121 Ala. 28 | Ala. | 1898
— The appellant, James O’Hara, was indicted, tried and convicted for doing business as an auctioneer in the city of ' Montgomery without a license, in- violation of section 35 of the “Act to amend the revenue laws of the State of Alabama,” approved February 18, 1897, (Acts 1896-7, p. 1505.) The defendant demurred to the indictment on the ground that said act is unconstitutional and void, assigning (1) that it is an attempt to discriminate between individuals engaged in the same occupation, in that it imposes a license tax on some auctioneers, and does not impose it upon others; (2) that said act wras not passed by the General Assembly for that- it is not shown by the journal of the House of -Representatives to have been signed by the speaker thereof in the presence of the house, and (3) that the journals of the house show that amendments to said act passed by the senate were not adopted by an aye and nay vote of the majority of the House of Representatives. ’ The demurrer was overruled; and that action of the city court is the only matter presented for review by this appeal.
There is no merit in the first assignment of demurrer above stated, Phoenix Carpet Co. v. State, 22 So. Rep., 627, s. c., 118 Ala. 143; nor in the third. Ex parte Howard-Harrison Iron Go., 119 Ala. 484.
Bearing upon and directly upon this matter, the house journal shows the following: First,' a message from the senate to the house, beginning thus: “Senate Chamber, February IS, 1897. Mr. Speaker: The president of the senate, in the presence of the senate, haying signed the following bills, your signature thereto is requested.'^ Then follows the identification of fifteen or twenty senate bills by their numbers and captions; and the message is signed: “John F. Proctor, Secretary.” Immediately after this is the following: “Signing Bills. The speaker of the house, in the presence of the house, immediately after their titles had been publicly read by the clerk, signed the bills whose titles are set out in the foregoing senate message.”-. And immediately succeeding this, the journal continues as follows: “Enrolled Bills. Mr. Speaker: The comfnittee having examined the following-house bills, find them correctly enrolled: H. 782. An act making it unlawful for Fire, Fire Marine and Marine Insurance companies not organized under the laws of the State of Alabama; but legally licensed to transact Fire, Fire Marine and Marine Insurance therein and doing business therein through regularly commissioned agents to place or cause to be placed, insurance against loss by fire or property in this State, except through agents located in the State legally authorized to write policies of insurance therein and prescribing penalties for violation of same; also, to prescribe further conditions to be complied with-by Fire, Fire Marine and Marine insurance Companies before receiving licenses to do business in'this State; I-I. 891. To incorporate the Mercy Home of Birmingham, Alabama, and prescribe its corporate rights and privileges; H. 1078. For the improvement of roads and bridges in Tuscaloosa county; H. 1102. To amend sub-division 15, Article I, section 629 of the Code, so far as the same relates to Barbour
The act of February 18, 1897, “To amend the revenue laws of the State of Alabama,” originated in the house, and >vas house bill 972, and by its number and title it vms reported by the committee on enrolled bills as having been correctly enrolled, in the report copied last above. That all. the bills embraced in that report are shown by the journal to have been signed by the speaker there can be no serious question. As is made to appear above, no senate message requesting the speaker to sign bills was before the house, when the, speaker is stated in the journal to have signed the bills “whose titles are set out in the foregoing message from the senate.” There had been such senate message before the house just before this report of the committee on enrolled bills was presented, but that senate message had been acted upon and: disposed of, the bills named in it had been duly signed by the speaker before this report was made. When that, had. been done, the report was made of the 'correct enrollment of divers house bills, including number 972, “To amend the revenue laws of the State of Alabama.” In that report and in it alone were set out the titles of the only bills then before the house for the signature of the speaker. That report Was the only paper of any kind “foregoing” the entry of signing bills on page 1319 of the printed journal and setting out titles of bills. The entry could not, therefore, have possibly referred to anything else than that report, nor to the titles of any other bills than those set out in that report. The jisé of the' words “message from the senate,” instead of the words “report of the committee on enrolled bills” in said entry was patently a mere clerical misprision which .corrects itself on the face of the journaland the .entry ip to be read as if the latter, instead.of the former words
Affirmed.