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Ex parte Haynes downard Andra & Jones7/29/2005
e purposes, citing Glenn v. Wilson, 455 So. 2d 2, 4-5 (Ala. 1984), which applied to Jefferson County, and Ex parte Humana, Inc., 462 So. 2d 922, 925 (Ala. 1985), which applied to Coffee County. The wording of the local act, as amended, pertaining to Barbour County did not permit the interpretation that the Clayton division and the Eufaula division were two separate judicial districts for purposes of venue. Jefferson, Coffee, and Barbour Counties drew jurors not from the county at large, but from the separate divisions of the counties. (St. Clair County also had two courthouses, but it drew jurors from the county at large to serve at both courthouses.) Because Barbour County had been held to be a single entity, there was nothing to justify drawing juries from geographical divisions less than the county as a whole, until Ala. Code 1975, § 6-3-7(d), was enacted in 1999, which provided that 'the divisions shall be treated as two separate judicial districts for purposes of venue and for purposes of any change of venue, unless the jury venire is drawn from throughout the entire county.'
"In my opinion, § 6-3-7(d) has the limited effect of making the Clayton division and the Eufaula division of Barbour County separate judicial districts for purposes of venue to justify the selection of jurors from within those two divisions rather than from the entire county."
According, we conclude that § 6-3-7(d) was not intended by the legislature to change the "exclusive jurisdiction" status of the Bessemer Division, inasmuch as the pre-1999 decisions of this Court had clearly established the principle that the Bessemer Division, to use the language of Glenn v. Wilson, quoting United Supply Co. v. Hinton Construction & Development, Inc., 396 So. 2d 1047 (Ala. 1981), "'could exercise [the same power exercised in the Jefferson County judicial circuit] only for actions arising in its territorial boundary.'" 455 So. 2d at 3. Glenn v. Wilson stands for the proposition that despite the fact that the exercise of judicial power in the Bessemer Division should be deemed a matter of venue as opposed to subject-matter jurisdiction, the venue accorded the Bessemer Division is nonetheless exclusive by virtue of the substantive language of the Bessemer Act allowing that division to exercise its judicial power only for actions arising in its territorial boundary. This was the status established for the Bessemer Division as of the enactment of § 6-3-7(d) by six decades of interpreting caselaw, and the legislature's declaration that "in any county having two courthouses [such as Jefferson County], the divisions shall be treated as two separate judicial districts for purposes of venue" can only be understood to have accepted the judicially declared respective status of the Bessemer Division vis-à-vis the Birmingham Division.
"It is an ingrained principle of statutory construction that ' he Legislature is presumed to be aware of existing law and judicial interpretation when it adopts a statute. Ex parte Louisville & N.R.R., 398 So. 2d 291, 296 (Ala. 1981).' Carson v. City of Prichard, 709 So. 2d 1199, 1206 (Ala. 1998). '"It is a settled rule that in the adoption of the Code the Legislature is presumed to have known the fixed judicial construction pre-existing statutes had received, and the substantial re-enactment of such statutes is a legislative adoption of that construction."' Wood-Dickerson Supply Co. v. Cocciola, 153 Ala. 555, 557, 45 So. 192, 192 (1907) (quoting Morrison v. Stevenson, 69 Ala. 448, 450 (1881)). 'It is a familiar principle of statutory interpretation that the Legislature, in enacting new legislation, is presumed to know the existing law.' Blue
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