Constitution Pub. Co v. Lyon
| Decision Date | 27 January 1936 |
| Docket Number | No. 24701.,24701. |
| Citation | 52 Ga.App. 434,183 S.E. 653 |
| Parties | CONSTITUTION PUB. CO. v. LYON. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
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Syllabus by Editorial Staff.
Error from Municipal Court of Atlanta; Ralph McClelland, Judge.
Suit by the Constitution Publishing Company against T. J. Lyon. Judgment for defendant, plaintiff's motion for a new trial was overruled, and plaintiff brings error.
Affirmed.
A. M. Hitz and Howell & Post, all of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.
P. C. McDuffie, Madison Richardson, and Watkins, Grant & Watkins, all of Atlanta, for defendant in error.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court.
1. "The following meanings shall be given to the following words in.all statutes, unless a different meaning is apparent from the context: * * * Person includes a corporation." Code of 1933, § 102-103.
2. The Trade-Name Registration Act of 1929 (Ga. L. 1929, p. 233), embodied in the Code of 1933 as sections 106-301 to 106-304, inclusive, provides: "It shall be unlawful for any person, persons, or partnership to carry on, conduct, or transact any business in this State under an assumed, fictitious, or trade name, or under any other designation, name, or style, other than the real name or names of the individual or individuals conducting or transacting such business, unless said person, persons, or partnership shall file, in the office of the clerk of the superior court in each county in which said person, persons, or partnership shall maintain an office or place of business, an affidavit signed by said person or persons, setting forth the full name or names and the address or addresses of the true owner or owners of said business." Section 106-302 requires that "any person, persons, or partnership conducting a business under an assumed, fictitious, or trade name shall file such affidavit before doing any business under such assumed, fictitious, or trade name, " and "whenever there is any change of ownership of" such a business. Section 106-304, declares that "Nothing in this Chapter is to be construed to affect or apply to any corporation duly organized under the laws of this State or any foreign corporation legally doing business in this State under its corporate name."
Under the foregoing rule of construction, the words, "person, persons, " "individual, or individuals, " as used in these sections must be held to include a corporation, since such a meaning is not nullified by the context of the act or the exception therein contained. The manifest legislative purpose being to make it unlawful to conduct any business "under an assumed, fictitious, or trade name, " or in any name other than the real name, the natural and rational construction of the exception relating to corporations is merely that the act does not affect or apply to a corporation, domestic or foreign, when it is "legally doing business in this State under its corporate...
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