Hodges v. Lawyers Co-Operative Publishing Co.

• Decision Date: 23 February 1914
• Parties: HODGES v. LAWYERS CO-OPERATIVE PUBLISHING COMPANY
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

164 S.W. 294

111 Ark. 571

HODGES v. LAWYERS CO-OPERATIVE PUBLISHING COMPANY

Supreme Court of Arkansas

February 23, 1914

Appeal from Pulaski Circuit Court, Second Division; Guy Fulk, Judge reversed.

Judgment reversed and complaint dismissed.

Robert Martin, for appellant.

The act is violative of section 15, of article 19, of the Constitution, and is void. 40 Ark. 255; 54 Ark. 645-650.

Coleman & Lewis, for appellee.

OPINION

HART J.

The General Assembly of 1913 passed the following act:

"Section 1. That the Secretary of State is hereby authorized and directed to lend to the Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Company, of Rochester (N. Y.), the plates of volumes 1 to 90, inclusive, of the Arkansas Supreme Court Reports. Be it further provided, that before the Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Company is given possession of said plates, it will give a bond to be approved by the Attorney General of the State of Arkansas and the Secretary of State in the sum of five thousand dollars conditioned to the effect that the said Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Company will publish said Arkansas Supreme Court Reports, volumes 1 to 101, inclusive, and volumes 102 to 112, when they have been published, and exhaustively annotate the same, and, when so published, annotated and completed, will sell to the residents of the State of Arkansas said annotated reports at a sum not greater than two dollars and fifty cents per volume. Conditioned, further, that said publishing company will publish as soon as practicable all volumes of the Arkansas Supreme Court Reports now out of print, not to be annotated, and will sell same to residents of the State of Arkansas at a sum not greater than two dollars per volume, and to the State of Arkansas, for State purposes, at a sum not greater than one dollar and fifty cents per volume. All said books herein referred to, to be bound in sheep or buckram. Provided, further, that in case the said Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Company does not fulfill the conditions of its bond, it is, upon demand of the Secretary of the State of Arkansas, to return all the said plates to the State; provided, further, the bondsmen will indemnify the State of Arkansas for the loss or destruction or any damage said plates may sustain while in the possession of the Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Company. Provided, further, that so long as the conditions of said bond are fulfilled, the said Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Company will have the right to sell said reports."

The Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Company instituted mandamus proceedings in the Pulaski Circuit Court to compel the Secretary of State to deliver the plates to it, and stated in its complaint that it had complied with the provisions of the act by giving the bond required of it, and that it was ready and able, in all respects, to perform the other conditions prescribed by the terms of the act. The Secretary of State filed answer to the petition, in which he alleged that the act was in conflict with section 15, article 19, of the Constitution. The plaintiff interposed a demurrer to the answer filed by the Secretary of State, which was by the circuit court sustained, and the petition of plaintiff for a mandamus against the Secretary of State was granted. From the judgment rendered, the Secretary of State has duly prosecuted an appeal to this court.

The only issue raised by the appeal is whether or not the act of the General...