not reduced to possession by her husband. When she becomes the owner of personal chattels, such chattels vest absolutely in her husband, without any act of reduction to possession as his property. . .

The horse, now the subject of controversy between the parties, was acquired by an exchange of the horse brought from Rhode Island [where the parties had lived], which exchange was made by the act of the wife, she paying ten dollars in the exchange, from money belonging to herself, and which had not been in her husband's possession or control. As this transaction was after the St. [Statute] of 1857, C. 249, had gone into effect, if the horse then purchased had been purchased wholly by her money, the question would have properly arisen, whether under the statute this horse would not have been her separate property, and exempt from attachment by her husband's creditors. . . . This horse was acquired by an exchange of a horse which was her husband's, and as such liable to an attachment. We must assume that the principal value paid in exchange to defraud creditors. The husband should, under these circumstances, be considered as having an attachable interest in the horse received in exchange.

CHAPTER XXII

ENACTMENT OF STATUTES

Rules of Legislation.

Our State and national constitutions regulate the proceedings of legislatures by provisions which promote the orderly conduct of the work of legislation, prevent hasty and improvident law-making, and give opportunity for the careful examination and consideration of proposed laws. These provisions deal with the introduction of proposed laws, usually called bills, the titles and enacting clauses, the readings to the legislatures which are to consider them, the reference to committees, the passage by each house, the submission to the executive department for approval or disapproval (veto), the passage over vetoes, and the authentication. These constitutional provisions are the rules which the people prescribe for the guidance of their representatives in legislative bodies. They are the commands of the people and must be strictly observed. A legislature cannot enact a statute in any other way or by any other procedure than is ordained by them. Consequently, if a legislature disregards any of them during the passage of a bill, the result is a nullity; their work goes for nothing; what they call a statute is not a statute at all and has no binding force. Whenever, in the course of the trial of a case, the validity of a statute is challenged on

the ground that the legislature in passing it, did not follow the rules of procedure prescribed by the constitution, the judges will examine the proceedings of its enactment, and if they find that it was not adopted in conformity to those rules, will declare it a nullity.

In the case of People ex rel. Purdy v. Marlborough,1 decided in 1873 by the New York Court of Appeals, the validity of a supposed statute authorizing the laying out of a highway for the town of Marlborough over lands belonging to the State was challenged on the ground that it had not been passed by the legislature by a two-thirds vote as required by a clause in the State Constitution which ordained that the assent of twothirds of the members of each branch of the legislature should be required for the passage of any bill appropriating public property for local uses. In the decision. that this supposed law was not a law at all, Judge Johnson said:

The only remaining inquiry . . . is whether . . . the question can be raised as to the vote by which the bill was passed. . . . When it is necessary to inquire by what vote a law was passed, the judges are to determine from the printed statutes, or from the laws on file in the Secretary of State's office, whether the requisite vote was received. . . . The law in question does not appear either upon the printed statute book or upon the original act to have been passed by a two-thirds vote, and consequently it never had the effect of law.

Introduction of a Bill.

The first step in the making of a statute is its introduction as a bill into the legislature. A bill is introduced when a member hands a draft of it to the clerk 154 N. Y. Rep., 276, 279.

of the house or when a petition from a member or a communication from an executive officer or department results in an appropriate committee being authorized to draft and report a bill. This and the subsequent steps in the law-making process as prescribed in the constitution that created the legislature must be recorded in the journals of both houses. Sometimes a constitution prescribes the house into which a bill must be introduced first; for example, the Constitution of the United States provides that "all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives" of the United States Congress.

Title of Bill.

The constitutional requirement in some States that the subject of a proposed law shall be expressed in its title is intended to prevent the insertion of "jokers" or the enactment of statutes for other objects than those indicated by, or suggested by, the name or title given to it by those who introduce it.

In the case of Tadlock v. Eccles,1 decided by the Supreme Court of Texas in 1858, Justice Wheeler said:

The intention [of a clause to this effect in the Constitution of Texas] doubtless was to prevent embracing in an act, having one ostensible object, provisions having no relevancy to that object, but really designed to effectuate other and wholly different objects, and thus to conceal and disguise the real object proposed by the provisions of an act under a false and deceptive title.

Enacting Clause.

Many State constitutions provide that every statute shall begin with an enacting clause that will show its 120 Texas Rep., 782, 793.

nature and thus prevent members of the legislature from voting for one law when they think they are voting for something very different.

In the case of State v. Patterson, decided by the Supreme Court of North Carolina in 1887, a statute that had been passed without an enacting clause was declared a nullity. In the decision of the court, Justice Merriman said:

The Constitution [of North Carolina], in Art. II., in prescribing how statutes shall be enacted, provides as follows: "Sec. 21. The style of the acts shall be: "The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact. The purpose

of thus prescribing an enacting clause-"the style of the acts"-is to establish the act-to give it permanence, uniformity, and certainty-to identify the act of legislation as of the General Assembly-to afford evidence of its legislative, statutory nature, and to secure uniformity of identification, and thus prevent inadvertence, possible mistake and fraud. Such purpose is important of itself, and as it is of the Constitution, a due observance of it is essential.

Readings.

The legislative process usually calls for three readings of a bill. To save time, however, a bill ordinarily is not read on three different occasions. The general practice is that at the first and second readings the clerk reads the title and the enacting clause and then is interrupted by the presiding officer, who says that, unless objection is made, the further reading will be dispensed with. In some State legislatures, the reading of bills is made absurd by the practice of having clerks read aloud two or more bills at the same time.

In the case of Saunders v. Board of Liquidation of City '98 North Carolina Rep., 660.