Case Title: Busch Jewelry Company v. City of Bessemer

Citation: 98 So. 2d 50

Docket Number: 

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1957-10-31T00:00:00Z

Document:
98 So. 2d 50 (1957)
BUSCH JEWELRY COMPANY
v.
CITY OF BESSEMER et al.
6 Div. 940.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
October 31, 1957.
J. Asa Rountree, III., Meade Whitaker and Cabaniss & Johnston, Birmingham, for appellant.
Lee Bains, Bessemer, and Richard A. Billups, Jr., Jackson, Miss., for appellees.
COLEMAN, Justice.
Appellant filed its bill for declaratory judgment against the City of Bessemer et al. attacking the validity of Ordinance No. 1112 of the City of Bessemer, adopted February 9, 1954.
We are unable to find from the record that "the attorney-general of the state" has been "served with a copy of the proceeding." In fact, the record does not in anywise refer to the Attorney General of this State.
§ 166 of Title 7, 1940 Code, provides as follows:
Paragraph 8 of the Amended Bill contains the following recital:
Thus it appears in the instant case that the ordinance "is alleged to be unconstitutional."
Under the holding of this court in Wheeler v. Bullington, 264 Ala. 264, 87 So. 2d 27, 29, the allegations of the bill in the case at bar require service of "a copy of the proceeding" on the Attorney General. The record does not show that this service has been made.
In Wheeler v. Bullington, supra, with reference to this requirement of the statute, this court said:
Under that holding we cannot avoid the conclusion that the court below never acquired jurisdiction to authorize the rendition of the decree appealed from and that said decree is void.
The absence of jurisdiction is apparent on the face of the record. This court has held:
Because the decree in the court below is void on the face of the record, this court is without jurisdiction to entertain this appeal.
Appeal dismissed.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and SIMPSON and GOODWYN, JJ., concur.