52 Ala. 474 | Ala. | 1875
The 10th section of the 5th article of the Constitution of 1819 (Clay’s Dig. p. 35) declared: “ A competent number of justices of the peace shall be appointed in and for each county, in such mode and for such term of office as the general assembly may direct. Their jurisdiction in civil cases shall be limited to causes in which the amount in controversy shall not exceed fifty dollars. And in all cases tried by a justice of the peace, right of appeal shall be secured, under such rules and regulations as maybe prescribed bylaw.”
This section was carried into the Constitution of 1865, without any other change than that the jurisdiction in civil cases was limited to causes in which the sum in controversy did not exceed one hundred dollars. Const. 1865, Art. YI. § 9; R. C. p. 42. The present Constitution declares: “A competent number of justices and constables shall be elected in and for each county by the qualified electors thereof, who shall hold office during such terms as may be prescribed by law. Said justices shall have jurisdiction in all civil causes wherein the amount in controversy does not exceed one hundred dollars. In all cases tried before such justices, the right of appeal shall be secured by law : provided, that notaries public appointed according to law shall be authorized and required to exercise, throughout their respective counties, all the powers and jurisdiction of justipes of the peace.” Const. Art. YI. § 13.
■ Justices of the peace, were at common law, subordinate magistrates, appointed by the king’s special commission. They were conservators of the peace, and their judicial power referred to the administration of the criminal law. 1 Cooley’s Blacks. 349. They were not clothed with civil jurisdiction;
The question presented by the record is, whether justices of the peace have jurisdiction of actions for the recovery of chat
The Constitution is not the origin or beginning of law in the State. It was made by and for a people among whom the common law prevailed, so far as applicable to their condition, and not superseded or repealed by legislation or constitutional provision,— a people having a well defined, and well understood system of law, written and unwritten, statute and constitutional. It was not intended to abolish or destroy this system, and on its ruins raise up another, new and different. This system continues, except so far as it is repugnant to the Constitution, subject to such limitations and restrictions as it imposes. In the light of the former law and existing system, new constitutional provisions are to be read and interpreted, if their real meaning is ascertained, and the intent of the lawgiver carried into effect. Cooley Cons. Limit. 60 ; People v. Draper, 15 N. Y. 537 ; Ex parte Roundtree, June term, 1874.
The section of the present Constitution, in reference to justices of the peace and constables, if read by itself, without reference to its connection with, or dependence upon the former constitutions and preexisting statutes, would require the election of these officers by the whole body of the electors in the county, and not by the electors of the several precincts or election districts, voting for two justices confined in a large measure in the exercise of jurisdiction ; and a constable having authority within the precinct or district. Limiting the electors to voting for only two justices, and one constable, for the precinct or district of their residence, and not for all justices and constables within the county, is a statutory requirement and regulation that would be directly repugnant to the constitutional provision, that “ a competent number of justices and constables should be elected in and for each county by the qualified electors thereof, who shall hold office during such terms as may be prescribed by law,” if this was a new, original provision, introductive of officers in reference to which no former laws existed. When we read the provision in the light of for
Civil jurisdiction of a justice is not derived from the common law. It originates in, and depends upon constitutional warrant or statutory enactment. The jurisdiction in the present Constitution is “ in all civil causes.” So it was under the former constitutions. The term comprehends every cause which is not criminal. All causes, whether in equity or at law, had but two grand classifications, civil and criminal. The latter comprehends only violations of the criminal law, — causes at the common law, in which the crown, or with us the State, complains of violated law and broken peace, in which all individual right and interest are lost, and merged in the greater right and interest of the sovereign. Civil causes had parties, individual suitors, whose rights and wrongs were the matter of controversy. They embraced every action at law and every suit in equity, whether