66 Neb. 508 | Neb. | 1902
An action was brought and judgment recovered for $50 as liquidated damages for failure to* release a chattel mortgage after the same had been satisfied and after demand therefor, such action being prosecuted under the provisions of section 15, chapter 32 of the Compiled Statutes of 1901.
This brings us, then, to the sole question of whether the provision of the section under consideration, allowing the recovery of a stated sum as liquidated damages for failure and refusal to release a mortgage after its .condi
In Singer Mfg. Co. v. Fleming, 39 Nebr., 679, it is held that an act to provide for the better protection of the earnings of laborers comprehended legislation authorizing a recovery as compensatory damages of the debt, costs, expenses and attorney fees, where exempt wages of laborers had been garnisheed in violation of the act. It is there said in the opinion (p. 684) : “Merely to declare the doing of certain acts unlaAvful would be nugatory unless the act itself or other provisions of the law provided a redress- for injuries inflicted by reason of its violation. Without the section providing a remedy the act would not provide Tor the better protection of the earnings’ of the persons sought to be protected. Both a substantial enactment of law and a remedy for its violation are fairly included in the title, and the act would not be complete in the absence of either provision.”
See, also, State v. Power. 63 Nebr., 496, where it is held that the title of the act considered in Singer Mfg. Co. v. Fleming, supra, also comprehended legislation providing for the punishment of those who violate the provisions of the act by doing the things therein declared unlaAvful; and the several authorities there cited.
As to the application and construction generally of the constitutional provision invoked, see Kleckner v. Turk, 45 Nebr., 176; Poffenbarger v. Smith, 27 Nebr., 788; State v. Cornell, 50 Nebr., 526; City of St. Louis v. Tiefel, 42 Mo., 578; O’Leary v. County of Cook, 28 Ill., 534.
The amendatory act and all provisions of the section as amended, we are of the opinion, were germane to the subject-matter contained in the original section, as better calculated to effectuate the object and purpose of the law by providing for a release of a chattel mortgage when satisfied, and affording a proper .remedy to the injured party for the neglect and refusal to release such lien when it became one’s duty to do so, and therefore is not in contravention of the provisions of the constitution appealed to in support of the contention that the laAV is invalid.
Affirmed.
Cobbey’s Annotated Statutes, sec. 5964.
Session Laws, 1875, p. 11. sec. 25.