168 Ga. 719 | Ga. | 1929
The Court of Appeals desires instructions from this court upon the following question: “Is the superintendent of banks, who is appointed and holds office under the act of the General Assembly approved August 16, 1919 (Ga. L. 1919, p. 135 et seq.), authorized to issue the license referred to in section 1 of the act approved August 17, 1930 (Ga. L. 1930, p. 315 et seq.) ?” To state the question differently, is the superintendent of banks authorized to issue the license required of lenders under the provisions of the small-loan act, although the licensing official is referred to in the latter act (Ga. L. 1930, p. 315) as the State bank examiner? We are of the opinion that the question should be answered in the affirmative. Prior to the passage of the act
Section 2279 of the Code of 1910 provides: “There shall be in the department of the treasury of this State a Bank Bureau,” and section 2280 declares that “the treasurer of the State shall be the State bank examiner.” The bank bureau was established “in the department of the treasury,” and the duty of the “State bank examiner” was put on the “treasurer of the State.” Consequently, when the General Assembly enacted the banking law of 1919, the provisions of sections 2262-2366 of the Civil Code of 1910 were repealed and superseded by the provisions of'the act of 1919, which governs all matters pertaining to banks and banking in this State.
In such circumstances as those to which we have just adverted it is well settled that that construction of a statute is to be preferred which will give effect to the legislative intent and preserve the act, rather than that a construction be adopted which will necessarily destroy it. The intention of the legislature was to make an effective sma-ll-loan act; and in construing statutes the intention of the General Assembly, when ascertained, must govern, and the mere letter of the statute yield to the spirit. Wellmaker v. Terrell, 3 Ga. App. 791 (60 S. E. 464); Roberts v. State, 4 Ga. App. 207 (60 S. E. 1082). And so in Lee v. Tucker, 130 Ga. 43 (60 S. E. 164), where the act under consideration provided that the county-site should be removed to the Town of Ocilla, and there was in fact no town of that name in this State though there was a City of Ocilla, this court held that the City of Ocilla was meant, ruling, in the language of Black on Interpretation of Laws, “A misdescription or misnomer in a statute will not vitiate the enactment or render it inoperative, provided the means of identifying the person or thing intended, apart from the erroneous description, are clear, certain, and convincing.” As we have shown, it was the intention
It would seem that an affirmative answer to the question of the Court of Appeals would be authorized by the contemporaneous and continued construction of the act of 1920 by the department of banking for the past eight years; for the contemporaneous and continued construction of an act by officers of the government is entitled to be given weight in cases of doubt as to the proper construction of legislative enactments. Epping v. Columbus, 117 Ga. 263 (7) (43 S. E. 803); Carroll v. Wright, 131 Ga. 728, 736 (63 S. E. 260). In Temple Baptist Church v. Georgia Terminal Co., 128 Ga. 669, 680 (58 S. E. 157), Mr. Justice Cobb said: “This court, and 'all other courts, will recognize the practice of co-ordinate departments of government, and allow the construction placed by the officers in such departments upon statutes, and even the constitution, to be operative where there is room for construction.” See also DeLoach v. Newton, 134 Ga. 739, 757 (68 S. E. 708, 20 Ann. Cas. 342). It is apparent that the legislature in the passage of the act of August 17, 1920, intended to put supervision of the small-money lenders provided by that act, and allowed, under certain conditions, to charge a rate of 3-1/2 per cent, interest per month, under the State banking department. The superintendent of banks, being the head of the banking department, is authorized to issue the licenses provided in the act.