City Council v. Weller
City Council v. Weller
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The sole question presented by this record is, whether in.a case heard by the City Court of Charleston the appeal is to the Circuit Court of the County of Charleston, or to the Supreme Court.
Section 2184, found in chapter 81 of the General Statutes, entitled “Of the City Court of Charleston,” provides as follows: “All parties shall have the same right of appeal to the Supreme Court from the decisions of the said City Court, in the same form which is now or may be lawful for parties in the Circuit Courts in like cases, and the Supreme Court shall hear and determine such appeals in the same manner as appeals from the Circuit Court of Charleston County.” Under that section, expressly giving to all parties in the City Court the right of appeal to the Supreme Court, and requiring that court to hear and determine such appeal in imperative terms — l'shall hear and determine such appeals” — and placing appeals from the City Court in all respects upon the same footing as appeals from the Circuit Court, there could be no possible doubt as to the proper response to the question above stated, if there were nothing more.
It is understood that the General Statutes of 1882, embracing the Code of Procedure, constituted a single act, all of which was passed at the same time, and it is claimed, whether correctly or not we are not informed, that section 358 of the Code is in a subsequent portion of the general act to that in which section 2134 above referred to is found, and is therefore the latest expression of the legislative will. Assuming this to be so for the purposes of the present discussion, the question is presented whether these two apparently conflicting provisions in the same act can be reconciled ? If so, how ? And if not, which is to control ? It is very obvious that if the view advocated by the appellant shall prevail, then the provisions of section 2134 of the General Statutes will become absolutely nugatory. No court will readily adopt the conclusion that the legislature has deliberately inserted in a statute a provision which becomes utterly useless and unmeaning because of an inconsistency with some subsequent provision in the same statute. On the contrary, the well settled rule is that in construing an act, it must be considered as a whole and such a construction must be adopted, if possible, as will give full force and effect to each one of its provisions. If they are apparently inconsistent with each other, such inconsistency must, if possible, be reconciled, in order to give full force and effect to the legislative will as expressed by the words they have used.
So that the practical question here is, whether it is possible to reconcile the particular intention, explicitly declared in section
This mode of construction has been approved and resorted to in at least two cases in this State involving the construction of two apparently inconsistent provisions in the constitution' — State v. Shaw (9 S. C., 94), and State ex rel. Woodsides v. McDaniel (19 Id., 114), where in the former the special provision requiring Circuit Judges to be elected by ballot, was read as an exception to the general provision that in all elections by the general assembly the members shall vote viua voce; and in the latter the provision of sec. 3 of art. V., requiring a revision and arrangement of the statutes was held to constitute an exception to the general provision contained in sec. 20 of art. II-, requiring that every act or joint resolution shall relate to but one subject, which shall be expressed in the title. So in Ex parte Turner (24 S. C., 214), the same mode was resorted to for the purpose of reconciling two apparently inconsistent provisions in the General Statutes of 1882. See also Endlich on the Interpretation of Statutes, section 215, where it is said: “If there are two acts or two provisions in the same act, of which one is special and particular, and clearly includes the matter in controversy, whilst the other is general and would, if standing alone, include it also; and, if reading the general provision side by side with the particular one, the inclusion of that matter in the former wmuld produce a conflict between it and the special provision, it must be taken that the latter was designed as an exception to the general pro
The judgment of this court is, that the judgment or order of the Circuit Court be affirmed.
Concurring Opinion
I concur in the result upon the ground that the law expressly gives the appeal to the Supreme Court.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- CITY COUNCIL OF CHARLESTON v. WELLER
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Case Criticised — City Court. — It necessarily follows from the decision in City of Charleston o. Ashley Phosphate Company (33 S. C., 25), that the City Court of Charleston is an inferior court. 2. City Court — Appeals—Statutory Construction. — Section 2134, General Statutes, provides that all parties to causes in the City Court of Charleston “shall have the same right of appeal to the Supreme Court from the decisions of the said City Court, in the same form which is now or may be lawful for parties in the Circuit Courts in like cases, and the Supreme Court shall hear and determine such appeals in the same manner as appeals from the Circuit Court of Charleston County.1’ Section 358 of the Code of Procedure provides that “when a judgment is rendered by a trial justice’s court, by the.county commissioners or any other inferior court or jurisdiction, save the Probate Court heretofore provided for in this Code of Procedure, the appeal shall be to the Circuit Court of the County wherein the judgment was rendered.” The Code of Procedure is a part of the General Statutes. Held, that these two provisions being part of the same statute must be construed together, and so that the two provisions shall have full force and effect if possible. So construed, the particular intention declared in this section of General Statutes is an exception to the general rule laid down in the Code, and therefore appeals from the City Court of Charleston must be taken to the Supreme Court. 3. Supreme Court. — The right of appeal to the Supreme Court being given by this section, and that court invested with power to hear and determine such appeals, it matters not if such right is omitted from section 11 of the Code, which declares the cases in which appeals may be taken to the Supreme Court. 4. City Court — Appeals.—The right of appeal to the Supreme Court from the City Court is exclusive, and no appeal lies in such case to the Circuit Court.