Sayer v. Brown

46 S.E. 649, 119 Ga. 539, 1904 Ga. LEXIS 270
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 16, 1904
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 46 S.E. 649 (Sayer v. Brown) 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
Sayer v. Brown, 46 S.E. 649, 119 Ga. 539, 1904 Ga. LEXIS 270 (Ga. 1904).

Opinion

Fish, P. J.

In considering this case, we are necessarily confined to. the pleadings and such facts as the allegations on the one side and the admissions on the other establish, as there is not a particle of the evidence which was introduced in the trial court, nor of that which it is alleged was offered and erroneously ruled out, properly before us.

1. An attempt has been made to send.up, as parts of the record, both the evidence introduced and the evidence alleged to have been erroneously rejected. There is nothing to identify any of it as evidence which was introduced or offered upon the trial of the case. The trial judge simply certifies that the bill of exceptions “is true, and contains and specifies all of the evidence and specifies all of the record material to a clear understanding of the errors complained of.” No evidence whatever is contained in the bill of exceptions, and not an affidavit or document sent up as a part of the record is identified by the judge as evidence introduced, or evidence offered, at the hearing. The Civil Code, § 5528, provides : “ If the case is not one in which a judgment on a motion for new trial is to be reviewed, the plaintiff in error . . shall incorporate in the bill of exceptions a brief of so much of the written and oral evidence as is material to a clear understanding of the errors complained of, and shall specify therein such portions of the record as are material to such understanding.” Section 5529 provides: “ If the plaintiff in error shall so elect, he may have such brief of so much of the evidence as is necessary to a clear understanding of the errors complained of, approved by the judge, and made a part of the record and sent up by the clerk as a part thereof, rather than have the same incorporated in the bill of exceptions.” Neither of these methods of having the evidence [541]*541which was introduced upon the hearing of the case sent up to this court was adopted by the plaintiff in error. No brief of the evidence was incorporated in the bill of exceptions, nor was any brief thereof approved by the trial judge and made a part of the record. Instead of pursuing either of these methods, the plaintiff in error simply specifies, as parts of the record necessary to a clear understanding of the case, various affidavits, and the clerk sends up what purport to be copies of such affidavits. As these affidavits were no part of the record originally, and were not made such by the judge in the way provided by law, the clerk could not send them up as such. There is nothing whatever which legally informs this court that they were ever used upon the hearing of the case. Indeed, we may add, the plaintiff in error does not, in his bill of exceptions, allege that they were so used, but contents himself with simply specifying them as parts of the record to be sent up by the clerk. Hancock v. McNatt, 116 Ga. 297, and cit.

2. Affidavits and documents offered in evidence and ruled out by the judge form no part of the record, nor could they form any part of a brief of the evidence, upon which the case was tried. They should have been incorporated in the bill of exceptions. Besides, assignments of error upon the rejection or admission of evidence can not considered when they do not set out the evidence rejected or admitted. As this has been often decided, we simply cite the following cases. Benton v. Baxley, 90 Ga. 297; W. U. Telegraph Co. v. Michelson, 94 Ga. 436. If it was the intention of the plaintiff in error to assign error upon the ruling of the court iu reference to the amendment referred to in the bill of exceptions as having been offered and disallowed, he failed to do so; and even if he had assigned error upon such ruling, the assignment could not have been considered, because the proposed amendment is neither set out in the bill of exceptions nor attached thereto as an exhibit, but is sought to be brought up in the record, of which it formed no part. Sibley v. Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association, 87 Ga. 738; Barnett v. Railway Co., Ib. 767; Moore v. Guyton, 110 Ga. 330.

3. The main contention of the plaintiff in error is, that the persons claiming to be the county commissioners of Douglas county and acting as such are doing so without any authority of law; that the offices which they claim to fill have no legal exist-[542]*542en ce in Douglas county. This contention is based upon the alleged uuconstitutionality of the statute under which they were elected and the statute from which they claim to derive the power and authority which they seek to exercise. The statutes are the act of December 20, 1900 (Acts 1900 p. 168), creating a board of county commissioners for the County of Douglas, and the act of July 30, 1903 (Acts 1903, p. 332), amendatory thereof; the commissioners having been elected under the provisions of the original act, and claiming the powers conferred by the amendatory act. In the petition filed by the plaintiff each of these acts was alleged to be unconstitutional and void, but. in the brief of his counsel, filed in this court, no allusion is made to the alleged unconstitutionality of the original act, the whole argument upon the constitutional question being directed against the amendatory act. We might, therefore, treat the allegation as to the invalidity of the act of 1900 as having been abandoned. It might well have been abandoned, as it was not made in such a way as to present any question for determination by the court. The petition alleged that this act was unconstitutional because of the presence therein of certain provisions, but failed to allege, or indicate, wherein the presence of such provisions renders the statute unconstitutional. A mere general allegation that an act of the legislature is unconstitutional, without calling attention in any way to the particular provisions of the constitution with which it is claimed it conflicts, is too vague and indefinite to invoke a decision of the court upon the validity of the statute. Jones v. Oemler, 110 Ga. 202; Savannah Railway Co. v. Hardin, Ib. 437-8; Laffitte v. Burke, 113 Ga. 1000.

4. One ground, upon which the constitutionality of the act of July 30,1903, is attacked is that “it sets out matter in the body of the bill that is not referred to in the title to the act nor in any way covered thereby.” The title of this act is as follows: “An act to amend an act creating a board of county commissioners for the County of Douglas, defining their duties, etc., approved December 20, 1900, by providing for the monthly meetings of said board of commissioners for the transaction of county business, by reducing the number of said board from five to three, and by more particularly describing the power, jurisdiction, duty, authority of said board of commissioners, and for other purposes.” In support of [543]

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Bluebook (online)
46 S.E. 649, 119 Ga. 539, 1904 Ga. LEXIS 270, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sayer-v-brown-ga-1904.