Court Opinion

ID: 9689906
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:49:25.424621+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:50:41.747063
License: Public Domain

COLEMAN, Justice
(dissenting):
The majority opinion recognizes that certain parts of Act No. 1170 are local laws' which are invalid because Section 106 of the Constitution of 1901 has not been complied with. I understand that the invalid parts of the act are those parts which undertake to remove certain counties from the population class into which those counties would otherwise fall with respect to salary of the sheriff and allowances for-feeding prisoners. I agree that those parts of the act are invalid.
*434The majority find that the invalid parts of the act may be disregarded and the remainder of the act may be allowed to stand. I do not concur in this finding.
It appears that the invalid parts of the act applied to eleven counties and excepted them from the general operation of the act when it was passed in 1969. It further appears that the invalid parts of the act excepted sixteen counties from the general operation of the act under the 1970 census. The rule with respect to striking down invalid parts of a legislative act and allowing the remainder to stand has been expressed by this court as follows:
“. . . . An enactment may be valid in part and invalid in part, and the general rule is that, if the valid and invalid parts are independent of each other, separable, and the valid competent to stand without the invalid, leaving an enactment sensible and capable of being executed, the valid parts will survive and the invalid will be stricken. — Powell v. State, 69 Ala. 10; Doe ex dem. Davis v. Minge, 56 Ala. 121; State v. Davis, 130 Ala. 148, 30 So. 344, 89 Am.St.Rep. 23; 36 Cyc. pp. 976-978. It is also to be said, in the nature of limitation of the rule stated, that the whole statute will be stricken if the valid and invalid parts are so connected and interdependent in sub j ect-matter, meaning, and purpose that it cannot be presumed that the Legislature would have passed the one without the other, or where the striking of the invalid would cause results not contemplated or intended by the lawmakers, or where that invalid is the consideration or inducement of the whole act, or where the valid parts are ineffective and unenforceable in themselves, according to the legislative intent. — Author, supra.” State ex rel. Crumpton v. Montgomery, et al. Excise Commissioners, 177 Ala. 212, 240-241, 59 So. 294, 302-303.
“We recognize the force of the argument that the separability clause should be given effect, where possible, to save the Act. But the principle is well understood that a clause of this character may not be invoked to save the Act when in contravention of the obvious legislative intent. State ex rel. Crumpton v. Montgomery, 177 Ala. 212, 59 So. 294; State ex rel. Lister v. Hawkins, 229 Ala. 144, 155 So. 692; Wilkinson v. Stiles, 200 Ala. 279, 76 So. 45; Williams v. Standard Oil Co., 278 U.S. 235, 49 S.Ct. 115, 73 L.Ed. 287, 60 A.L.R. 596.....” Alabama State Federation of Labor v. McAdory, 246 Ala. 1, 25, 18 So.2d 810, 830.
“. . . . The rule also is, however, that if by striking out a void restrictive clause, the remainder of an act, by reason of its generality, will have a broader scope as to subject or territory, its operation is not in accord with the legislative intent and the whole act would be affected and made void by the invalidity of such part; and, if a clause which violates the Constitution cannot be rejected without causing the act to enact what the legislature never intended the whole statute must fall. (Citation Omitted)” Alabama Public Service Commission v. AAA Motor Lines, Inc., 272 Ala. 362, 372, 131 So.2d 172, 180.
See also many authorities cited in Alabama Digest, Statutes, Key No. 64(1).
Being of opinion that it cannot be presumed that the Legislature intended to pass the valid part of the act without the invalid exceptions which apply to approximately one-fourth of the counties in the state, I respectfully dissent.
HEFLIN, C. J., and MERRILL, J., concur.