City of Atlanta v. Wilson, s. 18060
| Decision Date | 09 February 1953 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 18060,18061,s. 18060 |
| Citation | 209 Ga. 527,74 S.E.2d 455 |
| Parties | CITY OF ATLANTA v. WILSON. WILSON v. CITY OF ATLANTA. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
The 1952 act, Ga.L.1952, p. 29, providing additional procedure for the condemnation of property applicable to all municipalities and/or counties having a population of more than 250,000, offends the Constitution, art. 1, § 1, par. 2; § 4, par. 1; Code Ann. §§ 2-102, 2-401, in that it is discriminatory and lacking in uniformity and is therefore void.
J. C. Savage, J. C. Murphy, J. M. B. Bloodworth, John E. Feagin and Henry L. Bowden, Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.
Albert E. Mayer, Atlanta, for defendant in error.
The petition of Fred B. Wilson against the City of Atlanta, seeking to enjoin the city from condemning his land for public use, alleges that the city was proceeding in a manner prescribed by Georgia Laws 1952, p. 29, and the petition attacked the 1952 act upon numerous constitutional grounds, among which were that the act offended the equal protection clause, Const. art. 1, § 1, par. 2, Code Ann. § 2-102, and the uniformity clause, art. 1, § 4, par. 1, Code Ann. § 2-401. The exception here is to the judgment overruling certain grounds of the demurrer, and the cross-bill of exceptions is to the sustaining of certain grounds of the demurrer.
Section 2 of the 1952 act provides in part as follows: 'The terms and provisions of this Act shall be applicable to all municipalities and/or counties in the State having a population of more than 250,000 according to the last or any future Federal decennial census'. In section 3 it is provided that, 'Whenever the governing authorities of any such municipality or county * * * is authorized * * * to condemn property for any public purpose' it may file a proceeding as provided in Code Ann.Supp. § 36-1104, Ga.L.1914, p. 92; 1937-38 Ex.Sess., pp. 251-253, and request therein that the court follow the procedure outlined in the 1952 act. The foregoing references to the act unmistakably show that the procedure therein provided for is available only to those cities and counties which have the population therein prescribed and that such cities and counties are authorized to employ that procedure wherever and whenever they seek to condemn private property for public purposes, irrespective of whether such property is located within or without the limits of such city or county. It is therefore plain that the 1952 act is simply a legislative attempt to confer upon a limited number of municipalities and counties the benefit of the procedure therein provided while denying that procedure to all other cities and counties with populations of less than 250,000, and the sole basis for such attempted classification is population. Population in no wise affects or relates to such a privilege. We do not have here a case where condemnation by procedures required by the act is restricted to...
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