89 So. 497 | Ala. | 1921
On September 25, 1919 (Local Acts, p. 211), the Legislature passed an act entitled:
"An act to authorize the commissioners' court of Conecuh county, Alabama, to pay out of the general fund of said county to the tax assessor of said county, the sum of six hundred dollars per annum for extra assistance in his said office."
The language of the body of the act is "that the commissioners' court of Conecuh county be and hereby is required to pay," etc. One contention made on behalf of appellant, who is the county depositary, and on whom a warrant for the annual sum stipulated in the act has been drawn, is that the act is unconstitutional and void under section 45 of the Constitution for the reason that the subject of the act is not clearly expressed in its *309
title. We indulge all reasonable intendments in favor of the constitutional validity of this act of the Legislature. It remains a fact, nevertheless, that the Legislature has used different words in the title and the body of the act — the title gives notice of the legislative purpose to pass an act authorizing the commissioners' court to pay a certain sum for a specified purpose; the body of the act requires the court to pay. We cannot assume that those different words mean the same thing, for they do not (National Surety Co. v. Huntsville,
The demurrer to appellee's petition for the writ of mandamus should have been sustained.
Reversed and remanded.
All the Justices concur.
