Bertram v. Commonwealth

Citations

• 108 Va. 902
• 62 S.E. 969
• 1908 Va. LEXIS 113

Syllabus

<p>1. Statutes' — Sufficiency of Title — Code—Prior Acts Incorporated Into Code.- — -The Code of 1887 constitutes but one aet, and was enacted by the legislature, with an appropriate title, in strict compliance with the Constitution. It expressly repealed all acts of a general nature in force at the time of its adoption, hence, as to offenses subsequently committed, it is immaterial whether the title of a prior act which had been incorporated in the Code as a part thereof was sufficient or not.</p> <p>2. Statutes — Code of 1887 — Title of Amendatory Acts — ~What May Be Placed Under Title. — The title of an act amending the Code of 1887 is sufficient if it refers to the chapter and sections to be amended, and the body of the amendatory aet is within its title if it is germane to the subject of the chapter referred to in the title.</p> <p>3. Constitutional Law — Local or Private Acts — Acts Applicable to Whole State. — A law which applies to the State at large and makes a violation of its provisions by any person a misdemeanor, punishable by fine, is in no sense a local, special or private law for the punishment of crime.</p> <p>4. Constitutional Law — Act Constitutional in Part — Severable Provisions — Pharmacists—Special Privileges — Code, Chapter 78. — If it be conceded that some portions of chapter 78 of the Code “regulating the practice of pharmacy” are unconstitutional on the grounds of special or exclusive rights, privileges or immunities afforded the “Virginia Pharmaceutical Association,” these portions are severable from the provision which punishes as a misdemeanor the sale of poison by others than licensed pharmacists and the latter provision is a valid enactment, for a statute may be constitutional in one part and unconstitutional in another, and if the parts can be so separated as that each can stand as the will of the legislature, the good does not perish with the bad.</p> <p>5. Constitutional Law — Validity of Statute — -Who May Assail — Sale of Poisons