Case Name: ADAMS et al. v. FRY et al.
Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Oklahoma
Decision Date: 1951-05-01
Citations: 204 Okla. 407
Docket Number: No. 35014
Parties: ADAMS et al. v. FRY et al.
Judges: ARNOLD, C.J., LUTTRELL, V.C.J., and CORN, GIBSON, HALLEY, and JOHNSON, JJ., concur. WELCH, DAV-ISON, and O’NEAL, JJ., dissent.
Reporter: Oklahoma Reports
Volume: 204
Pages: 407–415

Head Matter:
ADAMS et al. v. FRY et al.
No. 35014.
May 1, 1951.
230 P. 2d 915.
Hurst & Hurst and Richard B. Mc-Dermott, Tulsa, for plaintiffs.
Lewis J. Bicking, Co. Atty., Tulsa County, and Hugh Webster, Asst. Co., Atty., Tulsa County, Tulsa, and Lewis Raba, Co. Atty., Pawnee County, Pawnee, for defendants.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
This is an original action to require payment of claims for judicial salary in addition to that paid by the state as provided by chapter 10, 1947 S.L. 592, 74 O. S. Supp. §251b. The plaintiffs are the district judges of the 14th District Court Judicial District composed of Tulsa and Pawnee counties. The foregoing act provides additional payments of salary out of the court funds of said counties. The defendants in the action are the court clerks of the named counties.
Before the passage of the foregoing act provision was made by the Legislature for the payment of additional salaries to district judges in populous areas on classification basis. The original act which became effective January, 1938, provided additional salary payable out of court funds for district judges in all district court judicial districts having a population in excess of 200,000 and a city therein having a population in excess of 100,000. Falling within this classification were the 7th District Court Judicial District (Oklahoma and Canadian counties) and the 14th District Court Judicial District (Tulsa and Pawnee counties). Each of those districts had more than the minimum population and each had a city within its boundaries with a population of more than 100,000, and the district judges of those districts from the effective date of the original act until the effective date of the act under consideration drew the additional salary provided from the court funds of the counties in the district as therein provided. That act was held constitutional and the policy of paying district judges in populous areas additional salary out of the court funds has been well established in this state.
The Legislature, no doubt thinking that a further differentiation should be made in the compensation of district judges in these populous classified areas in 1947, enacted the law under consideration and provided that the district judges of district court judicial districts having a population in excess of 250,000 and a city therein having a population in excess of 200,000, according to the federal census of 1940, or according to any succeeding federal census, should receive $4,000 per an-num from the court funds of the counties of the districts. The 7th District Court Judicial District (Oklahoma and Canadian counties) falls within this classification. It is the only district at the time of the enactment which had a population greater than 250,000 and a city located within the district with a population greater than 200,000. The act further provided that in district court judicial districts having a population in excess of 200,000 "but not in excess of 250,000," and a city therein having a population of 100,000 "but not in excess of 200,000", according to the federal census of 1940, or according to any succeeding federal census, the district judges thereof should receive from the court funds of the counties therein situated $3,000 per annum. By the specific terms of the act its effective date was fixed as January 8, 1951.
The foregoing statements as to the district court judicial districts falling within the foregoing classification are based upon the 1940 federal census. According to the federal census of 1950 the population of the 14th District Court Judicial District has increased and in fact now exceeds 250,000, the minimum prescribed for the upper classification. Though the city of Tulsa, therein situated, has increased in population, it does not exceed 200,000, the minimum prescribed for the upper classification. The district in population has increased to such extent as to be within the upper classification but the population of the largest city therein has not increased to such extent. That judicial district is not within either classification according to the literal wording of the act quoted above because it now has a district population of more than 250,000.
The primary object of statutory construction is to ascertain the legislative intent. In order to ascertain this intent, the statute, and each and every part of it, should be construed as a whole, in the light of the general purpose and object of the act. People v. Illinois Merchants' Trust Co., 328 Ill. 223, 159 N.E. 266, 62 A.L.R. 318. The Legislature fixed certain minimum population requirements as a basis of classification for additional salary payable from the court funds. To be within a classification a judicial district must meet all the minimum population requirements for that classification. It was the intention of the Legislature that a district would remain in such classification so long as it possessed all said minimum population requirements and did not possess all the minimum population requirements of a higher classification. Since additional salary payable from the court fund is payable by reason of classification based upon population, it is absurd to say that the Legislature intended that a greater population in certain respects than the minimum required for a higher classification un-classifies a judicial district. To give full literal import to the language of the quoted expressions would render the classification arbitrary and capricious in that it would unreasonably exclude certain districts within the class as demonstrated by this case. The 14th Judicial District fell fully within the class at the time of the enactment but now, according to a succeeding decennial census, it does not fall within any class though it has a greater population than it had at the time the class was created.
Expressions in a classification provision of a statute which when given their literal import would clearly contrary the plain intention of the Legislature and destroy the classification otherwise reasonable and valid will be rejected as surplusage and disregarded. 50 Am. Jur., Statutes, §231, p. 219; People v. Illinois Merchants' Trust Co., supra; People of the State of Illinois ex rel. Bankers' Company of New York v. William J. Stratton, 335 Ill. 455, 167 N.E. 31, 63 A.L.R. 1046; State v. Bates, 96 Minn. 110, 104 N. W. 709, 113 A.S.R. 612; Kitchen v. Southern Ry., 68 S. C. 554, 48 S. E. 4, 1 Ann. Cas. 747; Trustees', Executors' & Securities Ins. Corp. v. Hooton, 53 Okla. 530, 157 P. 293.
In 1949 the Legislature passed Senate Bill No. 165 (74 O.S. Supp. §250-250.3) which is a general salary act. Therein it is provided that all district judges shall receive from the state an annual salary of $7,200. The act was amended by inserting therein section 4 (74 O.S. Supp. §250.3) which reads:
"The provisions of this Act fixing the annual salaries of District Court Judges at Seven Thousand Two Hundred Dollars ($7,200.00) shall not operate to increase or change the aggregate annual salaries of the District Court Judges fixed by Chapter 10c, Title 74, page 389, Oklahoma Session Laws 1945, and Chapter 10, Title 74, page 592, Oklahoma Session Laws 1947, but the salaries of each of said Judges payable by the State shall be Seven Thousand Two Hundred Dollars ($7,200.00) rather than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) and the salary thereof payable by the counties affected from county court funds shall be One Thousand Eight Hundred Dollars ($1,800.00) and Eight Hundred Dollars ($800.00), respectively, rather than Four Thousand Dollars ($4,000.00) and Three Thousand Dollars ($3,000.00) as provided in said Chapter 10."
No reference is made in the title of the act to the contents of said section 4, and section 4 is the only provision of the act that in any way relates to the subject matter thereof, that is, the amount of additional salary payable from court funds. It is obvious that the foregoing section is not complete within itself. The classification basis of payment of additional salary out of court funds is entirely missing. The source of the additional payments is not mentioned in the section. Certainly there was no intention to repeal chapter 10, nor is there any repeal of any provision thereof by implication. Though it was obviously the intention of the Legislature by the enactment of said provision to reduce the aggregate compensation of district judges of judicial districts falling within the classification of chapter 10 to a lesser amount than they would otherwise receive, the pertinent and necessary basis of additional salary under chapter 10 is omitted in section 4 of Senate Bill No. 165. The inescapable conclusion is that by said section 4 the Legislature was attempting to amend section 1 of chapter 10 to reduce the payment from the court funds to a lesser amount.
The Constitution, article 5, sec. 57, provides:
" . . . and no law shall be revived, amended, or the provisions thereof extended or conferred, by reference to its title only; but so much thereof as is revived, amended, extended, or conferred shall be re-enacted and published at length; ."
To know what district court judicial districts are affected, it is necessary to look at section 1 of the 1947 act; the classification therein prescribed governs the applicability of the 1947 act as well as section 4 of the 1949 act. To know the source of the additional payment it is necessary to look at section 1 of the 1947 act. To know the amount of the reduction of the payment from the court fund, resort must be made to section 4 of the 1949 act. To find all the law on the subject it is necessary to read section 1 of the 1947 act and section 4 of the 1949 act. and correlate them. It was to avoid this result that the foregoing provision was placed in the Constitution.
Where, as in this case, the new act is not complete, but refers to a prior statute, which is changed, but not repealed, by the new act, so that the full declaration of the legislative will on the subject can only be ascertained by reading both statutes, the very obscurity and the tendency to confusion will be found which constitute the vice prohibited by this section of the Constitution. Board of County Commissioners of Tulsa County v. Oklahoma Tax Commission, 202 Okla. 269, 212 P. 2d 462.
Writ granted.
ARNOLD, C.J., LUTTRELL, V.C.J., and CORN, GIBSON, HALLEY, and JOHNSON, JJ., concur. WELCH, DAV-ISON, and O'NEAL, JJ., dissent.