Wright v. Hardwick

• Decision Date: 02 December 1921
• Docket Number: 2822.
• Parties: WRIGHT, COMPTROLLER GENERAL, v. HARDWICK, GOVERNOR.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

109 S.E. 903

152 Ga. 302

WRIGHT, COMPTROLLER GENERAL, v. HARDWICK, GOVERNOR.

No. 2822.

Supreme Court of Georgia

December 2, 1921

Syllabus by the Court.

On August 5, 1921 (Laws 1921, p. 230), an act of the General Assembly of Georgia was approved, entitled, "An act to authorize the Governor, from time to time, to set apart the rental of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, for limited periods, as a special fund, and to authorize the Governor to draw warrants against said special fund, to discount the same, and to place the proceeds in the treasury for the purpose of meeting the obligations of the state then created and incurred by law, and for other purposes." Held:

The act does not contravene any of the following declarations of the Constitution of the state, viz.: (1) That no debt shall be contracted by or on behalf of the state, except as the constitution specifies, Civ. Code 1910, § 6558. (2) That all laws authorizing the borrowing of money by or on behalf of the state shall specify the purpose for which it is to be used, and it shall not be used for any other purpose. Id. § 6559. (3) That the proceeds of the sale of any property owned by the state, whenever the General Assembly may authorize its sale, shall be applied to the payment of the bonded debt of the state, and shall not be used for any other purpose whatever, so long as the state has any existing bonded debt. Id. § 6570.

Held further, that the act is not invalid because as claimed, it is violative of a fiscal policy of the Constitution that the expenses of the state for each year shall be paid from the revenue received by it during that year.

The executive warrant referred to in the petition, and presented to the comptroller general to be countersigned by him, is not void on the alleged ground that the Governor has no lawful authority to draw a warrant against funds of the state when they will not be paid into the treasury, and the warrant will not become payable during his term of office.

The act is a general law within the meaning of article 1, § 4, par 1, Const. (Civ. Code 1910, § 6391), which declares in part: "Laws of a general nature shall have uniform operation throughout the state, and no special law shall be enacted in any case for which provision has been made by an existing general law." Mathis v. Jones, 84 Ga. 804, 11 S.E. 1018; Morrison v. Cook, 146 Ga. 570, 91 S.E. 671. Being a general law, the act is therefore not invalid because of the existence, at the time of its passage, of the act of 1919 (Laws 1919, p. 331, § 109), providing: "That fifty per cent. of all revenues received by the state from all sources of income or taxation shall be used and expended for the support and maintenance of the common schools of Georgia for the year in which said income or taxes are due and payable. This section to go into effect January 1. 1922."

Nor was the act of August 5, 1921 (Laws 1921, p. 230), repealed by the general appropriation act approved August 15, 1921 (Laws 1921, p. 7), making the following appropriation, in section 6(c): "For the support and maintenance of the common or public schools of the state, four million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($4,250,000) for each of the years 1922 and 1923, and should the revenue of the state exceed the sum of eight million five hundred thousand dollars ($8,500,000), then one-half of the excess of each year to be applied to said common or public schools. (Provided, that this appropriation shall be composed of special funds and taxes as provided by the Constitution of this state, and shall be kept and expended under the provisions governing same.)"

It was not error to grant a mandamus absolute, requiring the comptroller general to countersign the executive warrant presented to him.

Error from Superior Court, Fulton County; J. T. Pendleton, Judge.

Mandamus on petition of the Governor, T. W. Hardwick, against W. A. Wright, Comptroller General. Judgment in favor of the petitioner, and defendant brings error. Affirmed.

Hill J., and Beck, P.J., dissenting.

The General Assembly passed an act, approved by the Governor August 5, 1921 (Laws 1921, p. 230), which reads as follows:

"An act to authorize the Governor, from time to time, to set apart the rental of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, for limited periods, as a special fund, and to authorize the Governor to draw warrants against said special fund, to discount the same, and to place the proceeds in the treasury for the purpose of meeting the obligations of the state then created and incurred by law, and for other purposes.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Georgia, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that the Governor of the state is hereby authorized and fully empowered to assign and set aside not exceeding five years of the rental arising from the existing lease of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, as a special fund to be used exclusively for the purpose of paying warrants drawn against the same as hereinafter provided, provided that $100,000 set aside as public school fund be paid out of the general fund.

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, that in order to enable the state to meet its obligations then already created and incurred by law, and where revenue from other sources is, in the opinion of the Governor, not sufficient, the Governor of the state is hereby duly authorized and fully empowered, from time to time, to draw his warrant or warrants against the special fund created by section 1 of this act, so held as a special fund in the treasury, for such sum or sums as may be required to meet appropriations duly made by law, and the Governor is further authorized and empowered to discount said warrants so drawn against said special fund, and to place the proceeds arising therefrom in the treasury for the purpose of meeting and discharging the obligations of the state then created and incurred, as aforesaid, for which appropriations have been made by law. Said warrants shall be duly countersigned by the comptroller general. The holders of said warrants shall further have all the rights and privileges which the original obligees of said then incurred obligations might have had against the state.

Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, that all laws and parts of laws in conflict with this act be, and the same are, hereby repealed."

On September 9, 1921, the Governor, acting under the authority of this act, issued an order assigning and setting aside, as a special fund to be used exclusively for the purposes mentioned in the act, all the rentals arising from the existing lease of the Western & Atlantic Railroad accruing between the date of the order and August 4, 1926, and further ordering that such fund--

"shall, as it shall from time to time be paid into the treasury of this state by the lessees of the Western & Atlantic Railroad in pursuance of the existing lease thereof, be held as a specific fund in the treasury of the state of Georgia for the purpose of paying warrants drawn against the same by the Governor, duly countersigned by the comptroller general, as provided in said act."

On the same date the executive order was issued the Governor, in pursuance of it and of the provisions of the act of the General Assembly, drew his warrant upon the state treasurer, reciting that as Governor he had sold and assigned to the Bank of Tifton of the rentals arising from the lease of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, and to be due and payable to the state of Georgia, under said lease, for the month of August, 1923, the sum of $10,000, and that the Bank of Tifton had paid to the state of Georgia the full purchase price thereof, and therefore ordered and directed the treasurer of the state to pay to the Bank of Tifton, or order, the sum of $10,000 out of the special fund set aside in the treasury of the state by the executive order, in pursuance of the act, the same to be payable out of the rentals to be derived from said lease of the Western & Atlantic Railroad for the month of August, 1923, this warrant to be due and payable on August 1, 1923.

When the warrant, as the law requires, was presented to the comptroller general to be countersigned by him, he declined to countersign it, on the ground that he was advised that the warrant was illegal and void because issued under the authority of an act of the General Assembly which is unconstitutional.

The Governor thereupon filed in the superior court of Fulton county a petition for mandamus against the comptroller general, upon which a rule was issued requiring the comptroller general to countersign such warrant, unless he showed good cause to the contrary. The petition set forth the facts as above stated, and further that--

"Under the existing lease of the Western & Atlantic Railroad the rentals are $540,000 per annum, payable monthly in advance into the treasury of the state by the lessees on the 1st day of each month; and no other assignment of the rental for the month of August, 1923, had been made, except the one stated above as being made to the Bank of Tifton."

To this petition the comptroller general filed a response admitting all the allegations of fact which the petition contained, but setting up various grounds why the warrant is illegal and void and should not be countersigned.

On the hearing of the rule the judge of the superior court overruled the grounds set up in the response of the comptroller general, and entered a judgment making the rule absolute. To this judgment the comptroller general excepted.

Anderson, Rountree & Crenshaw and Clifford L. Anderson, all of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

Geo. M Napier, Atty. Gen., A. G. Powell and Little, Powell, Smith & Goldstein, all of Atlanta, and Seward M. Smith, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendant in...