White v. State of Georgia

1. The Supreme Court has jurisdiction “in all cases that involve the construction of the constitution of the State of Georgia or of the United States.” Code, § 2-3005. But, “Jurisdiction is not vested in the Supreme Court merely because it is contended that an action or judgment is or would be contrary to some provision of the constitution.” Head v. Edgar Bros. Co., 187 Ga. 409, 411 (200 S. E. 792). “The words, 'construction of the constitution/ etc., as here employed, contemplate construction where the meaning of some provision of the constitution is directly in question, and is doubtful by force of its own terms or under the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States or of the Supreme Court of Georgia; and the provision of the constitution in which they are employed is not to be construed as denying to the Court of Appeals jurisdiction of cases which involve mere application of unquestioned and unambiguous provisions of the constitution to a given state of facts.” Gulf Paving Co. v. Atlanta, 149 Ga. 114, 117 (99 S. E. 374); Head v. Edgar Bros. Co., supra; Hodges v. Seaboard Savings & Loan Asso., 186 Ga. 845 (199 S. E. 105); Gaston v. Keehn, 195 Ga. 559 (24 S. E. 2d, 675). The constitutional questions involved in the instant case do not call for a construction of any constitutional provision, but only the application thereof to a given state of facts.

Since no other question presented falls within the class of cases set out in the Code, § 2-3005, of which the Supreme Court has jurisdiction, and under the constitutional amendment (art. 6, see. 2, par. 9; Code, § 2-3009) the Court of Appeals has jurisdiction for the correction of errors of law from superior courts, and other named courts, in all cases in which jurisdiction has not been conferred by the constitution upon the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and not the Supreme Court, has jurisdiction of this ease.

Transferred to the Court of Appeals.