Court Opinion

ID: 9851525
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:14:28.430893+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:21:19.382796
License: Public Domain

*224On Motion for Rehearing.
In his motion for rehearing, the plaintiff in error contends that this court overlooked certain cases and failed to- apply the rule enunciated therein, to wit: “This court will never pass upon the constitutionality of an act of the General Assembly unless it clearly appears in the record that the point was directly and properly made in the court below and distinctly passed on by the trial judge”; that those cases are controlling as authority and require a different judgment from that rendered. We did not overlook those cases; nor are the judgments in those cases controlling here. The first of the three cases cited, Yarbrough v. Georgia R. & Bkg. Co., 176 Ga. 780 (1) (168 S. E. 873), is not a full-bench decision and would not be controlling. Furthermore, in that case the trial court expressly sustained the general demurrer on the ground that the petition disclosed such negligence on the part of the deceased as to bar a recovery for his homicide.. The case was disposed of by the trial court without reaching the constitutional question; and this court, since no- constitutional question was properly before it, transferred the case to the Court of Appeals. In the next case, Williams v. O’Connor, 208 Ga. 39 (64 S. E. 2d 890), no constitutional attack was made in the pleadings upon the act in question, but such attack was raised for the first time in the brief of counsel for the plaintiff in error. In the other case relied upon (McElroy v. McCord, 213 Ga. 695 (1), 100 S. E. 2d 880), no- constitutional question was raised. In the. opinion, this court merely pointed out that “. . . there may be very serious doubt as to the constitutionality of the act . . . but since such constitutional question was not raised in and ruled upon by the trial court, this court cannot consider it but must treat the act as being valid.” We have reviewed numerous additional cases in which this court has stated the- rule that it will never pass upon the constitutionality of an act unless it clearly appears in the record that the question was properly made in the court below and distinctly passed upon by the trial judge. But in every case-, the record discloses that the question was not properly raised in the trial court. In the early case of Savannah F. & W. R. Co. v. Hardin, 110 Ga. 433, 437 (35 S. E. 681), in which no- constitutional question was raised in the trial court, it was stated: “. . . this court should never pass upon the constitutionality of a legislative act un*225less it clearly appears in the record that the point was directly and properly made in the court below and distinctly passed on by the trial judge.” That statement was repeated in Brown v. State, 114 Ga. 60 (2) (39 S. E. 873), another case in which the constitutionality of the act was not questioned in the court below; and the rule has since been stated again and again in cases in which no constitutional question was raised in the trial court. In this connection, see Laffitte v. Burke, 113 Ga. 1000 (39 S. E. 433); State v. Henderson, 120 Ga. 780, 781 (48 S. E. 334); Griggs v. State, 130 Ga. 16 (60 S. E. 103); Georgia & Fla. Ry. v. Newton, 140 Ga. 463, 466 (79 S. E. 142); Herndon v. State, 179 Ga. 597, 600 (176 S. E. 620); Edwards v. Mayor &c. of Milledgeville, 180 Ga. 725 (180 S. E. 612); Bentley v. Anderson-McGriff Hardware Co., 181 Ga. 813 (184 S. E. 297); West v. Frick Co., 183 Ga. 182 (187 S. E. 868); Singleton v. State, 196 Ga. 136, 140 (26 S. E. 2d 736); Brunswick Peninsular Corp. v. Daugharty, 203 Ga. 454, 456 (47 S. E. 2d 275); Calhoun v. State, 211 Ga. 112, 113 (84 S. E. 2d 198). We find no case, nor has counsel cited any, in conflict with the ruling here made that, where a constitutional question is properly raised in the trial court, and the judgment of the trial court is correct because the act is unconstitutional, this judgment will be affirmed, even though the trial judge in his ruling gave no reason for his judgment and did not expressly state that he found the act unconstitutional. See Fields v. Arnall, 199 Ga. 491, 495 (34 S. E. 2d 692), where this court ruled as follows: “It is the rule of this court that constitutional questions will not be decided when a decision in the case can be reached upon other grounds. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Columbus, 189 Ga. 458, 465 (6 S. E. 2d 320). However, where, as here, the general demurrer was sustained, it will be presumed that all of the grounds were sustained, and the effect of such ruling was to adjudicate in favor of the demurrant the constitutional question.”

Motion for rehearing denied.

All the Justices concur.