Koch & Dryfus v. Bridges

Citations

• 45 Miss. 247

Syllabus

<p>1. Executions—sheriee’s sade—dand must be sodd under execution at the court-house oe the county. —The provision of art. 277, p. 528, Rev. Code 1857, as to the place of sale of land under execution, is imperative, and a sale at any place other than the court-house of the county is void. The directions of the statute as to giving notice of the sale are merely directory.</p> <p>2. Construction oe statutes — rude as to directory provisions.—Getting rid of a statutory provision, by calling it “ directory,” is not only unsatisfactory on account of the rule itself, but it is the exercise of a dispensing power by the courts which approaches so near legislative discretion, that it ought to be exercised with reluctance, and only in extraordinary cases where great public mischief would otherwise occur, or important private interests demand the application of the rule.</p> <p>3. Same—same. — The requirements of a statute can never be dispensed with as being directory, where the act or omission of it, can by any possibility work advantage or injury however slight, to any one affected by it.</p> <p>4. Same — degisdative intention as a guide.—Judicial functions are always best discharged by an honest and earnest effort to ascertain and carry into effect the intention of the law-making power.</p> <p>5. Same—where the statute is bdain and unambiguous. —Where a law is plain and unambiguous, the legislature shall be intended to mean what they have plainly expressed, and no room is left for construction.</p> <p>6. Same—porce op negative and appirmative words.—Negative words will make a statute peremptory, and it is apprehended affirmative may, if they are absolute, explicit and peremptory, and show that no discretion is intended to be given.</p> <p>7. Same—“expressio unius est exclusio alterius.” —Where, in an instrument or a statute, there are general words first, and an express exception afterward, the principle has been said to apply “ expressio unius est exclusio alterius.”</p>