E. 538). The provisions of the act in question which were held to be invalid may be eliminated without destroying the entire act, since such invalid provisions áre not so essentially connected with the primary principle and purpose of the law as to render their elimination destructive of the whole. The fact that this court held certain provisions of the act unconstitutional, which provisions, as we have seen, may be segregated and eliminated without destroying the main purpose of the act, does not authorize the assumption that the codifier of the Code of 1910 considered the act repealed, or that the General Assembly in adopting the Code of 1910, from which tire act of 1891 was omitted, intended to repeal the same. The mere omission from tire Code of 1910 of the act in question can not by any fair process of reasoning be said to manifest an intention of the legislature in adopting that code to repeal the act. The sound rule upon the point here discussed is announced in Georgia Railroad &c. Co. v. Wright, 124 Ga. 596, 608 (53 S. E. 251): “While every constitutional provision in the code became law by virtue of the adopting act, nevertheless a valid statute omitted from the code, either purposely or by oversight, is still the law, unless expressly or by necessary implication repealed by some provision of the code or a subsequent statute.” The act of 1891 is not repealed expressly or by necessary implication by any provision of the Code of 1910, or by any subsequent legislative act. It is therefore still in force. If we were to indulge in [573]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Owens v. Floyd County
95 S.E.2d 389 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1956)
Norris v. Nixon
52 S.E.2d 529 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1949)
County of Bibb v. Winslett
14 S.E.2d 108 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1941)
Orr v. Riley
128 S.E. 669 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1925)
Culberson v. Watkins
119 S.E. 319 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1923)
Bennett v. Wheatley
154 Ga. 591 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1922)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
101 S.E. 674, 149 Ga. 568, 1919 Ga. LEXIS 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rogers-v-citizens-bank-ga-1919.