26 Wash. 481 | Wash. | 1901
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The sole question presented by this appeal is the constitutionality of the first section of the act of March' 11, 1897, entitled “An act relating to exemptions of personal property.” Session Laws 1897, p. 93. The section is as follows:
“Section 1. There shall be exempt from execution and attachment to every householder in the state of Washington personal property to the amount and value of one thousand dollars ($1,000) in addition to the property exempt under § 486 of vol. 2 of Hill’s Statutes and Codes of the State of Washington: provided, that no property .shall be exempt from execution for clerks’, laborers’, or mechanics’ wages, earned within this state, nor shall any property be exempt from execution issued upon a judgment against an attorney on account of any liability incurred by such attorney to his client on account of any moneys, or other property coming into his hands, from •or belonging to his client.”
It is contended that the act violates, among others, § 37, .art. 2, of the state constitution, which provides that “no act shall ever be revised or amended by mere reference to
“A statute which is complete in itself is not repugnant to the provision of the state constitution above quoted merely because it changes the existing laws of the state, and by implication repeals prior enactments relating to the same subject. Warren v. Crosby (Or.) 34 Pac. 661. .But where, as in this case, the new act is not complete,*484 but refers to a prior statute, which is changed, but not repealed, by the new act, so that the full declaration of the legislative will on the subject can only be ascertained by reading both statutes, the very obscurity and the tendency to confusion will be found which constitute the yice prohibited by this section of the constitution.” In re Buelow, 98 Fed. 86.
The order appealed from is reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings.
Reavis, C. J., and Dunbar and Anders, JJ., concur.