Dallis v. Griffin

• Decision Date: 17 March 1903
• Citation: 43 S.E. 758,117 Ga. 408
• Parties: DALLIS et al. v. GRIFFIN et al.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

43 S.E. 758

117 Ga. 408

DALLIS et al.

v.GRIFFIN et al.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

March 17, 1903.

PUBLIC OFFICE — VESTED RIGHTS — SPECIAL LEGISLATION—AMENDMENT OF STATUTE-INTOXICATING LIQUORS — ESTABLISHMENT OF DISPENSARY.

1. No man has a vested right to an office created by the Legislature. That body may "legislate him out of such office" at its will.

2. The act approved December 18, 1902 (Acts 1902, p. 487), amending the act establishing a dispensary for the city of La Grange, is not violative of that section of the Constitution which prohibits special legislation in cases for which provision has been made by an existing general law.

3. The repealing clause of the amendatory act referred to in the preceding headnote is sufficiently broad to cover that section of the original act which makes municipal or county officers ineligible to serve as dispensary commissioners, though no other mention is made of such section in the amendatory act.

4. An act amending a former act of the Legislature is not unconstitutional, as containing matter different from that expressed in its title, when the title of the amending act sets out the title of the act to be amended, and the enacting portion of the law contains nothing that is not germane as an amendment to the act the title of which is thus recited.

5. The act approved December 3, 1901 (Acts 1901, p. 506), provided for the establishment of a dispensary in the city of La Grange after the ratification of its terms by the people of that city, and for the appointment by the judge of the superior court of the Coweta circuit of commissioners who should have control of the dispensary. The act of 1902, referred to in the second head note, provided, by substitution of language for that used in the original act, that certain municipal and county officers should be ex officio dispensary commissioners. Held, the amending act is not invalid because of its never having been submitted to a vote of the people; a correct interpretation of the same not so requiring.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from Superior Court, Troup County; L. S. Roan, Judge.

Quo warranto by C-H. Griffin and others against V. E. Dallis and others. Judgment for petitioners, and defendants bring error. Affirmed.

F. M. Longley, for plaintiffs in error.

W. G. Park and T. A. Atkinson, Sol. Gen., for defendants in error.

CANDLER, J. By an act approved December 3, 1901, the Georgia Legislature provided for the establishment of a dispensary In the city of La Grange after due ratification by the people of that city of the terms of the act. Acts 1901, p. 506. The act prescribed that the control of the dispensary should be vested in three commissioners, to be appointed for specified terms of office by the judge of the superior court of the Coweta circuit, and that no person holding any office or position of any kind under the charter or ordinances of the city of La Grange, or the county officers of Troup county, should be eligible to be chosen as dispensary commissioner during the time for which he was ap pointed to such office or position. The provisions of the act were adopted by the people at the polls, and the plaintiffs in error were appointed dispensary commissioners in accordance with its terms, and entered upon the discharge of their duties. Before the expiration of the term, of office of any of the dispensary commissioners, the succeeding Legislature enacted a law the title of which is as follows: "An act to amend an act entitled an act to establish a dispensary in the city of Lagrange, and to provide for the sale of vinous, malt and spirituous liquors and other intoxicants, and to establish and perpetuate a board of commissioners for the management of said dispensary, to provide for the regulation and control of same, approved December 3, 1901, and for other purposes." Acts 1902, p. 487. The amending law changes the first section of the original act so as to make it read as follows: "Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Georgia, that when this act shall have been ratified by the qualified voters of the city of La Grange, as hereinafter provided, the chairman of the board of roads and revenues of the county of Troup, the mayor of La Grange, and the ordinary of Troup county shall compose the board of dispensary commissioners for the La Grange dispensary." Section 2 of the amending act provides that its operation shall not go into effect until January 1, 1903, and section 3 repeals conflicting laws. On January 2, 1903, the defendants in error, as the newly constituted board of dispensary commissioners, attempted to take charge of the dispensary, but were prevented from so doing by the plaintiffs in error. They then brought quo warranto proceedings, on the hearing of which the court below rendered judgment in their favor, requiring the original dispensary commissioners to turn over the...