103 Ga. 69 | Ga. | 1897
On December 20,1893, the.General Assembly passed “ an act for the protection of union labels, trade-marks .and form of advertisement, and providing penalties for counterfeiting the same.” Acts 1893, 'p. 134. The provisions of ■sections 1, 2 and 5 of this statute, in so far as they render certain acts indictable, are incorporated almost' literally in sec-lions 252, 253/ánd 254 of the present Penal Code. It is certain that, in codifying these sections of the act, no material change in their terms was made. In other words, the language em
We have, after careful deliberation, reached a contrary con
Since, under the constitution, the title of the act operated to restrict the General Assembly to providing in the body of the act for the protection of union labels, trade-marks and forms of advertisement, it is not to be presumed that the General Assembly intended to do more; for there is no good reason for ascribing to the legislature a deliberate purpose to violate the
Unless these views are sound, it is difficult to find an answer to the following question: Why, in the title or in the body of the act, make any reference whatever to a particular kind of. association or union, if the purpose was to protect not only associations of this character, but all other persons, corporate and incorporate? We think it far safer, in arriving at the true intention of the General Assembly, to restrict the meaning of the words “any person” and “such person” in the manner above stated, than to throw away and discard as utterly useless and without signification the word “union” in the title, and the words “association or union of workingmen” in the body of the act, these being, in our opinion, the most vital and pregnant words occurring in it -from its beginning to its end.
'Judgment reversed.