Crosson v. Sumner

• Decision Date: 11 May 1906
• Citation: 54 S.E. 181,126 Ga. 291
• Parties: CROSSON. v. SUMNER, Sheriff.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

54 S.E. 181

126 Ga. 291

CROSSON.

v.SUMNER, Sheriff.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

May 11, 1906.

Courts—City Courts—Establishment—Validity of Act.

The act of 1904 (Acts 1904, p. 207), creating the city court of Sylvester, and locating it in the city of Sylvester, in the county of Worth, and providing that the sessions of the court shall be held in the courthouse of Worth county, in the city of Sylvester, is a valid act, locating the court therein created at the county site of Worth county, notwithstanding that the place is described as a city, when at the date of the passage of the act creating the court is was a town.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from City Court of Sylvester; Frank Park, Judge.

Application of S. P. Crosson for writ of habeas corpus to Jet Sumner, sheriff. From an order denying the writ, petitioner brings error. Affirmed.

Crosson was tried and convicted in the city court of Sylvester, established under the act of 1904 (Acts 1904, p. 207). He applied for a writ of habeas corpus, upon the ground that the court had no legal existence, and that therefore his detention was illegal. The judge to whom the application was made issued the writ, and after a hearing refused to discharge the applicant, and remanded him to the custody of the sheriff, to be conveyed to the chain-gang to serve the sentence imposed. The applicant excepted.

J. W. Walters, Jr., and J. J. Forehand, for plaintiff in error.

J. H. Tipton, for defendant in error.

COBB, P. J. (after stating the foregoing facts). By an act approved December 21, 1898, the town of Sylvester, in the county of Worth, was incorporated under the name of the town of Sylvester. Acts 1898, p. 269 By an act approved August 11, 1904, the city court of Sylvester was created. The act provided that the city court of Sylvester should be "located in the city of Sylvester, in the county of Worth, " and that "the sessions of said court shall be held in the courthouse of Worth county, in said city of Sylvester, or at some other place in said city." Acts 1904, pp. 207, 210. At the date of this act there was no such municipality in the county of Worth as the city of Sylvester; the only municipality of that name being the town of Sylvester incorporated under the act of 1898. Subsequently the charter of the town of Syl-vester was repealed, and the city of Sylvester was created. The act creating the city provided that the same should go into effect immediately upon the approval of the act to abolish the charter of the town of Sylvester. The act last mentioned was approved on August 15, 1904. See Acts 1904, pp. 644, 645. The question to be determined is whether the court attempted to be created under the name of the "city court of Sylvester" ever came into a legal existence. The contention is that, as the act located it in a municipality which had no legal existence, there was no place for the court to exist, and hence the legislative purpose to create a court was ineffective.

In White v. State, 121 Ga. 592, 49 S. E. 715, it was held that the city court of Sylvester, created under the act of 1904, was not a constitutional city court, and that therefore no writ of error would lie from that court to the Supreme Court. The General Assembly has authority to establish courts other than those named in the Constitution. Kelley v. Jackson, 67 Ga. 274; Daughtry v. State, 115 Ga. 819, 42 S. E. 248. It was therefore within the power of the General Assembly to establish a court of the character indicated by the act of 1904 purporting to establish...