166 Ga. 749 | Ga. | 1928
Art. 6, sec. 4, par. 5, of the constitution of this State declares that “The superior court shall have power to correct errors in inferior judicatories, by writ of certiorari, which shall only issue on the sanction of the judge.” Civil Code (1910), § 6514. The act approved August 7, 1925 (Acts 1925, p. 463), to amend an act, approved August 16, 1913, establishing the municipal court of Macon, provides: “(a) In all cases in said court wherein the principal sum claimed or the value of the property in controversy does not exceed twenty-five dollars, tried by the judge thereof without a jury, the judgment of said court shall be final and conclusive, and no appeal and no review by writ of certiorari shall be allowed, (b) In all cases in said court, tried by the judge thereof without a jury, in which the principal sum claimed or the value of the property in controversy, exceeds twent3r-five dollars^ and in all cases tried before a jury, upon announcement of judgment by the court, or upon rendition of the verdict of the jury, any party or his counsel may make an oral motion for new trial before judgment is entered in said case. Unless said motion for new trial is made as herein provided, the parties shall be held to have waived their right to move for a new trial, except upon the grounds on which extraordinary motions for new trial may be made. Said motion shall be heard at such time as the court, in its discretion, may set for a hearing, and no brief of the evidence shall be required; provided that the judge of said court shall have power to grant but one new trial in each case, and from the judgment-granting a new trial there shall be no appeal or review, the case standing for retrial de novo, (c) In all cases not enbraced by paragraph (a) of this section, and in which the principal sum claimed, or the value of the property in controversy, does not exceed one hundred dollars, from the judgment of said court making final disposition of said case, an appeal shall lie by writ of
This act purports to limit the jurisdiction of the judges of the superior court in the matter of granting petitions for certiorari to judgments in the municipal court of Macon; and in so far as it attempts any limitation on the jurisdiction of the superior court, it is violative of the above-quoted provision of the constitution and void.
The clause in the amendment to the constitution as proposed by the act of 1912 (Acts 1912, p. 30), relating to abolition of justices’ courts and establishment of other courts in lieu thereof, in the discretion of the General Assembly, which provides that the General Assembly may make “such provisions as to rules and procedure in such courts as to new trials and correction of errors in and by said courts, and with such further provisions for the correction of errors by the superior court, or the Court of Appeals, or
The judge of the superior court did not err in overruling the motion to dismiss the petition for certiorari, which'was predicated on the provisions of the act of 1925 supra. The case of Hutchings v. Roquemore, 164 Ga. 637 (139 S. E. 216), differs from the case at bar; for there the constitutional question was not ruled on by the trial court, and was raised for the first time in the bill of exceptions; whereas in the instant case the question as to the unconstitutionality of the act of 1925 was raised in the court below in the motion to dismiss the petition for certiorari, and was ruled on by the trial court adversely to the plaintiff in error.
Judgment affirmed.