69 Ga. 444 | Ga. | 1882
“An act to prevent the sale of spirituous or malt liquors near the Ridge Valley Iron Works in Floyd county.”
Then it is enacted :
“That there shall not be delivered, sold, or furnished by retail, as a beverage, any spirituous or malt liquors within the radius of two and a half miles from said Ridge Valley Iron Works, and any person violating,” etc.
Upon the first presentation of this question, the inclination of our minds was that the body of the act contained matter different from what was expressed in the title
It is declared by its caption to be an' act to prevent the sale of spirituous or malt liquors; and in the body thereof “that there shall not be delivered, sold, or furnished, by retail as a beverage any spirituous or malt liquors within the radius,” etc. Bouvier defines the meaning of the word retail to be, to sell in small parcels and not in gross. And it is so defined by Worcester, Wehster, and others who have given their time and study to the meaning of words. Under our law, words are to be given their usual and ordinary signification”; to retail, then, is to sell in small quantities or parcels, and when used in reference to liquors, means to sell in quantities of less than one quart. Code, 1424.
When, therefore, this act is critically examined, does it not mean that the delivery or furnishing of liquors by retail, is but the sale of it ? So construing it, and guided as we must be by the decisions of this court, we are constrained to hold, “that acts of the legislature are not only presumed to be constitutional, but that the authority of the courts to declare them void will never be resorted to, except in a clear and urgent case,” and this not being such a one, it cannot be so pronounced. 16 Ga. 102.
Under the view which we have taken of this act, we are
It is possible that this plaintiff in error, as was suggested on the argument, may have been found guilty upon the ground that he sold the spirituous liquors which he delivered, but as the illegal charge may have controlled the jury, we think that a new trial should be granted, and it is so ordered.
Judgment reversed.