40 S.C. 336 | S.C. | 1894
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This was an action to eujoin the county commissioners of Williamsburg from carrying iuto effect certain provisions of an act of the legislature (1892, page 361), by which, it will be observed, certain additional territory in said County of Williamsburg was exempted from the operation of Chapter XXYII. of the General Statutes, relating to the general stock law, and by said injunction preventing the defendants from removing the fence around the original exemption, and'building another fence around the lines of the additional exemption, including the plaintiff’s plantation of 1,500 acres of land.- The complaint does not state that the old fence is to be removed from or the new fence placed upon any portion of plaintiff’s plantation, which lies entirely within the additional exemption, or that any of the plaintiff’s timber is to be used in the construction of the new fence, nor does the complaint ask for any injunction against the collection of any tax noio proposed to be levied. As the Circuit Judge states it: “The injuries, which the plaintiff seeks to avoid are those which grow out of the exposure of his crops to the stock roaming at large in this portion of the county, and adjoining on what, it is proposed to call, a ‘big pasture,’ unless the plaintiff shall, at very heavy expense, protect his crops by suitable fences, which are not now necessary, and also the loss from taxation, which the plaintiff and others expect hereafter to suffer, from the carrying out of the provisions of the aforesaid act,” &e. (A full copy of the complaint should appear in the report o’f the case.)
The defendants commissioners demurred, that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action for an injunction, and the cause coming on to be heard before his honor, Judge Fraser, he decreed as follows: “The question presented to me is the constitutionality of the whole act, and to this
The plaintiff excepts to the ruling of the presiding judge: “(1) That he erred in ruling that the injuries complained of in this action do not warrant the granting of the injunction asked .for; and that the act of 1892 is constitutional. (2) That the presiding judge erred in holding that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.”
The judgment of this court is, that the judgment of the Circuit Court -be affirmed.