Opinion
Opinion filed July 23, 1954. Petition for Rehearing denied September 6, 1954.
1. STATUTES.
Statutes forming a system should be so construed as to make that system consistent in all its parts and uniform in its operation.
2. STATUTES.
An act could be deemed to amend by implication an existing statute even though existing statute was not mentioned, by title or substance (Const. art. 11, sec. 17).
3. REPLEVIN.
Replevin is a form of action which lay at common law, to regain possession of personal chattels taken from plaintiff unlawfully.
4. COURTS.
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
Amendment which was made to statute relating to jurisdiction of justices of the peace and which raised jurisdictional amount in cases to recover property amended by implication statute relating to justices' jurisdiction in replevin actions, and gave General Sessions Court jurisdiction of action to replevy truck valued at $1,728 (Code, secs. 9304, 10136(3)).
FROM CARTER.BANKS, STREET BANKS, of Elizabethton, for appellant.
SHULL WALL, of Elizabethton, for appellee.
Action to replevy a truck. The Circuit Court, Carter County, R.C. CAMPBELL, Judge, rendered judgment determining that the General Sessions Court had had jurisdiction to enter judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appealed. The Supreme Court, PREWITT, Justice, held that amendment, which was made to statute relating to jurisdiction of justices of the peace and which raised jurisdictional amount in cases for the recovery of property, amended by implication statute relating to replevin before a justice of the peace, and gave General Sessions Court jurisdiction over replevin action involving truck valued at $1,728.
Judgment affirmed.
The trial court upheld the validity of the Act in question, and this appeal resulted.
The question presented is whether Chapter 39 of the Public Acts of 1953, repealed by implication Section 9304 of the Code.
The declaration averred that the appellees took possession of appellant's truck valued at $1,728, following a judgment in a replevin suit in the General Sessions Court, where the jurisdiction in that court is alleged to be limited to $1,000 in such cases; that the judgment was void as being beyond the jurisdiction of the court.
Chapter 39 of the Public Acts of 1953 undertook to increase the jurisdictional amount in Justices of the Peace from $1,000, as provided by Chapter 230 of the Acts of 1951, to $2500.00.
The Section sought to be amended is Code Section 10136.
Chapter 39 of the Public Acts of 1953 incorporated itself into Section 10136 of the Code and the two became one statute.
The statute under consideration reveals an intention on the part of the Legislature to regulate the jurisdiction of General Sessions and Justices of the Peace Courts. For the past few years the Legislature has been increasing the jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace and General Sessions Courts.
It is generally held that statutes forming a system should be construed so as to make that system consistent in all its parts and uniform in its operation. Davis v. Beeler, 185 Tenn. 638, 644, 207 S.W.2d 343; Crane Enamel Co. v. Jamison, 188 Tenn. 211, 224, 217 S.W.2d 945.
The Act in question amends Code Section 9304 by implication, and in such cases Art. II, Sec. 17 of the Constitution does not apply, and it is not necessary to recite the title or substance of the Act amended. Koen v. State, 162 Tenn. 573, 39 S.W.2d 283; Daniels v. State, 155 Tenn. 549, 296 S.W. 20; Wright v. Donaldson, 144 Tenn. 255, 230 S.W. 605.
The appellant insists that there is a distinction between replevin, Code Section 9304, and "cases for the recovery of property". Code Section 10136. "Replevin" is defined as a form of action which lay (at common law) to regain possession of personal chattels taken from plaintiff unlawfully. Cyclopedic Law Dictionary, Second Edition, 878.
We are of the opinion that Section 9304 and Section 10136(3) of the Code deal with the same subject.
It follows that the Act in question is valid and amends Code Section 10136.
It results that the judgment of the lower court is affirmed.