249 Pa. 144 | Pa. | 1915
Opinion by
This is an appeal from a judgment awarding a writ of
That the auditor general and the state treasurer were under the circumstances properly joined as defendants cannot be seriously questioned. The purpose is to compel the performance of an official duty which requires successive but interdependent action by the two officers. Unless they are joined, the relator will’have no effective writ. The principle which authorizes such joinder is thoroughly justified, and well illustrated in Labette County Commissioners v. United States, 112. U. S. 217,
The reason given by the state treasurer for his refusal in this case to pay a warrant based upon the requisition of the state highway commissioner, was his belief that the 10th section of the Act of July 7, 1913, P. L. 672, is unconstitutional. It is contended on his behalf that this particular section of the act is in violation of sections 3 and 15, of Art. Ill, of the Constitution. The first of these reads as follows: “No bill, except general appropriation bills, shall be passed containing more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title.” Section 15 is in this language: “The general appropriation bill shall embrace nothing but appropriations for the ordinary expenses of the executive, legislative and judicial departments of the Commonwealth, interest on the public debt, and for the public schools; all other appropriations shall be made by separate bills, each embracing but one subject.” Does the act under consideration contain more than one subject, and if but one, is that subject clearly expressed in the title? The general subject of the act is the regulation of motor vehicles, and that subject is clearly expressed in the title. Of the twenty-four sections of the statute, the only one that is questioned as not being sufficiently indicated in the title, is the tenth, and that provides for the disposition of the fund derived from registration fees, and from license fees imposed by the act in question. The suggestion that provisions in the statute for granting licenses, and for disposing of the money received from the grant, are not germane to each other, seems to us to be without force. Having as part of the system of regulating the operation of motor vehicles on the state highways, provided for the imposition of registration and license fees, nothing would follow more naturally than a direction as to what disposition should be made of those fees. In this instance, the legislature directed that
Counsel for, appellants also contend that section ten infringes uponi the constitutional functions of the auditor general and state treasurer. The answer to this is, that while these officers are named in the Constitution, yet their duties are not therein defined. That was left to the legislature. That body did define the duties of these officers, prior to the present Constitution, in the Act of March 30,1811, 5 Sm. L. 228, and it is suggested that in adopting the present Constitution the continuance of
The assignments of error are overruled, and the judgment is affirmed.