60 Ga. App. 563 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1939
The only question involved in this case is whether, in an action to enforce a judgment, the provision of the Code, § 3-805, that if the defendant, in any of the cases therein named, shall remove from this State, the time of his absence from the State and until he returns to reside shall not be counted or estimated in his favor, refers to the time within which a judgment becomes dormant if it is not kept alive in any of the ways provided by law. This section has been in every Code since the Code of 1863, where it was § 2870. In the Code of 1868 it was § 2878. In the Code of 1873 it was § 2929. In the Code of 1882 it was § 2929. In the Code of 1895 it was § 3783, In the Code of 1910 it was § 4378. In the Code of 1933 it is § 3-805. We are of the opinion that this section is ambiguous in that it can not be ascertained with certainty what is meant by the words “in any of the cases herein named.” It is uncertain whether the article of the Code is referred to, the chapter, the paragraph, of the whole Code itself; and we think this uncertainty calls for application of the rule that where the section is ambiguous, and is of statutory origin, the statute will have to be referred to in order that the true meaning of the section may be ascertained. At the end of this section we find that it was codified from the acts of 1805, 1806, 1817, and 1839. We think also that it was codified from the act of 1855 (Ga. L. 1855-56, p. 235, sec. 23). Section 3 of the act of 1805 (Ga. L. 1805, pp. 39, 40) provides: “When any person or persons shall remove his property without the limits of this State, or absconds or conceals himself so that his creditor can not commence an action, that the person so removing his property, or absconding himself, shall not be entitled to the benefit of this act, but shall be answerable for any just demand against him, her, or them.” Section 2 of the act of 1806 (Ga. L. 1806, pp. 70, 71) provides: “That if any person or persons, that is or shall be entitled to any such action of trespass, detinue, action of trover, replevin, actions of account, actions of debt, actions of trespass for assault, menace, battery, wounding, or imprisonment, actions on the case for words, be or shall be at the time of any such cause of action, given or
Thus we see, from every act of the legislature referring to this question, the specific provision is that the time of residence without the State shall not operate in favor of the defendant against whom a cause of action or right to sue exists. In not one of the acts is a judgment and a right to enforce the same referred to. So we conclude that the meaning of the Code section is that it refers to the cases mentioned in the various acts which are codified therein, and does not refer to cases mentioned in the section, or chapter, or even in the Code itself. The reason why the law provides that the time a defendant is absent from the State shall not be computed in his favor is that while he is a non-resident of the State he can not be sued in the courts of this State. And if the time of his
Judgment affirmed.