Dobbins v. State

• Decision Date: 29 September 1966
• Docket Number: No. 42322,No. 2,42322,2
• Citation: Dobbins v. State, 114 Ga.App. 403, 151 S.E.2d 549 (Ga. App. 1966)
• Parties: Jack DOBBINS v. The STATE
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 549

151 S.E.2d 549

114 Ga.App. 403

Jack DOBBINS v. The STATE.

No. 42322.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 2.

Sept. 29, 1966.

Atkins & Atkins, Dorothy D. Atkins, Atlanta, for appellant.

Lawrence B. Custer, Sol. Gen., D. R. McDonald, Marietta, for appellee. Syllabus Opinion by the Court

DEEN, Judge.

By Code § 15-302 the State of Georgia ceded jurisdiction to lands acquired by the United States 'for all purposes except service upon such lands of all civil and criminal process of the courts of this State * * *. The State retains its civil and criminal jurisdiction over persons and citizens in said ceded territory * * * except as to any ceded territory owned by the United States and used by the Department of Defense * * *.' However, Congress, in providing for the acquisition of lands in the various States, stipulated by statute (40 U.S.C. § 255 and 50 U.S.C. § 178) as follows: 'Unless and until the United States has accepted jurisdiction over lands hereafter to be acquired as aforesaid, it shall be conclusively presumed that no such jurisdiction has been accepted,' and that the manner of indicating acceptance of such jurisdiction on behalf of the United States shall be by filing a notice with the Governor of the State in which the land is situated.

No such acceptance of exclusive criminal jurisdiction over the land known as Dobbins Air Force Base in Cobb County has been made by the United States. Following the well considered opinion in People v. Sullivan, 151 Colo. 434, 378 P.2d 633, which involves the identical point, we hold that, construing these two statutes in pari materia, the State statute amounts to an offer to cede criminal jurisdiction to the United States, which, to become effective, must be accepted in the proper manner by the latter entity, and that the...