25 Ga. App. 287 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1920
The accusation contains two counts, but, as there was an acquittal under the first count, this discussion will be confined to the second, which charges that the accused did “operate and drive a certain automobile upon and over a public highway in said county, to wit, the Summerville public road, and at a point on said' Summerville public road where said road intersects the Texas Valley public road in said State and county, at a greater rate of speed than ten miles per hour.” The defendant demurred to the second count of the accusation, as follows: “ First: Said count sets forth no cause of action against this defendant. Second: Because no crime in this State is charged in said count, and there is no crime in this State of operating an automobile by intersecting roads at a greater rate of speed than ten miles per hour.” This demurrer was overruled and the defendant excepted.
The only question for our determination is: Does the act of 1915 repeal that portion of the act of 1910 which relates to the speed of automobiles at intersecting roads? We think it does. It was the evident intent of the legislature that section 10 of the act of 1915 (Ga. L. Ex. Sess. 1915, p. 112) should be exhaustive of the entire subject of regulating the speed of all auto-vehicles 'and automobiles, and should operate as a substitute for section 5 of the act of 1910 (Ga. L. 1910, p. 92). Section 5 of the act of 1910 is as follows: “That no person shall operate a machine on any of
It will be noted that section 5 above referred to embraces “ high embankments” and “intersecting highways,” and fixes the rate of speed at “ not greater than six miles per hour,” while these places are not mentioned in section 10 of the act of 1915, which names “dugway” (which is not in the act of 1910), and fixes the rate of speed at “not greater than ten miles per hour.” In Butner v. Boifeuillet, 100 Ga. 743 (28 S. E. 464), Justice Atkinson (p. 750) quoted from the case of Butler v. Russel, 3 Clifford, 251, in which Justice Clifford of the Supreme Court of the United States, presiding on the circuit bench, laid down the following rule: “ Where the provisions of the old statute are revised in the later enactment, and where the later statute was intended to prescribe the only rules upon the subject, the subsequent is held to repeal the former statute. When a revising statute covers the whole subject-matter of antecedent statutes, it virtually repeals the former enactments, without any express provision to that effect. Where some parts of the revised statute are omitted in the new law, they are not, in general, to be regarded as left in operation if it clearly appear to have been the intention of the legislature to cover the
■ Applying the principle announced in the foregoing decisions, we hold that the judge erred in overruling the demurrer; and this rendered the subsequent proceedings nugatory.
Judgment reversed.