Smalley v. Bushmiaer

• Decision Date: 19 May 1930
• Docket Number: No. 336.,336.
• Citation: 31 S.W.2d 292,181 Ark. 874
• Parties: SMALLEY, County Judge, v. BUSHMIAER, Sheriff.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

31 S.W.2d 292

181 Ark. 874

SMALLEY, County Judge, v. BUSHMIAER, Sheriff.

No. 336.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

May 19, 1930.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Crawford County; J. O. Kincannon, Judge.

Petition for mandamus by J. C. Smalley, County Judge, against W. A. Bushmiaer, Sheriff. From a judgment dismissing the petition, plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

C. M. Wofford, of Van Buren, for appellant.

Partain & Agee, of Van Buren, for appellee.

HUMPHREYS, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment rendered by the circuit court of Crawford county dismissing a petition for mandamus to compel appellee, the sheriff of said county, to allow the county clerk to inspect his jail record to ascertain the number of prisoners fed by him so that he could audit the accounts of said sheriff in feeding the prisoners. The writ of mandamus was sought to enforce the provisions of Act No. 367 of the Acts of the Legislature of 1929 (page 1486) which is as follows:

"Be It Enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas:

"Section 1. That from and after the passage of this Act, the Sheriff of Crawford County, Arkansas, shall be allowed Seventy-five Cents (75¢) per day for the feeding of each prisoner confined in the Crawford County jail; and provided further, that it shall be the duty of the County Clerk of Crawford County, Arkansas to keep a jail record of the names and number of all prisoners confined in said jail on file in his office, and shall file a certified list of the names and number of said prisoners confined in said jail during the previous month with the County and Probate Judge, said list to be filed on the first day of each month in each year.

"Section 2. All laws and parts of laws in conflict herewith are hereby repealed."

The trial court ruled that the act was void because the enactment thereof was prohibited by Amendment No. 17 to the Constitution of the state of Arkansas, which is as follows:

"The General Assembly shall not pass any local or special act. This amendment shall not prohibit the repeal of any local or special acts."

We think the trial court correctly adjudged that the act in question was in contravention of Amendment No. 17, inhibiting the passage of local or special legislation. In the case of Webb v. Adams, 23 S.W.(2d) 617, 619, this court said: "A law is special in a constitutional sense, when by force of an inherent limitation it arbitrarily separates some person, place, or thing from those upon which, but for such separation, it...