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Ex parte Walter Industries6/6/2003
is divided into two divisions -- the Bessemer Division, also known as the Bessemer Cutoff, and the Birmingham Division. The Bessemer Division was created by Act No. 281, Ala. Acts 1892-93. Section 2 of that act provided:
"That the said circuit court, holding as above provided, shall have, exercise and possess all of the jurisdiction and powers which are now, or which may hereafter be conferred by law in the several circuit courts of this State, which said jurisdiction and power shall be exclusive in, limited to, and extend over that portion of the territory of the county of Jefferson, which is included in the following precincts, to-wit: [physical description of the Bessemer Division] and that from and over the above mentioned and described territory all jurisdiction and power exercised therein at the time of the passage of this act by the circuit court of Jefferson county, as now held at Birmingham, and the common law jurisdiction and power of the city court of Birmingham is hereby expressly excluded."
(Emphasis added.) The constitutionality of that act was upheld in Trieste & Co. v. Enslen, 106 Ala. 180, 17 So. 356 (1895). In Trieste & Co., this Court stated:
"The essence of the act indeed is nothing more or less than to provide for the holding of terms of the circuit court of Jefferson county at Bessemer for the trial of civil causes arising in a certain defined part of said county; and this and nothing else is, to all common understanding, aptly expressed in the title of the enactment, and the several provisions thereof are cognate and referable to this one subject matter."
106 Ala. at 186-87, 17 So. at 358 (emphasis added). Although that act was subsequently repealed, see Act No. 1055, Ala. Acts 1900, it was reenacted in 1919 by Act No. 213, Ala. Local Acts 1919. Section 2 of the 1919 act reenacted section 2 of the original act without a substantive change in wording (the 1919 act is hereinafter referred to as "the Act").
After Trieste & Co., the Bessemer Division and the Birmingham Division were treated, in effect, as two counties for purposes of venue. See Ex parte Kemp, 232 Ala. 434, 168 So. 147 (1936); Ex parte Fairfield- American Nat'l Bank, 223 Ala. 252, 135 So. 447 (1931). If, under the general venue statutes, venue was appropriate in either division, then the plaintiff could elect to bring a case in the division of his choice. Kemp, 232 Ala. at 435-36, 168 So. at 148-49. No limitation on the powers of the Bessemer Division was acknowledged. Id. ("We do not read in the act of 1919 any more specific requirement as to the venue of suits in Bessemer than if it were in a different county from Birmingham.").
Kemp and Fairfield-American National Bank, however, were overruled by Ex parte Central of Georgia Railway, 243 Ala. 508, 10 So. 2d 746 (1942). In Central of Georgia Railway, the defendant in a wrongful- death action sought a writ of mandamus ordering the trial court to transfer the case from the Bessemer Division to the Birmingham Division. Because the cause of action arose in the Birmingham Division, the defendant argued, venue in the Bessemer Division was improper.
The Court in Central of Georgia Railway noted that section 2 of the Act controlled the "territorial jurisdiction" of the Bessemer Division. After examining the history of the 1893 and 1919 acts, as well as our previous holding in Trieste & Co., supra, the Court stated:
"Reading the legislative mind from the Act of 1919 as a whole, we are impressed that Section 2 thereof, which is the law to this day, means that civil suits at law can properly be brought at Bessemer only in cases arising in the Bessemer District, meaning 'c
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