Appellees, certain citizens and taxpayers of Ware County, filed a . quo warranto proceeding seeking to have appellant Knot Culpepper ousted from his position on the Ware County Board of Education. The trial court granted the relief requested and declared the office vacant. We affirm.
The parties stipulated that at the time of and since his election to the Ware County Board of Education, appellant has been an employee of the Brantley County Board of Education. Code Ann. § *564 32-903.1 declares, inter alia, that no person shall be eligible to serve as a member of one county board of education who is employed by another county board of education. Appellant concedes that under the statute, he is disqualified from holding his office. However, he challenges the constitutionality of the statute.
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It is an established rule in Georgia that all presumptions are in favor of the constitutionality of an act of the legislature.
Kirton v. Biggers,
Appellant argues forcefully that when the legislature enacted Code Ann. § 32-903.1 enumerating those people not eligible to be members of county boards of education, it by implication excluded all categories not listed (expressio unius est exclusio alterius). He argues that any common law rule in existence prior to the enactment was superseded thereby. When the legislature drafted § 32-903.1, it was not required to enumerate categories of ineligible individuals otherwise excluded by law. The statute does not exclude minors but that does not mean minors can be board members. The statute does not exclude insane persons but that does not mean insane persons can be board members. We conclude that the common law rule against serving two masters (or more appropriately here, being one’s own master) is so strong as to survive a statute which seeks to enumerate and eliminate other areas of conflict of interest.
Judgment affirmed.