71 Mo. 266 | Mo. | 1879
The question for determination in this case is whether the law under which the respondent claims his appointment was repealed, the former law (G. S., p. 162, § 28) providing that the county -court should temporarily fill a vacancy in the office of recorder of deeds, while the law relied on by relator, and which is alleged to
Section 37 is as follows : “ No bill shall become a law until the same shall have been signed by the presiding officer of each of the two houses in open session; and before such officer shall affix his signature to any bill, he shall suspend all other business, declare that such bill will now be read, and that, if no objections be made, he will sign the same, to the end that it may become a law. The bill shall then be read at length, and if no objections be made, he shall, in presence of the house in open session, and before any other business is entertained, affix his signature, which fact shall be noted on the journal, and the bill immediately sent to the other house. When it reaches the other house, the presiding officer thereof shall immediately suspend all other business, announce the reception of the bill, and the same proceedings shall thereupon be observed' in every respect as in the house in which it was first signed. If in either house any member shall object that any substitution, omission or insertion has occurred, so that the bill proposed to be signed is not the same in substance and form as when considered and passed by the house, or that any particular clause of this article of the constitution has been violated in its passage, such objection shall be passed upon by the house, and if sustained, the presiding officer shall withhold his signature; but if such objection shall not be sustained, then any fiv<s. members may embody the same, over their signatures, in a written pi-otest, under oath, against the signing of the bill. Said p'rotest, when offered in the house, shall be noted upon the journal, and
At the time of the delivery of the opinion in the case of the Pacific Railroad v. The Governor, 23 Mo. 353, which held that the validity of an enrolled statute, authenticated in conformity with law, could not be impeached by the journals showing non-compliance with constitutional forms in the reconsideration of a bill, the only provision in the constitution in reference to the authentication of a bill passed by both houses then was that it should “be signed by the speaker of the house of representatives and by the president of the senate.” Art. 3, § 21, Const. 1820. .But upon the adoption of the constitution of 1865, a prohibitory- section similar to section 31, infra, was added to section 21 just mentioned, in these words: “ No bill shall be passed unless by the assent of a majority of all the members elected to each branch of the general assembly; and the question upon the final passage shall be taken immediately upon the last reading, and the yeas and nays shall be taken thereon and entered upon the journal.” (Const. 1865, Art. 4, § 24). As if with the advance toward a “ higher civilization” greater precautions were requisite in legislative matters than in the early days of our State’s history.
Respondent relies upon the journals to make out his case. The intimation is given in Bradley v. West, 60 Mo. 33, that the legislative journals might, in proper circumstances, he x-eceived in evidence to show that a law had not been passed in accordance with the constitutional x-equix’ements. The great current of authority is certainly in favor of such evidence for such a purpose, and that the journals may disclose such a state of facts as will wax’rant the courts in holding a statute void. Cooley Const. Lim., 135,. 136, and cases cited. We have no question but that this view is the-correct one. Taking this, then, as the starting poiut, let us see ifilupon examination, the jouimals will support or overthrow the statute. In order satisfactorily to determine
We are convinced that the initial clause of the section that “ no bill shall become a law until the same shall have been signed by the presiding officer of each of the two houses in open session,” is mandatory, though it is quite evident that the mandate of the constitution would be obeyed, so far as concerns proper authentication of the bill, when it receives the signature of the respective presiding officers in, open session. But we do not regard the other clauses of the section under review as mandatory; for it is to be observed that those clauses do not declare that “no bill shall become a law,” if the presiding officers or the members fail to perform the duties which the residue of the section imposes, but the only penalty directly expressed is that contained in the initial clause just noted. No inference is, however, to be drawn from this, that the residue of the section is not to be obeyed, for certainly the duties it enjoins are clearly set forth. The framers of the constitution were evidently of the opinion that they might safely intrust the supervision of the details specified in the remaining clauses of the section to the members of the general assembly, or else they would have never ordained that any member might by his objection impede the progress of legislation and 'arrest the signature of the presiding officer to the pending bill on the ground that some unwarranted omission, substitution or insertion had occurred, or that some provision of the constitution had been violated. Herein lies, in our opinion, the only constitutional corrective for a failure to observe the provisions of the remaining clauses of the section under discussion and to yield a ready obedience to them.
If it be said that this construction leaves it optional with the Legislature whether they shall comply with the explicit commands of the other clauses of the section, the
As no objection or protest is “ noted upon the journal ” of either branch of the general assembly, the only natural and reasonable conclusion for us to reach .is that benign conclusion of the law itself, sanctioned by the wisdom of ages, which presumes in favor of right, and not in favor of wrong. Similar presumptions are daily indulged in respecting judicial proceedings, and no reason occurs why a similar liberality of inference should not obtain in regard to legislative proceedings in many instances. Viewing the subject in this light, we regard it unimportant that the journals of the respective houses do not disclose that strict observance of formality which should properly attend the passage of a bill through its various legislative stages, as, for instance, that the presiding officer suspended all other business and declared that such bill would then be read, and that, if no objections were made, he would sign the same, to the end that it might become a law, nor that the hill was immediately sent to the other house. Counsel for respondent fails to observe that section 37, while requiring these things to be done, and these forms to be observed, nowhere requires that they be noted on the journal; the only facts requisite to be noted there, as specified in that section, being that of the signing of the bill and of any protest that may be offered.
We do not regard respondent’s position tenable, because not regarding the section as mandatory; and these are our reasons, therefor : “ If mandatory, then no matter what the circumstances, the bill must be delivered in person by the clerical officer of the house in which it originated on the very day of its passage, and that fact entered upon the journal, or else the bill, passed after many days of anxious, arduous legislative labor, with all the solemnities, and authenticated by all the formalities ordained by other sections of the constitution, could be defeated by the sickness or absence of the governor, or the misfeasance, malfeasance, sickness, absence or death of the officer on whom is enjoined the personal delivery of the bill, or, as frequently occurs, by the bill having been put upon its final passage a few minutes before midnight. When such consequences as these are to attend such a construction as that insisted upon, we may well hesitate before giving that construction our sanction.
The cases cited for respondent are instances where
As to the argument that it is “left to conjecture” how the bill reached the governor, since the journal contains no recital of its delivery, it is enough to say that the message of the governor transmitting the bill in question to the secretary of State with his approval recites that the bill had been presented.to him, and the legal inference is that it was properly presented, both as to time and manner, and therefore, we certainly shall not in this instance reverse all ordinary presumptions by presuming that what appears to have been fairly and rightfully done was surreptitiously or fraudulently done. Such a ruling would be at variance with all rules of evidence hitherto announced.
These considerations induce us to pronounce the statute valid and award a judgment of ouster.