Townsend v. Smith

87 S.E. 1039, 144 Ga. 792, 1916 Ga. LEXIS 128
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMarch 3, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 87 S.E. 1039 (Townsend v. Smith) 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
Townsend v. Smith, 87 S.E. 1039, 144 Ga. 792, 1916 Ga. LEXIS 128 (Ga. 1916).

Opinion

Beck, J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.) The acts of the ordinary are alleged to be void upon the sole ground that the law from which he derives the authority to expend the funds of the county to protect the cattle against infectious diseases is unconstitutional and void. In the brief of counsel the position is taken, that, under the allegations of the petition, whether the act of the' legislature is void because unconstitutional or not, the ordinary is not empowered by that act to expend the public funds of the county for the purpose contemplated, inasmuch as the act itself, so far as it authorizes an appropriation of public funds for expenditure in the employment of means to effect the eradication of cattle-ticks, vests the power to make the appropriation in the county commissioners or board of roads and revenues. But we do not think that this attack upon the authority of the ordinary to act and to exercise powers conferred in the statute upon the county commissioners or board of roads and revenues should be considered now, as it is mentioned for the first time in the brief of counsel for the plaintiff. It is true that in the petition the charge is made that the acts of the ordinary are illegal, but counsel goes further in the petition and in a succeeding paragraph states why the acts are illegal, and the only reason assigned is that the source of the ordinary’s authority to make the appropriation of the funds is the act in question, and that the same is without validity because it violates the constitution of the State of Georgia in that it authorizes the use of money raised by taxation for a purpose not contemplated in that section of the constitution limiting the taxing power of counties. That section reads as follows: “The General Assembly shall not have [794]*794power to delegate to any county the right to levy a tax for any purpose, except for educational purposes; to build and repair the public buildings and bridges; to maintain and support prisoners; to pay jurors and coronors, and for litigation, quarantine, roads, and expenses of courts; to Support paupers, and pay debts heretofore existing; to pay the county police, and to provide for necessary sanitation.” Code, § 6562. We agree with counsel for the plaintiff that the purpose for which the ordinary is proceeding to use the public funds of Lumpkin county does not. fall under any of the purposes for which a county may levy a tax as enumerated in that section, unless it falls under the head of sanitation. Does it fall under that head? There is abundant evidence in the record to authorize the trial court in finding that the prevalence of cattle-ticks in Lumpkin county would cause the cattle to become infested with them; and that when that is the case, the cattle, because of the presence of a parasite of which the cattle-ticks are carriers, would become infected with splenetic, southern or Texas fever. There is also evidence authorizing the finding that a large portion of the cattle of Lumpkin county was at the time affected with the cattle-tick, and that the disease of cattle known as splenetic fever did exist in Lumpkin county. There is evidence also showing that such fever was a disease seriously affecting the cattle attacked by it, often resulting fatally.

Taking these facts into consideration, and the fact that the flesh of cattle and milk of cows are articles of food of general consumption, it would seem that the prevention of an infectious malady which, unless checked, would become general among the cattle of a given county and thereby render the flesh of such cattle and the milk of cows diseased, unwholesome, and unfit for food, was a matter affecting the health of the people of the community where this disease appeared; and, this being true, that measures to eradicate the causes of the disease or to prevent its spreading could have been properly enacted by the legislature as a measure “to provide for necessary sanitation.” No one would doubt for a moment that if the législature were to prohibit the sale of diseased flesh of hogs or cattle, this would be a sanitary measure; and if it were necessary to expend money in carrying out and enforcing such sanitary measures, a tax levy to provide the money would be a tax providing for sanitation. We have several sections of our code other [795]*795than those taken from the act of 1909, relating to sanitary 'regulations, which embrace provisions for the inspection of slaughterhouses, meat and meat-food products, and provide a penalty for the violation of such regulations; clearly showing that the securing of wholesome and untainted meat is regarded as a matter coming under the head of sanitation. It would be giving the term “sanitation” too narrow a construction to hold that it did not embrace the subject dealt with in the statute under consideration. Tbe legislature, at any rate, must have been of the opinion that this measure was embraced within that term as employed in the constitution; and the court will not say that their conclusion was not authorized by the facts which are of common knowledge.

But counsel for plaintiff contends that the words, “to pay the county police, and to provide for necessary sanitation,” which occur at the close of article 7, section 6, paragraph 2, of the constitution (Civil Code of 1910, § 6562), were eliminated from that section by the amendment to the constitution proposed by the act of August 4, 1910 (Acts 1910, p. 45), which was subsequently ratified at a general election; and that therefore counties are without authority to levy a tax for sanitary purposes. The proposal of this amendment to the constitution was made in the form of an act having a title. There is nothing in the title, or in the portion of such act that declares expressly the change to be made, which indicates any intention to go further than to strike from the paragraph which it was sought to amend the words, “in instructing, children in the elementary branches of an English education only.” While a proposal by the legislature of an amendment to the constitution, to be submitted to the people, in various respects does not stand on the same footing as an ordinary act of the legislature, when a proposal of an amendment is in the form of an act having a caption, if there is an ambiguity or doubt as to its purpose in respect to what change is intended, it is legitimate to look to the caption as a means of construction.

There is a statement in the proposal of amendment, that “so that when said paragraph is amended it will read as follows:” and what purports to be a copy of the paragraph as it would read if amended as proposed follows. This omits not only the words proposed to be stricken but also a clause at the end of the paragraph having no connection with taxation for educational purposes. It [796]*796may be noted that the form is that the paragraph as amended “will” read as stated, not “shall” do so, thus taking the form of recital rather than command. This may not be sufficient to control, but it is legitimate for consideration with the other facts showing what was the proposal submitted.

The form of the ballot prescribed does not limit the extent of the amendment. Cooney v. Foote, 142 Ga. 647 (83 S. E. 537).

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

Related

Carter v. Burson
198 S.E.2d 151 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1973)
Pye v. State Highway Department
175 S.E.2d 510 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1970)
McLennan v. Aldredge
159 S.E.2d 682 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1968)
Keenan v. Price
195 P.2d 662 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1948)
Graham v. Jones
3 So. 2d 761 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1941)
Griner v. Board of Commissioners
180 S.E. 118 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1935)
Collier v. Gray
157 So. 40 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1934)
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad v. Long County
147 S.E. 158 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1929)
Floyd County v. Scoggins
139 S.E. 11 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1927)
Smith v. State
129 S.E. 542 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1925)
Heinitsh v. Floyd, Mayor
126 S.E. 336 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1925)
McMillan v. Tucker
113 S.E. 391 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1922)
Bowers v. Hanks
111 S.E. 38 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1922)
Avera v. Clyatt
109 S.E. 655 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1921)
City Council v. Cleveland
98 S.E. 738 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1919)
City Council of Augusta v. Cleveland
98 S.E. 345 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1919)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
87 S.E. 1039, 144 Ga. 792, 1916 Ga. LEXIS 128, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/townsend-v-smith-ga-1916.