State ex rel. Williams v. City of Nashville

• Decision Date: 29 March 1919
• Parties: STATE EX REL. WILLIAMS v. CITY OF NASHVILLE ET AL.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

210 S.W. 649

141 Tenn. 405

STATE EX REL. WILLIAMS v. CITY OF NASHVILLE ET AL.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

March 29, 1919

Appeal from Chancery Court, Davidson County; Jas. B. Newman Chancellor.

Proceedings by the State, on the relation of one Williams, against the City of Nashville and others, to compel the adoption of an ordinance fixing salaries of the members of the fire department. Decree for relator, and defendants appeal. Affirmed and remanded.

A. G Ewing, Jr., and J. Washington Moore, both of Nashville, for appellants.

W. E Norvell, Jr., of Nashville, for appellee.

BACHMAN J.

The constitutionality of chapter 525 of the Private Acts of 1917 is here assailed by a demurrer filed by the city of Nashville and its commissioners to a bill filed against them by the members of the fire department of the city of Nashville on relation, wherein it was sought to compel the city authorities to adopt an ordinance fixing the salaries of the members of the fire department, as provided in the act under consideration.

The caption of the act, as finally passed, is as follows "An act to be entitled 'An act to amend an act entitled "An act to create a municipal corporation to be known as the city of Nashville, and to define its rights, powers, duties and obligations, and to repeal all laws or parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this act," being chapter 22 of the Private Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee for the year 1913 by amending section 17 thereof so as to provide for the payment of certain salaries to the members of the fire department and the police department of said city of Nashville.' "

It appears from the legislative journals that the act is the embodiment of Senate Bill No. 1210, with the exception that in the course of its three passages in the Senate it contained no reference to the police department of the city of Nashville. House Bill No. 1619, identical in caption and body with Senate Bill No. 1210, had passed two readings on April 7, 1917, when Senate Bill No. 1210, having passed its third reading and had been transferred to the House, was substituted for House Bill No. 1619, and amended in the House by adding to the caption the language, "and the police department of the city of Nashville," and also by providing in the body of the bill for a schedule of salaries for the members of the police department, which the city authorities were required to adopt by ordinance. In its amended form Senate Bill No. 1210 was finally passed by the House on April 7, 1917, and on that date was transmitted to the Senate, where the amendments previously made in the House were upon motion concurred in. The bill was duly signed and was approved by the Governor.

From the foregoing summary history of the bill it will be seen that in its original form and as passed on three readings in the Senate and two readings in the House, it contained no reference to the police department of the city of Nashville, and that only after substitution in the House was the caption and body of the bill amended so as to include in the charter changed provisions affecting the salaries of members of that department.

Upon this state of facts the appellants contend that the procedure attending the enactment of the measure is not in accord with sections 17 and 18 of article 2 of the Constitution of the state, and the act is therefore void. These sections of article 2 of the Constitution are as follows:

"Sec. 17. Bills may originate in either house, but may be amended, altered, or rejected by the other. No bill shall become a law which embraces more than one subject, * * * to be expressed in the title. All acts which repeal, revive or amend former laws, shall recite in their caption or otherwise the title or substance of the law repealed, revived or amended.

Sec. 18. Every bill shall be read once on three different days, and be passed each time in the house where it originated, before transmission to the other. No bill shall become a law until it shall have been read and passed, on three different days in each house, and shall have received on its final passage, in each house, the assent of a majority of all the members to which that house shall be entitled under this Constitution; and shall have been signed by the respective speakers in open session--the fact of such signing to be noted on the journal; and shall have received the approval of the Governor, or shall have been otherwise passed under the provisions of this Constitution."

It is to be noted that the act in...