Title: Day v. MORGAN COUNTY COM'N
Citation: 487 So. 2d 856
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: April 4, 1986

487 So. 2d 856 (1986)
Bobby DAY
v.
MORGAN COUNTY COMMISSION, et al.
85-139.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
Decision Announced March 31, 1986.
Opinion Released April 4, 1986.
*857 Bingham D. Edwards, Decatur, for appellant.
Julian Harris and Norman W. Harris, of Harris, Shinn, Phillips &amp; Perry, Decatur, for appellees.
BEATTY, Justice.
This is an appeal by Bobby Day, Probate Judge of Morgan County, from summary judgment entered against him in his suit for a writ of mandamus directed to the respondent members of the Morgan County Commission. We affirm.
Petitioner sought a writ to compel the respondents to pay him $19,662.96, plus interest, contending that he was owed this amount in fees under the authority of Code of 1975, § 17-4-138. That section is the codification of Act 79-465, Acts of Alabama 1979, and is a general act of statewide application.
In the trial court, and here, the respondents have denied any liability to petitioner, and have cited as authority Act No. 43-70, Acts of Alabama 1943. The cause was submitted to the trial court upon the pleadings, a stipulation of facts, and briefs. The trial court, upon consideration, denied the writ.
Factually, the case involves the preparation of alphabetical poll lists prepared from data generated by Morgan County computer facilities, which data are also used by the probate judge's office for non-election matters. Judge Day prepared the poll lists himself, and these were delivered to the county election inspectors. Afterwards, Judge Day submitted his claim for the above amount to the County Commission, which refused to honor the claim.
As was framed below, the issue was whether Act No. 43-70, the 1943 local act governing the compensation of the probate judge of Morgan County, was impliedly repealed by Act No. 79-465, a general act.
Act No. 43-70, in pertinent part, reads as follows:
Acts of Alabama 1943, Act No. 70, May 28, 1943, pp. 34-36. Section 1 of this Act has been amended from time to time to increase the annual salary of the Morgan County probate judge. In 1982, Act No. 82-471 increased his annual salary, beginning at the next term, to $27,500 and further provided:
The 1979 act amended Code of 1975, § 17-4-25, by adding the words: "The judge of probate shall receive or." Amended § 17-4-25 has been renumbered and is presently § 17-4-138, which reads:
Whether the enactment of a general law repeals a preexisting local law is, of course, dependent upon ascertaining the legislature's intent from the language used. Champion v. McLean, 266 Ala. 103, 95 So. 2d 82 (1957). Certain principles applied in earlier cases, e.g. Connor v. State, 275 Ala. 230, 153 So. 2d 787 (1963), and expressed in Sutherland, Statutes and Statutory Construction (Sands 4th ed. 1985) § 23.15 at 245, have been helpful in resolving such an issue:
To the same effect is this Court's observation on repeals by implication contained in Connor, supra, 275 Ala. at 234, 153 So. 2d  at 791-92, quoting from 50 Am.Jur. Statutes, § 564:
Applying these principles to the present issue, we cannot find that the 1979 act repealed by implication the 1943 Morgan County local act. We take note that the only change made in § 17-4-25 by the 1979 act was to allow the applicable fee to be paid to a probate judge or to a clerical employee of the judge. Under § 17-4-25, such employees were to be paid at the rate of $.05 per name. When the 1979 act was passed, there was a system for compensating such employees under § 17-4-25, and there was also a system for Morgan County provided by local act. That latter system required such employees to prepare lists of qualified electors "required by law to be prepared by said judge of probate" and the salary of those employees was in lieu of all other fees, etc. In this situation, we can discern no legislative intent to impose a uniform system statewide by passage *860 of the 1979 general act. The language of that act was apparently intended to compensate those probate judges willing to perform the work of listing the electors, hence the disjunctive language "judge of probate ... or such assistants." Both statutes may stand together, are reconcilable, and do not conflict.
We find nothing in Opinion of the Justices No. 285, 407 So. 2d 122 (Ala.1981), requiring a contrary result. The question propounded therein did not include consideration of a local act such as Act No. 43-70, the 1943 local act, but considered only the effect of the proposed change on the compensation of probate judges who were on a "fee system." Indeed, that opinion contained this qualifying language:
It follows from what we have stated that the 1979 general act did not impliedly repeal the provisions of the 1943 local act which fixed the compensation of the probate judge, nor can we conclude that it repealed the provisions in the 1943 act making it the duty of the clerks in the probate judge's office to prepare the list of electors.
Accordingly, the judgment denying the writ of mandamus must be, and it hereby is, affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
TORBERT, C.J., and MADDOX, FAULKNER and SHORES, JJ., concur.