Case Title: Ellis v. Pope

Citation: 709 So. 2d 1161

Docket Number: 1961789

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1997-11-13T00:00:00Z

Document:
709 So. 2d 1161 (1997)
Jim ELLIS, as circuit clerk of Coffee County; and Frank Gregory, as director of the Administrative Office of Courts
v.
Larry POPE, et al.
1961789.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
November 13, 1997.
Rehearing Denied January 23, 1998.
*1163 Bill Pryor, atty. gen., and Tori L. Adams-Burks, asst. atty. gen., for appellants.
Jeff W. Kelley of Lindsey, Kelley & McClung, Elba; Paul A. Young, Enterprise; and J. Stafford Pittman, Jr., Enterprise, for appellees.
PER CURIAM.
Larry Pope, Billy Ray Farris, and James Keith Johnson, civil and criminal defendants in actions presently pending in Coffee County, filed a declaratory judgment action asking that Act No. 96-454, Acts of Alabama 1996, be declared unconstitutional. That Act concerns the manner in which juries are selected in Coffee County, which has two judicial divisions: the Elba Division and the Enterprise Division. Jim Ellis, the circuit clerk of Coffee County, and Frank Gregory, the administrative director of courts, appeal from the trial court's judgment declaring Act No. 96-454 unconstitutional.
Thus, Act No. 96-454 requires that a Coffee County jury be drawn from the entire county's population, rather than from the population of that division of Coffee County wherein the trial is being held, i.e., the Elba Division or the Enterprise Division.
The trial court held that Act 96-454 violated Art. I, § 6, and Art. IV, § 105, of the Alabama Constitution. Art. I, § 6, provides, in part:
Art IV, § 105, provides:
The general act with which the trial court found Act 96-454 to conflict, § 12-16-44, Ala. Code 1975, requires that a jury venire be drawn from the division where the action is tried, rather than from the county at large. Section 12-16-44 provides:
On appeal, Ellis and Gregory argue that the trial court erred in declaring Act No. 96-454 unconstitutional; they also argue that the declaratory judgment action was an improper vehicle for deciding this issue. We hold that the declaratory judgment action was a proper method for testing the constitutionality of Act No. 96-454. See Ala.Code 1975, § 6-6-223; Tillman v. Sibbles, 292 Ala. 355, 294 So. 2d 436 (1974). Regarding the constitutionality of Act No. 96-454, we refer to the well-reasoned and thorough order of the trial court, a portion of which we quote below and adopt as this Court's opinion on the issues regarding Act No. 96-454:
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
SHORES, KENNEDY, and BUTTS, JJ., concur.
ALMON, COOK, and SEE, JJ., concur in the result.
HOOPER, C.J., and MADDOX J., dissent.
SEE, Justice, concurring in the result.
Act No. 96-454, Acts of Alabama 1996, requires courts in Coffee County to draw *1168 jury venires from the county at large, even though Coffee County is divided into two territorial divisions. Although I concur with the result reached by the majority, I write separately to clarify my view of the only provision of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 that Act No. 96-454 violates.[3]
Article IV, § 105, of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 provides:
(Emphasis added.) This Court has held that § 105 prohibits the enactment of a local law that deals with a subject subsumed by a general statute. Peddycoart v. City of Birmingham, 354 So. 2d 808 (Ala.1978).
Section 12-16-44, Ala.Code 1975, a general statute, provides in pertinent part:
(Emphasis added.)[4] Thus, under § 12-16-44, a court sitting in a territorial subdivision of a county must draw its jurors from that territorial subdivision and not from the county at large. Coffee County is divided into two territorial subdivisions: the Elba Division and the Enterprise Division. Under § 12-16-44, the Coffee County Circuit Court, when sitting in the Elba Division, may draw jurors only from the territorial jurisdiction of that division and not from the county at large.
*1169 The Legislature also enacted Act No. 96-454, a local law,[5] which provides in pertinent part:
(Emphasis added.) Clearly, local Act No. 96-454 deals directly with the same subject as the general statute § 12-16-44, that is, the designation of the geographic area within a county from which jury venires are to be drawn.[6] I agree, therefore, with the main opinion that local Act No. 96-454 deals with a subject subsumed by § 12-16-44, and thus violates the prohibition of § 105 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 against certain local laws.[7]
I cannot agree with Justice Maddox's argument that the Legislature's enactment of Act No. 594, Acts of Alabama 1978, had the effect of repealing the general act, § 12-16-44, thereby avoiding a conflict between it and local Act No. 96-454. Although § 12 of Act No. 594 provides that inconsistent laws are repealed,[8] such repeals by inconsistency, that is, by implication, are not favored. Fletcher v. Tuscaloosa Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n, 294 Ala. 173, 177, 314 So. 2d 51, 54-55 (1975). The courts allow repeal by implication only when two statutes are in such conflict that the Legislature must have intended the latter to repeal the former. See id. (stating that implied repeals are not favored and will be allowed only when a conflict between a prior act and a subsequent act shows a clear intention to repeal the prior act). For example, in Vaughn v. State, 370 So. 2d 339 (Ala. Crim.App.1979), the Court of Criminal Appeals held that Act No. 594, Acts of Alabama 1978, which sets forth various jury service requirements other than age, did not impliedly repeal § 12-16-150(8), which provides that persons under the age of 19 or over the age of 65 may be challenged for cause.
Similarly, in this case Act No. 594, Acts of Alabama 1978, sets forth various requirements for juries other than drawing venires from territorial subdivisions. This creates no irreconcilable conflict with § 12-16-44, which provides that jury venires in counties with territorial subdivisions are to be drawn solely from those subdivisions. Section 12-16-57, which was added to the Code of Alabama 1975 by Act No. 594, provides that "[t]he *1170 jury commission for each county shall compile and maintain an alphabetical master list of all persons in the county who may be called for jury duty." (Emphasis added.)[9] Section 12-16-44 provides that "[w]henever a court ... is ... held in a territorial subdivision of the county, the jury commission shall... keep a separate roll ... for ... jurors residing in that territory." Section 12-16-44 merely requires that in those counties with courts that sit in territorial subdivisions, the jury commissions must keep separate territorial subdivision lists of jurors in addition to the county-wide master lists required by § 12-16-57. Section 12-16-57 does not mandate that jurors living in one territorial subdivision must be allowed to serve in another territorial subdivision in contradiction to § 12-16-44. Thus, there is no irreconcilable conflict between § 12-16-44 and the subsequently enacted § 12-16-57 such that the latter impliedly repeals the former.
An examination of those sections specifically repealed by Act No. 594, Acts of Alabama 1978, reinforces the conclusion that no irreconcilable conflict exists between a requirement for a county-wide list of jurors and the requirement that jury venires be drawn from territorial subdivisions. Section 11 of Act No. 594 expressly repealed, among others,[10] § 12-16-42, which provided in pertinent part:
(Emphasis added.) Like current § 12-16-57, prior law§ 12-16-42required the jury commission to keep a roll of all the qualified jurors in the county. Yet this Court never held that the requirement of § 12-16-42 for a county-wide list of jurors created an irreconcilable conflict with the requirement of § 12-16-44 that jury venires be drawn from territorial subdivisions in those counties with such subdivisions. The current law, § 12-16-57, creates no more conflict with § 12-16-44 than did the prior law, § 12-16-42, and we are bound to construe those provisions so as to avoid conflict. See Ex parte Jackson, 625 So. 2d 425, 428 (Ala.1992) (stating that sections of the Code originally constituting single act must be read in pari materia in order to produce a harmonious whole); League of Women Voters v. Renfro, 292 Ala. 128, 131, 290 So. 2d 167, 169 (1974) (stating that sections of the Code dealing with the same subject matter are in pari materia and, as a general rule, such statutes should be resolved in favor of each other to form one harmonious plan and give uniformity to the law). Accordingly, § 12-16-57 did not repeal § 12-16-44 by implication.
Section 12-16-44 is a general statute that specifically requires courts in counties with *1171 territorial subdivisions to draw their jury venires from those subdivisions. Section 12-16-44 remains a valid law. Because local Act No. 96-454 deals with the subject subsumed by § 12-16-44, it violates § 105 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 and must be declared invalid.[11]
HOOPER, Chief Justice, dissenting.
This is to be a "government of laws and not of men." Ala. Const. of 1901, § 43. The plain wording of the Alabama Constitution and of Act No. 96-454 indicates there is no conflict between the two. I join Justice Maddox's dissent, but add specifically that Act No. 96-454 does not violate Article I, § 6, of the Alabama Constitution of 1901. This provision reads in pertinent part:
Ala. Const.1901, art. I, § 6 (emphasis added). Under the main opinion, Coffee County jurors must reside in both the county and the district where the offense occurred.
This reading violates the plain language of § 6. The drafters of our Constitution inserted a disjunctive into the provision, making it clear that the jury pool need only be drawn from the appropriate county or district. The reading adopted by the main opinion has the effect of rewriting our Constitution by adding the conjunctive "and." Section 6 was not drafted to read "county and district," but reads "county or district." Clearly, a juror may be drawn from either political subdivision.
Moreover, I would note that the trial court's construction effectively paralyzes counties that, like Coffee County, might decide a divisional pool is no longer feasible. It appears that a county using a countywide pool may draw its jurors from anywhere in the county, but once a county is split into divisions, the jury pool must forevermore be drawn from the individual divisions or else the drawing will violate the Constitution. Apparently, under this new version of § 6, the decision to divide a county into divisions has become irrevocable.
MADDOX, Justice, dissenting.
In a special concurring opinion in General Motors Corp. v. Hopper, 681 So. 2d 1373 (Ala. 1996), I stated unequivocally that I believed that the practice of selecting jurors from only a division of a court within a county is contrary to the policy and intent the people of Alabama expressed when they ratified the Judicial Article to the Alabama Constitution and is contrary to the legislative intent expressed in Act No. 594, Ala. Acts 1978 (the 1978 Jury Selection Act), codified at Ala. Code 1975, §§ 12-16-55 through 12-16-64, which is patterned after the Uniform Juror Selection and Service Act.
In my special concurrence in Hopper, I stated that I was of the opinion that the public policy of this State relating to jury service contemplated a uniform system in each county throughout the State. This public policy is evidenced by § 12-16-57, which specifically provides that the jury commission for each county "shall compile and maintain an alphabetical master list of all persons in the county who may be called for jury duty, with their addresses and any other necessary identifying information." I also explained that any local acts of the Legislature providing for the selection and service of jurors other than one consistent with the general policy of selecting jurors on a county-wide basis would not be uniform.
The policy of Act No. 594 was stated in § 1 of that Act; it now appears in the Code as § 12-16-55, which reads as follows:
(Emphasis added.) On several occasions, this Court has addressed the purpose of Act No. 594. Although most of what this Court has written has been written in criminal cases, the policy is equally applicable to civil cases. In Beck v. State, 396 So. 2d 645 (Ala. 1980), this Court discussed the policy of that Act, as follows:
396 So. 2d  at 653-54 (emphasis added).
In other cases, this Court, in addressing this latest expression of legislative policy regarding jury selection and service as it was expressed in Act No. 594, has stated:
Ex parte Branch, 526 So. 2d 609, 618-19 (Ala. 1987).
The main opinion, in affirming the decision of the trial court, substantially adopts the reasoning used by the trial court in holding that Act No. 96-454 is unconstitutional. I believe the opinion errs because Act No. 96-454 is not only consistent with the public policy of this State as expressed in Act No. 594, Ala. Acts 1978, but is also consistent with federal constitutional requirements of due process.
In summary, I am of the opinion that when the Legislature passed Act No. 594, it intended to adopt a uniform policy for juror selection and service, to be applied in every county of this state. I realize that § 12-16-44 contains language referring to a "territorial subdivision" and that that language seems to conflict with the provisions of Ala.Code 1975, § 12-16-55, and I am aware that § 12-16-44 was not specifically repealed by Act No. 594. However, I believe, in view of the many references to "county" in Act No. 594, that the provisions of Act No. 59, Acts of Alabama 1939 (now appearing as Ala.Code 1975, § 12-16-44), were repealed by the general repealer clause. Act No. 594 substantially adopted the provisions of the Uniform Juror Selection and Service Act, and the whole intent of the Judicial Article and the acts the Legislature adopted pursuant thereto was to provide uniformity of procedure. To hold that an act of the Legislature that attempts to foster uniformity violates the State Constitution seems incongruous.
HOOPER, C.J., concurs.
[1]  The appellants and the appellees agree that the trial court's reference to Act No. 183, Acts of Alabama 1909, was an apparent miscitation, and that the trial court must have intended to cite Act 227, Acts of Alabama 1909, which concerns the selection of jurors from territorial subdivisions to which the trial court refers. Act No. 227, Acts of Alabama 1909, was examined and discussed at the trial of this action.
[2]  We note that the trial court also held Act No. 96-454 to violate the 6th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution. Because the judgment was adequately and properly grounded on the Alabama Constitution of 1901, we need not consider the holding regarding the 6th and 14th Amendments.
[3]  I agree with Chief Justice Hooper that Act No. 96-454 does not violate § 6 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901.
[4]  Section 12-16-44 provides in its entirety:

"Whenever a court requiring grand and petit juries or petit juries is established for and held in a territorial subdivision of the county, the jury commission shall make and keep a separate roll and make a separate box for that court and territorial subdivision, on which roll and in which box only the names of jurors residing in that territory shall be placed, which box shall be kept by the clerk of said court and the key thereof by the judge of said court, and all jurors for that court shall be drawn by the judge of said court as provided in this article from the separate jury box provided under this section and shall be summoned as provided by law for summoning jurors otherwise drawn. The names of jurors whose names are required to be placed on the roll and in the box provided for in this section shall not be placed on any other roll nor in any other box nor shall any such person be authorized or required to serve as a juror in any court outside of said territorial subdivision.
"If there is more than one court requiring grand and petit juries or petit juries established for and held in such territorial subdivision of the county, all of such courts shall procure their juries from the box provided for in this section.
"This section is intended to apply to any division of a court that is held in such territorial subdivision, including the probate court. It is not the object or effect of this section to repeal or affect any local law."
(Emphasis added.) The reference to "a court ... established for" a territorial subdivision could arguably be read to apply only to a court, or a division of a court for which a separate judge is elected, that is legally established for a geographic portion of a county (consider the Bessemer Division of the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Act No. 213, Acts of Alabama 1919). However, the subsequent statement that "[t]his section is intended to apply to any division of a court that is held in such territorial subdivision" makes it clear that the Legislature intended also to require that jury venires in those counties where a single court sits in territorial subdivisions (e.g., the Elba Division of the Circuit Court of Coffee County, Act No. 569, Acts of Alabama 1907) be drawn from the territorial subdivision in which the court is sitting.
[5]  As the trial court held, Act No. 96-454 is a local act because it deals solely and specifically with Coffee County. Peddycoart v. City of Birmingham, 354 So. 2d 808, 813-14 (Ala.1978).
[6]  Ala.Code 1975, § 12-16-44, also provides: "It is not the object or effect of this section to repeal or affect any local law." The defendants argue that this language means that § 12-16-44 does not exclusively occupy the field of jury selection, and thus does not subsume the subject dealt with by local Act No. 96-454. Section 105 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 expresses a policy favoring general statutes over local laws. Unless the Legislature plainly states that it intends general and local laws dealing with the same subject to coexist, § 105 sets aside the local law in favor of the general law. The use of the term "repeal" in the language quoted from § 12-16-44 indicates that the phrase was intended to operate only on local laws in existence at the time the language was adopted in 1919. See Act No. 387, Acts of Alabama 1919. Because the Legislature did not precede the verb "affect" with any language indicating an intention to allow the future adoption of local laws on the same subject, the quoted language does not overcome the constitutional presumption favoring general laws. See generally Ross Jewelers v. State, 260 Ala. 682, 687, 72 So. 2d 402, 405 (1953). Cf. Baldwin County v. Jenkins, 494 So. 2d 584 (Ala. 1986) (respecting the nonexclusivity of a general statute only after the Legislature amended that statute to add the words "[u]nless otherwise provided by local law" for the express purpose of eliminating the § 105 issue with local laws dealing with the same subject as the general statute). Consequently, local Act No. 96-454 addresses a subject exclusively dealt with by § 12-16-44, a general statute, and is therefore invalid.
[7]  Moreover, the defendants fail to establish satisfactorily that local Act No. 96-454 serves any particular local needs in Coffee County not addressed by § 12-16-44. See Miller v. Marshall County Bd. of Educ., 652 So. 2d 759, 761 (Ala. 1995) (stating that special local needs may save a local act from invalidity under § 105 if those needs are not served by a general statute dealing with the same subject).
[8]  Section 12 of Act No. 594 provides: "All laws and parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this act are to the extent of such conflict hereby repealed." Because a direct inconsistency will in any event effect a repeal, "[a]n express general repealing clause to the effect that all inconsistent enactments are repealed, should legally be a nullity." 1A Sutherland Stat. Constr. § 23.08, p. 334 (5th ed.1993).
[9]  Ala.Code 1975, § 12-16-57, provides in its entirety:

"(a) The jury commission for each county shall compile and maintain an alphabetical master list of all persons in the county who may be called for jury duty, with their addresses and any other necessary identifying information. This list may include all registered voters, persons holding drivers' licenses and registering motor vehicles, and may include other lists, such as lists of utility customers and persons listing property for ad valorem taxation, which will include persons whose listing will foster the policy and protect the rights provided in Sections 12-16-55 and 12-16-56. The list shall avoid duplication of names. The list shall be reviewed and corrected and new names added from time to time, but at least once every four years.
"(b) Whoever has custody, possession or control of any lists used in compiling the master list shall make the list available to the jury commission for inspection, reproduction and copying at all reasonable times.
"(c) The master list shall be open to the public for inspection at all reasonable times."
[10]  Section 11 of Act No. 594, Acts of Alabama 1978, provides: "Sections 12-16-2 [persons exempted from jury duty], 12-16-4 [excusing unfit persons from jury service], 12-16-5 [excusing of exempt or disqualified persons from jury service], 12-16-39 [clerk of the jury commission duties], 12-16-41 [duty of jury commission to prepare jury roll], 12-16-42 [preparation, maintenance, etc., of jury roll, cards and box], and 12-16-43 [qualifications of persons to be placed on jury roll] of the Code of Alabama 1975 are hereby expressly repealed." I note that the Legislature had the opportunity to expressly repeal § 12-16-44 in Act No. 594, but chose not to do so. See 1A Sutherland Stat. Constr. § 23.11, p. 362 (5th ed. 1993) ("[T]he existence of a specific repealer is considered to be some evidence that further repeals by implication are not intended by the legislature.").
[11]  Of course, under current precedent, if the Legislature wished to allow local laws requiring county-at-large jury venires in counties with territorial subdivisions, it could simply amend § 12-16-44 to include the words "unless otherwise provided by local law." See Baldwin County v. Jenkins, 494 So. 2d 584 (Ala.1986) (holding that the Legislature's amendment of a general statute dealing with the term of office for county commissioners to add the words "[u]nless provided by local law" allowed a subsequently enacted local law dealing with the same subject to survive a challenge under § 105).