151 Ga. 417 | Ga. | 1921
Tbe Counties of Butts, Berrien, Henry, and Haralson filed a petition for tbe writ- of mandamus against tbe State highway board, seeking to compel the board to distribute the State-aid road-fund in accordance with the provisions of section 20 of the act approved August 16, 1919 (Ga. Laws 1919, p. 256), entitled “An aet to amend an aet known as ‘the Georgia motor-vehicle law/ ” etc., hereinafter referred to as the motor-vehicle act. The highway board contended in the- court below, and here contends, that the provisions of section 20 of the motor-vehicle act, with reference to the distribution of the State-aid road-fund, are not binding upon the board, but that the board is controlled, with reference to the distribution of said fund, by section 4 of article 5 of the act approved August 18, 1919 (Ga, Laws 1919, p. 242), entitled “ An act to reorganize and reconstitute the State Highway Department of Georgia/’ etc., hereinafter referred to as the State
The motor-vehicle act and the State highway law were “ passed 55 by the General Assembly on the same date. In terms each act went into effect from and after Its passage. The motor-vehicle act was approved by the Governor on August 16, 1919. The State highway law was approved by the Governor on August 18, 1919. In the case of Floyd County v. Salmon, 151 Ga. 313 (106 S. E. 280), this court said: “ With respect to the time when statutes aré to take effect, the old English rule was that if the act was not directed to operate from any particular time, it took effect from the first day of the session at which it was passed. This legal fiction and this extraordinary application of the doctrine of relation was acted upon by the English courts until the statute of 33 Geo. III, c. 13, which statute declared that laws shall operate from the time of receiving the royal assent. Sedgwick on Construction of Statutes (2d ed.), 65. ‘Under constitutions which, by providing in effect that no bill shall become a law until it shall have received the approval of the chief executive or shall have been passed over his refusal to approve, make the executive a necessary constituent of the lawmaking power, an act becomes a law, not when it is passed by the two houses of the legislature, but when it is approved by the executive, unless it becomes a law by the lapse of time specified for the return of a bill to the legislature or by being passed by the legislature notwithstanding the disapproval of the executive.5 25 R. C. L. 797; cf. art. 5, § 1, par. 16, of the constitution of this State (Civil Code, § 6485); Green v. Hall, 36 Ga. 538; Epstein v. Levenson, 79 Ga. 718 (2), 719 (4 S. E. 328). The general rule followed in the United States is, that, in the absence of constitutional or general statutory provision governing the matter, the statute becomes effective on the day of its passage, that is to say, on the day of its approval by the chief executive, or its passage over his veto, or by his non-action within the time specified in the constitution for the return of the bill to the legislature, unless the time for the going into effect of the statute is fixed by the statute itself.55 It is elementary that ' “ when the provisions of a later statute are opposed to those of an earlier, the last mentioned must be considered as repealed.55 Harrison v. Walker, 1 Ga. 32; Staten v. State, 141 Ga. 82 (80 S. E. 850).
Section 20 of the motor-vehicle act provided that the fees collected under, the act should be turned into the State treasury by the secretary of State, and that the State treasurer should set aside from the fees a sum provided as available for expenses, the act providing further that fifteen per. cent, of the total revenue derived under its provisions might be used to defray expenses. It was then provided: “ The remainder of said funds arising under and by virtue of this act shall be distributed each year by the State Highway Commission among the several counties of this State, according to post-road mileage in each county, and spent by said Highway Commission in the building, repairing, and maintaining public roads in each county until December 31, 1920, at which time said State Highway Commission shall apply said fund to liquidate the bonded indebtedness of said State created to support and build roads therein, and pay the interest on same; but should no such bonded indebtedness be so created, then said State Highway Commission shall continue to distribute said funds among the several counties as .aforesaid, and apply the same as aforesaid,
Judgment affirmed.