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Ex parte Haynes downard Andra & Jones7/29/2005
the entire county; the two judicial divisions created for Barbour County, for Coffee County, for Jefferson County, and for Tallapoosa County each draw their juries only from within the particular judicial division. See Walter Industries, supra; Hanna Steel, supra; Bentley v. State, 450 So. 2d 197 (Ala. Crim. App. 1984) (Marshall County); Ex parte Humana, Inc., 462 So. 2d 922 (Ala. 1985) (Coffee County); Ex parte Chrysler Corp., 659 So. 2d 113 (Ala. 1995)(Barbour County); Longmire, supra (St. Clair County); and Act No. 337, Ala. Local Acts 1923 (Tallapoosa County). In Longmire, this Court held that because the local act creating the separate judicial divisions in St. Clair County did not contain language similar to that in the Bessemer Act whereby the "jurisdiction and powers" of the Bessemer Division were to be "exclusive in, limited to, and extend over" only certain territorial portions of Jefferson County; because the local act creating the separate judicial divisions in St. Clair County did not provide for two separate clerks' offices; and because the local act creating the separate judicial divisions in St. Clair County provided that jurors serving in each division would be drawn from the entire county, the St. Clair Act did "not create two separate judicial districts for purposes of venue. The Act divides St. Clair County into two judicial divisions, apparently for purposes of economy and convenience. The language of the Act is not restrictive and exclusive, as is the language of the Bessemer Act." 584 So. 2d at 505. Thus, by implication, the Bessemer Act was viewed as creating "two separate judicial districts for purposes of venue," and we note that this is the exact phrasing the legislature subsequently employed in subdivision (d).
In Ex parte Chrysler Corp., supra, this Court was called upon to determine the implications of the legislation dividing Barbour County into two judicial divisions -- "the Clayton Division" and "the Eufaula Division" -- for certain purposes. The Court focused on the fact that the legislation did not require that a civil action be brought in one or the other of the two divisions, but simply provided, as pertinent to the facts then before the Court, that a civil cause pending in the Clayton Division could not be tried in the Eufaula Division if the plaintiff or the defendant resided in the former, without the consent of the plaintiff the defendant; the Court noted that whenever a civil cause was pending in either the Eufaula Division or the Clayton Division and the defendant resided in the other division, "'it shall be the duty of the judge of said court, on the application of such defendant or his attorney, in writing, or in open court, to transfer said cause to the court held in [that other division].'" 659 So. 2d at 117 (quoting the Act). Thus, the legislation "designating the time and place of holding court in Barbour County differs substantially from the Act creating the Bessemer Division in Jefferson County and the Enterprise Division in Coffee County." 659 So. 2d at 117. "Nothing indicates that this case [which was brought in the Clayton Division] should have been brought in the Eufaula Division of the Circuit Court of Barbour County, so as to require the circuit judge to transfer the case to that division under ยง 12-11-11 [Ala. Code 1975]." 659 So. 2d at 117. Accordingly, in contrast to civil actions filed in either Jefferson County or Coffee County, " nsofar as civil actions are concerned, Barbour County is a single entity, and a cause of action arising in any geographical part of Barbour County can be filed in either courthouse in Barbour County, without violating the general venue laws of the state." 659 So. 2d at 117. Defendants residing in either of the two judicial di
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