Goodwin v. State
| Decision Date | 31 January 1906 |
| Citation | 40 So. 122,145 Ala. 536 |
| Parties | GOODWIN, JUDGE, ET AL. v. STATE EX REL. WAKEFIELD ET AL. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Fayette County; S. H. Sprott, Judge.
"To be officially reported."
Petition for a writ of prohibition by the state, on the relation of P R. Wakefield and another, against Thomas E. Goodwin, judge and another. From an order granting the prayer, defendants appeal. Reversed.
J. J Mayfield, for appellants.
Sherer & Cooner, for appellees.
The petition in the case seems to be filed in a double aspect. It starts off by attacking the right of two of the commissioners to exercise the duties of the office, upon the ground that they have no right to hold the same and are usurpers. The prayer for the writ, which is doubtless based upon the above contention, is that they be restrained from exercising any of the duties or functions pertaining to the court of county commissioners. It would therefore appear that the evident purpose of the first ground of the petition is intended for the sole purpose of testing the right of these two commissioners to hold office, and for which a plain and adequate remedy is given. Code 1896, p. 966, c. 94, § 3420.
"Prohibition is an extraordinary writ, only to be resorted to when its exercise is necessary to give a general superintendence and control of inferior jurisdiction; never to be resorted to except in cases of usurpation and abuse of powers, and not then unless other remedies are ineffectual to meet the exigencies of the case." Ex parte Greene, 29 Ala. 52; High on Ex. Remedies, 763. "The writ can only issue where there is some court or person to whom it may be addressed and against whom it may be enforced, and there must be some pending cause in the court sought to be restrained upon which the writ of prohibition may operate." 23 Am. & Eng. Ency. Law, 197. It is true the petition avers the improper letting of a contract to build a bridge; but the first prayer asks no relief as to that, but simply seeks to prohibit two of the commissioners from a general discharge of official duty in the future.
The second ground of complaint of the petition is that the commissioners illegally contracted to build the bridge at a meeting not authorized by law. Conceding, without so deciding, that this is a judicial act, and, if done at a time not authorized by law, would be void (Ex parte Branch & Co. 63 Ala. 383), the...
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