180 Ga. 619 | Ga. | 1935
C. B. Griner, alleging himself to be a citizen and taxpayer of Bulloch County, filed a petition for injunction against the board of commissioners of the county. He alleged that the commissioners were proceeding to build and equip a hospital which should be owned and operated by the county; that in pursuance of their plan to build the hospital they passed a resolution to use for the payment of the same the first three series of refunding certificates of the State Highway Department of Georgia, issued to Bulloch County, being series A, due March 25, 1936, series B, due March 25, 1937, and series C, due March 25, 1938, each series being for the sum of $12,375.90, the resolution providing that the hospital shall be of such size and capacity as is necessary to care for the sick convicts, paupers, and the indigent poor of the county, and providing for limited facilities for pay patients,
The court did not err in refusing an injunction. Article 7, section 6, paragraph 2, of the constitution of this State (Code of 1933, § 2-5402), provides that "The General Assembly shall not have power to delegate to any county the right to levy a tax for any purpose, except . . to support prisoners, . . support paupers, . . and to provide for necessary sanitation.” In the act of March 1, 1933, supra, which is an amendatory act to enable the State Highway Department to effectually 'carry out and put into effect the provisions of an amendment to the constitution therein referred to, it is provided as follows: "Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that said political subdivisions be and they are hereby authorized to sell any of said certificates of indebtedness of said Highway Department for the purpose of paying any of said bonded indebtedness hereinbefore referred to, or of acquiring or retiring any of said outstanding bonds hereinbefore referred to, or for the purpose of investing the proceeds of the same in securities
And we are satisfied that the building of a hospital and the maintenance of the same for the purposes for which this hospital is intended falls within the reasoning of that case. It may be broader than the purposes in the tick-eradication measure; but it is equally related to the question of sanitation, because the sick convicts, and the poor who are sick and too poor to secure hospitalization otherwise, may spread the diseases with which they are afflicted, if they have no hospital to which they can go, and may spread the disease or malady with which they are afflicted to such an extent as to jeopardize the health of many citizens of the county. In view of this reasoning and what was said in Townsend v. Smith, supra, the purposes of the county commissioners were lawful.
Judgment affirmed.