Watson v. Department of Public Safety

• Decision Date: 17 February 1942
• Docket Number: 29364.
• Parties: WATSON v. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

18 S.E.2d 789

66 Ga.App. 633

WATSON v. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY.

No. 29364.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 2.

February 17, 1942

George W. Westmoreland, of Jefferson, for plaintiff in error.

Linton S. Johnson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendant in error.

SUTTON Judge.

The Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety revoked the driver's license of Newnan Watson, colored, on August 9 1941, for a period of nine months, said revocation being occasioned by two reports from the mayor's court of Jefferson, Georgia, and one from the city court of Jackson County, filed with the Department of Public Safety, that Newnan Watson, colored, had been convicted and sentenced twice in the mayor's court and once in the city court of driving an automobile while under the influence of intoxicating liquors. A hearing was had at Jefferson Georgia, on September 27, 1941, before J. F. Hartsfield who was appointed by the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety to hear and pass on the application of Newnan Watson to have his license reinstated. After hearing and considering the evidence, the hearing officer found that the applicant should not get his license back until the expiration of the revocation of the same. The applicant then entered an appeal to the superior court of Jackson County with the request that the appeal be heard by the judge of the said court. After hearing evidence and the argument of counsel on the appeal the judge of the superior court rendered a judgment that the revocation of the license (of Newnan Watson) to operate a car on the highways of Georgia continue in force for the period as stated by the Department of Public Safety. The exception here is to that judgment.

"The Department of Public Safety" was created and

established by an act of the legislature in 1937, Ga.L. 1937 p. 322, Georgia Code Annotated, § 92A-101. It was provided in that act, as amended by the act of 1939, Ga.L. 1939, pp. 135 142, that "The clerks of the courts of this State shall furnish to the Department of Public Safety a report of each case involving an offense under the provisions of this Chapter on a form to be provided by the Department of Public Safety ***", § 92A-430, Supplement to Code Annotated, and by the act of 1939, Ga.L. 1939, pp. 135, 141, § 92A-434, Supplement to Code Annotated, it was provided that "The Commissioner may in his discretion revoke the license of any operator or chauffeur upon receiving the record of such operator's or chauffeur's conviction of any of the following offenses: *** (2) driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants or drugs." By the act of 1937, supra, § 92A-422, Supplement to Code Annotated, it was provided: "Upon the refusal, suspension, revocation, or cancellation of any learner's, operator's or chauffeur's license for cause, a hearing shall be granted on demand before any agent of the Department of Public Safety authorized by the Commissioner to hear the same, which hearing shall be had in the county of such person's residence, and need not...