147 Ga. 776 | Ga. | 1918
(After stating the foregoing facts.)
2. It is contended that the act of 1908, amending the charter of the City of College Park, as above stated, is in effect an effort of the legislature to create two corporations in the same act, and that this is violative of par. 8 of sec. 7 of art. 3 of the constitution of Georgia (Civil Code, § 6437), which reads as follows: “No law or ordinance shall pass which refers to more than one subject-matter, or contains matter different from what is expressed in the title thereof.” We think this contention is untenable. The matter of operating a system of public schools is certainly germane and bears a generic relation to the general purpose for which College Park was granted a municipal charter. Board of Education v. Barlow, 49 Ga. 232, 237, where the point is expressly ruled on. It is contended, however, that that case was decided prior to the adoption of the constitution of 1877, and that the constitution of 1868 did not contain the inhibition against the passage of laws containing more than one subject-matter. The vice of this contention is that the act in question does not contain more than one subject-matter. It does contain legislation in regard to different branches of the same subject-matter, all of which are within the legitimate domain of the varied functions necessary for the existence of a municipal corporation. See Welborne v. State, 114 Ga. 793, 817, 818 (40 S. E. 857); Mayor &c. of Americus v. Perry, 114 Ga. 871, 877 (40 S. E. 1004, 57 L. R. A. 230); City of Cartersville v. McGinnis, 142 Ga. 71 (82 S. E. 487, Ann. Cas. 1915D, 1067). Members of a municipal school board or county board of education are public officers. Stanford v. Lynch, 147 Ga. 518 (94 S. E. 1001). These boards, and others that might be named, are quite uniformly held to constitute quasi corporations, public in their nature. McQuillin on Municipal Corporations, 5074; Whitehead v. Detroit, 139 Mich. 490 (102 N. W. 1028); City of Blakely v. Singletary, 138 Ga. 632 (75 S. E. 1054). When such a board is expressly made a body corporate it may sue and be sued. Woodward v. Westmoreland, 124 Ga. 529 (52 S. E. 810, 4 Ann. Gas. 472). In the case of City of Blakely v. Singletary, supra, the board of education was not expressly made a corporate body; but in that.
From what has been said it is our opinion that the trial judge did not err in granting an ad interim injunction, as prayed for in this case; and therefore the judgment is
Affirmed.