149 Ga. 577 | Ga. | 1919
Section 5315 of the Code of 1895 reads as follows: “In all counties of this State of twenty thousand inhabitants and upwards, either party litigant in any court of record in any .such county may, without any order or commission, take the depositions of any witness or witnesses in said case, whether resident in the county or not, upon giving the opposite party five days notice of the time and place, with the names of the witnesses.” In the act of December 20, 1898, that section is amended by adding thereto, after the word “witnesses,” in the seventh line of the section, the words: “Provided further, that the commissioner before whom evidence under this section is to be taken shall have power, on notice being given to the opposite party or his attorney, or on subpoena duces tecum being served, five days previous to the hearing, to require any witness or party to produce at the hearing books, writings, and other documents in his possession, power, custody, or control. That any witness or party refusing to produce, appear, or answer, without legal excuse, shall be guilty of contempt; and upon certification of said act by the commissioner to the judge in whose court the case is pending, the judge shall punish the same as though committed before him.” Construing the word “witness,” employed in the act, as -including parties, the amending act is clearly not open to the objection that it refers to more than one subject-matter, or that it contains matter different from what is expressed in the caption. If it had been held that the' party to a suit or action could not be embraced in the word “witness” in this act, a different question would have arisen. But when the word “witness” is construed as indicated above, the amending act is entirely free from objection on the ground that it offends either of the clauses of the constit-tion referred to; for all that is in the amending act is germane to the single legislative purpose of accomplishing a complete taking of testimony by depositions before a commissioner duly appointed.
Inasmuch as what we have said above affirms the judgment of the court below, it is unnecessary to pass upon the question as to whether or not one of the parties defendant should be stricken, as
Judgment affirmed.