5 Ga. App. 177 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1908
Jackson was tried and convicted in the criminal court of Atlanta for a violation of the act approved August 15, 1908 (Acts 1908, p. 83). He thereupon presented his petition for certiorari to the judge of the sujierior court of Fulton county. The writ was refused, and the judgment refusing the writ of certiorari is brought to this court for review. The act in question is entitled “An act to make it a misdemeanor to charge any rate of interest greater than five per cent, per' month, either directly or indirectly, and for other purposes.” In the body of the act it is provided, that “It shall be a misdemeanor . ..for any person . . to reserve, charge, or take for any loan or advance of money . . any rate of interest greater than five per cent, per month, either directly or indirectly, by way of commission for advances, discount, exchange, the purchase of salary or wages, by notarial or other fees, or by any contract, or contrivance, or device whatever.”
The first count in the accusation sets out, in substance, the following, as constituting a violation of the statute: On August 19, 1908, J. D. Lindsay made a written application to sell to Jackson an account due Lindsay by the Southern Kailway Company, for wages or salary at that time due and already earned by Lindsay in the capacity of coal-crane engineer. In this application Lindsay warranted, in order to induce Jackson to purchase the account, (1) that he was employed by the Southern Kailway Company as a coal-crane engineer during the month of July, 1908; (2) that
The defendant filed a demurrer to both counts of the accusation, on the ground that no offense was charged therein, and that the acts of the defendant as therein alleged were not within the prohibition of the statute upon which the accusation was framed. Other grounds of the demurrer make an attack upon the constitutionality of the act in question, for various reasons. The view that we take of the case makes it unnecessary to set out these objections. The court overruled the demurrer, and the defendant was thereupon tried by the presiding judge, without the intervention of a jury, on an agreed statement of facts, and found guilty on both counts. In the agreed statement of facts it is expressly stipulated that the allegations set out in the first and second counts of the accusation speak the truth of the transactions. The controlling question presented for the decision of this court is as to the correctness of the judgment overruling the demurrer.
The allegations of the accusation, in the first count, tersely stated, show that the defendant bought from the prosecutor an account for wages which had been earned by the prosecutor as an employee of the Southern Railway Company, the purchase being for the stipulated price which was paid in cash to the prosecutor as the seller of the account, and that in consideration of the payment of this sum the account was duly transferred in writing by the prosecutor to the defendant. The allegations in the second count show an exactly similar transaction, except that the subject-matter of the sale therein described was a promissory note payable to the prosecutor. Both the account and the note were purchased by the defendant for sums less than their face value by more than five per cent. It will be seen that there is no allegation that either transaction was other than the facts as set out purport. It is not alleged that either transaction was a pretense or subterfuge to cover usury; and therefore, for the purpose of deciding the questions made by the demurrer, we treat the transactions described in the accusation as genuine transfers of the account, and the note
The use of the general words “and for other purposes” does not authorize the introduction in the body of the act of a new subject-matter. The title of an act should state in a brief and comprehensive form the purposes of the act and the subject-matter to be dealt with, and the words “and for other purposes,” contained in the title, relate only to those provisions in the body of the act which are germane and pertinent to the general subject-matter. Banks v. State, 124 Ga. 16 (52 S. E. 74, 2 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1007). In the apt and forceful language of the learned counsel for the plaintiff in error, “the prohibition of sale, whether of persbnal property or ehoses in action, is not germane in the sense in which that word is used in -decisions on the general subject-matter of prohibition of excessive interest. There is no possible relationship between sales and the taking of interest, moderate or excessive. The very mention of the one excludes the other. In legal .geography, the boundary of the one does not overlap that of the other.” The words “and for other purposes,” which occur in the
Judgment reversed.