Opinion
21831.
ARGUED OCTOBER 9, 1962.
DECIDED OCTOBER 22, 1962.
Equitable petition. Clayton Superior Court. Before Judge McGehee.
G. William Jessee, for plaintiff in error.
John R. McCannon, Albert B. Wallace, contra.
A court of equity will not grant an injunction to restrain a single act which the averments of the petition show has been fully completed prior to the restraint sought.
ARGUED OCTOBER 9, 1962, — DECIDED OCTOBER 22, 1962.
This was an equitable action brought on May 15, 1962, by the Solicitor General of Clayton Judicial Circuit, composed of Clayton County alone, to restrain the County Commissioners of Roads and Revenue from enforcing a resolution terminating the services of a secretary and an investigative assistant that such body had previously furnished the Solicitor General to aid him in the performance of the functions of his office. The petition alleged the resolution in question was passed by the Commissioners on May 4, 1962, and provided that it go into effect immediately. There was also an averment that the act creating the circuit made no provision for clerical or investigative assistance to be furnished by Clayton County to the Solicitor General's office, and that "no express law" required the county to furnish "any kind of help whatsoever."
The petition stressed the urgent necessity of assistance of a secretary and investigator to the Solicitor General's office in order that it might properly function, and alleged that clerical and investigative help in the prosecutor's office was essential in the administration of justice and the prevention of crime. It was related that employees of the type desired by the Solicitor General and formerly furnished by the county to his predecessor were wrongfully terminated by the Commissioners to vent their displeasure that he had, at the instance of the grand jury, investigated alleged irregularities in their office, and that, while the Commissioners offered certain clerical and investigative assistance to his office, it was not of a type satisfactory to the plaintiff because the secretary and investigator the Commissioners offered were both employed by, and under the control of, the Commissioners; the offer was not in good faith and was made with a view and for the purpose of preventing and hindering him in the performance of his duties, and with the design on the part of the Commissioners to gain domination of his office. There was no allegation the Commissioners were attempting to interfere with the Solicitor General's office except by not providing such secretarial and investigative help.
The defendant Commissioners filed general and special demurers to the petition. Upon a hearing the presiding judge sustained the general demurrers and dismissed the suit. To this judgment the Solicitor General excepted.
According to the petition the resolution terminating the services of the secretary and investigator assigned to the plaintiff's office went into effect and became operative prior to the institution of the action. Plainly, from the averments of the petition, the Commissioners had, before the action was brought, made the change in the status of the clerical and investigative help furnished the Solicitor General's office. The established rule of equity applicable in the circumstances shown by the petition is that an accomplished or completed act will not be enjoined. In Clay v. Smith, 215 Ga. 668, 669 ( 112 S.E.2d 767), is the pronouncement: "It is axiomatic that a court of equity will not grant an injunction to restrain a single act which has been fully completed prior to the restraint sought."
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.