54 So. 522 | Ala. | 1911
The defendant was convicted of failing to do road duty under a local statute for Pike county. Section 9 of this act is as follows: “That the general laws now in force in Alabama with reference to the mode of warning hands to work on the public roads, the length of notice to be given, and the kind of tools and implements to be brought by the hands, and as to defaulters in road working, and the prosecution and punishment of the same, shall apply in all cases in this county and under this law, except as herein otherwise provided.” Section 10 provides “that if any person warned who is liable to road duty fails to attend, or send an acceptable substitute, with the proper tools, agreeable to the notice; or fails faithfully to perform his duty * * shali be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than one nor more than $50.00 for each offense,” etc. The indictment follows the language of section 7737 of the
There seems to have been no foundation whatever for the demurrer which alleged that section 62 of the Constitution of 1901 had not been complied with in the passage of the act. The Journals of the House and Senate (H. J. pp. 1771, 1855; S. J. pp. 1171, 1850, 1853) show that in each house the bill was referred to a standing committee, acted upon by the committee in session, and returned therefrom.
Nor was the point well taken that the act is forbidden by subdivision 14 of section 104 of the Constitution.. By the provision referred to, it is commanded that the. Legislature shall not pass a local law fixing the punishment of crime. By the statute in question the failure to work the roads is made a petit misdemeanor. Both crimes and misdemeanors are defined as acts committed, or omitted, in violation of a public law, either forbidding or commanding them under penalty. In common usage, however, small faults and omissions are referred to as misdemeanors, Avhile offenses of deeper dye and more attrocious character are called crimes. That the makers of the Constitution had this common usage in mind when framing subdivision 14 of section 104 is made clear by an inspection of the journal of the convention. This subdivision was reported to the convention in this form,: “Fixing the punishment of crimes or misdemeanors.” On motion the words “or misdemeanors” were stricken, and, as so amended,- the subdivision was adopted.- — Journal Cons. Con. p. 677. The act in question is unaffected by the subdivision.
Mere irregularities in the overseer’s bond could not avail the defendant. The overseer was acting under and by virtue of an appointment by the court of county commissioners as provided in the local road law for
The defendant bad no right to designate those parts of tbe road which should be worked by Mm. That was a matter to be determined by the overseer on bis own responsibility. Defendant’s effort to show by way of
Finding no error in the record, the judgment will be affirmed.
Affirmed.