Supreme Court of Georgia, (February 20, 1995)
Docket number: S94A1367
DECIDED
BENHAM, Presiding Justice. - DECIDED
Permanent Link:
http://vlex.com/vid/collins-american-telephone-amp-telegraph-20394896
Id. vLex: VLEX-20394896
Click here to download this article in graphic format (Acrobat Reader)
Transferred to the Court of Appeals. All the Justices concur. Sears and Thompson, JJ., disqualified.

Supreme Court of Georgia - COLLINS v. THE STATE., 239 Ga. 400, 236 S.E.2.d 759
Supreme Court of Georgia - SUTTON v. THE STATE., 223 Ga. 313, 154 S.E.2.d 578 (1967)
Supreme Court of Georgia - DAY v. STOKES., 268 Ga. 494, 491 S.E.2.d 365 (1997)
Supreme Court of Georgia - SCHMIDT v. SCHMIDT., 270 Ga. 461, 510 S.E.2.d 810 (1999)
Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General, Daniel M. Formby, Warren R. Calvert, Senior Assistant Attorneys General, for appellant.
"This court must inquire into its own jurisdiction. [Cits.]" Collins v. State, 239 Ga. 400 (236 SE2d 759) (1977). This is an appeal from a decision of a superior court overturning an income tax ruling of the State Revenue Commissioner. In the application for discretionary appeal and in the notice of appeal filed following our grant of the discretionary appeal, appellant based the invocation of this court's appellate jurisdiction on Collins, supra, Division 3, wherein this court ordered that cases "involving the revenues of the state" be docketed in this court.The Collins decision was necessitated by an enactment of the legislature attempting to change Supreme Court jurisdiction by statute. The act at issue stated in part "The Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction of the trial and correction of errors of law in cases involving State revenue, contested elections, and the validity of legislative enactments of municipalities." Ga. L. 1977, pp. 710-711. After holding the legislature could not by statute change the constitutional jurisdiction of this court, we ordered the above-stated classes of cases to be docketed in the Court of Appeals and transferred to "effectuate the legislative intent of Act No. 299, Ga. L. 1977, p. 710." Collins, at 403.DeKalb County Bd. of Tax Assessors v. W. C. Harris Co., 248 Ga. 277, 278 (282 SE2d 880) (1981).When this state adopted a new constitution in 1983, the jurisdictional changes made by Collins were incorporated, with one significant exception: this court was not given jurisdiction over cases involving revenues of the state. In Art. VI, Sec. VI, Par. II, Ga. Const. 1983, this court is given exclusive appellate jurisdiction over, inter alia, challenges to the constitutionality of ordinances and election contests, two categories of cases over which this court took jurisdiction in Collins. No reference is made, however, to cases involving revenues of the state in that paragraph or in the following paragraph, Art. VI, Sec. VI, Par. III, Ga. Const. 1983, in which the general appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is specified. Since the legislature may be presumed to have proposed the new constitutional division of jurisdiction with full knowledge of the existing law (see Hollifield v. Vickers,Try vLex for FREE for 3 days
Access legal information from United States including:
Try vLex without any commitment for 3 days and see why you need it.
3
days of Free Access