The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-01-29
EXTRA SESSION.

The Supreme Court rendered its decis-
ion on last Monday in the case of "The
State of South Carolina er rel the Attor-
ney General Us. johnson Hagood, Comp
trolIer General, mandamus to compel him
to levy tax under the Supply Bill of
the last session of the Legislature. A
majority of the Court held that the error
of I of mill in the first Section of the
Act invalidated the whole Section, and
the Court unanimously concluded that so
much of the second Section as makes
provision for the Charleston military Or
ganization is without the sanction of law.
The Court refused the mandamus. This
makes an extra session Of the Legislature
necessary, which, it is understood, will
be called for the 10th day of February.
Below we publish the judgment of the
Court with the points of dissent by Judge
MCGOWAN:
The State of South Carolina er rel. the
Attorney General us. johnson Hagood,
Comptroller General.
This was an application for a manda-
mus to compel the Comptroller General
to notify each County Auditor in the
State of the rate percentum of the tax
authorized by law to be levied for various
State purposes and to prepare and trans
NIT to each County Auditor the neces-
sary forms and instructions to carry into
effect the provisions of the Act to raise
supplies, &C., approved Oath December,
1879. The return of the Comptroller
General, which is not traversed, and
which must, therefore, be taken to be
true, raises two legal questions: 1st, as
to the validity of the first Section of the
Act fixing the amount to be levied for
general State purposes, and, I'd, as to the
validity of the provision in the second
Section for the military organizations in
the County of Charleston.
A majority of the court having reached
the conclusion that the error in the first
Section is fatal to the validity of that
Section, and the Court having unani-
mously reached the conclusion that SO
much of the second Section as makes
provision for the Charleston military or
CARNATIONS is without the force of law, it
is ordered that the motion for mandamus
be refused.
A. J. WILLARD, @. J.
The points of Judge McGowan's dis
sent were as follows:
If the provisions for the Al mills State
levy and the provisions for the levy of
$4,000 for the Charleston military are
declared null, will the remainder of the
act be law? or will the whole of the Sec
ton containing those provisions be de-
stroyed? The intention of the Legisla-
ture was to levy tax of 4a mills and to
make no levy for the Charleston militia
ry. The act as it passed the House will
express the intention of the Legislature.
An limb may be amputated without
destroying the whole body. One-quarter
of mill in the A mills is bad. If that
quarter of mill had been added by
separate enactment it could be stricken
out and leave the remainder valid. But
the addition was not made by o separate
sentence, but by simply changing the
arithmetical expression "four and-a-
half' to "four and-three-quarters." I
do not understand that four and-three-
quarters is On indivisible unity, but is
only a different manner of expressing
the aggregate of four and-a-half and one
quarter, which were once distinct and
separate, and by being added together
make adifferent form Of sentence. l can
see no insuperable difficulty in declar-
ing four and-a.half mills law and the re-
naming one-fourth of a mill invalid. I
am of opinion that the mandamus should
be issued.