32 Wash. 279 | Wash. | 1903
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The appellant was convicted of the crime of rape, and appeals from the judgment and sentence pronounced against him. The act (Laws 1897, p. 19) under which he was convicted reads as follows:
“An Act amending section 28 of the Penal Code of the State of Washington, relating to the crime of rape.
“Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Washington :
“Section 1. That section 28 of the Penal Code of the State of Washington, relating to the crime of rape, be amended to read as follows: Sec. 28. A person shall be deemed guilty of rape who: 1. Shall, by force and against her will, ravish and carnally know any female of the age of eighteen years or more; 2.' Shall, by deceit, deception, imposition or fraud induce a female to submit to sexual intercourse; 3. Shall carnally know any fem'ale child under the age ,of eighteen years.
The only question urged hy the appellant is the constitutionality of the above act: He insists that under art. 2, §37, of the constitution, which provides that no act shall ever he revised or amended hy mere reference to its title, but that the revised act or section amended shall he set forth at full length, two things are necessary to the validity of an amendatory act: (1) The title of the act
to he amended should he referred to by setting the same out in the title to the amendatory act; and (2) the section as amended should he set forth at full length. Cases from the supreme court of Indiana, which will he found collected in Mankin v. Pennsylvania Co., 67 N. E. 229, and the cases of Copland v. Pirie, 26 Wash. 481 (67 Pac. 227, 90 Am. St. Rep. 769), and State ex rel. Seattle Electric Co. v. Superior Court, 28 Wash. 317 (68 Pac. 957), from this court are cited as maintaining the contention. The cases from Indiana seem to support it; those from this court, however, do not. The statute in question in Copland v. Pirie was held unconstitutional because it did not set forth at full length the section of the statute it purported to amend, and was not so complete in itself as to he treated as an independent act. In other words, the legislature sought hy that enactment to ingraft into an existing section of the statute an additional provision which altered the scope and effect of the original section, without setting out the section as it would read when amended, rendering it necessary to read both the original and amendatory act to ascertain the legislative will on the particular subject, and it was held that this was violative of the purpose of the constitutional provision. The act in the
While the precise objection made to this act has not heretofore been passed upon by this court, acts with titles similar to the one to the act in question have been repeatedly sustained by it. Perhaps the most noted case is that of Marston v. Humes, 3 Wash. 267 (28 Pac. 520). It was there held that the title, “An act relating to pleadings in civil actions, and amending sections 76, 77, and 109 of the Code of Washington of 1881,” sufficiently stated the subject of the act, and was valid. True the court went further, and held in that case that the Code of 1881 could be constitutionally amended by a mere reference to its section numbers, which holding has not been followed in some subsequent cases; but the main point decided has never been questioned, and was affirmed in the recent case of State ex rel. v. Superior Court, supra. We conclude, therefore, that the title of the act violates no provision of the constitution, and is sufficient. The judgment appealed from is affirmed.
Mount, Anders, Hadley and Dunbar, JJ., concur.