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239 Ala. 662

196 So 746

Sexton v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 6, 1940

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1940-06-06

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“is a tautological expression, since all highways are necessarily public.'”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 555 So. 2d 246 - Lunceford v. City of Northport

“is the generic term for all kinds of public ways * * *, and the phrase”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 555 So. 2d 246 - Lunceford v. City of Northport

Relies on Schlesinger v. City of Atlanta · Southern Railway Co. v. Combs · 29 Ala. App. 336 - Sexton v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1940-06-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently June 1989

1 federal appellate · 8 state decisions

4019401950196019701980decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

KNIGHT, Justice.

¶1 This case comes before us on petition for writ of certiorari by the State, on relation of the Attorney General, to review and revise the opinion and judgment of the Court of Appeals in the case of Tom Sexton v. State, 196 So. 742. The writ must be denied.

¶2 In view of the fact that there may be another trial of this case in the circuit court, we deem it proper to here say, that we do not approve what is said in the opinion of the Court of Appeals with reference to there being a difference in legal *663 meaning between a “highway” and a “public highway.” The distinction attempted to be pointed out by the Court of Appeals between a “highway” and a “public highway” does not exist. “The term ‘highway’ is the generic term for all kinds of public ways …, and the phrase ‘public highway’ is a tautological expression, since all highways are necessarily public.” State v. District Court of Fourteenth Judicial Dist. in and for Broadwater County, 80 Mont. 228, 260 P. 134, 135; Omaha & Council Bluffs St. Ry. Co. v. City of Omaha, 114 Neb. 483, 208 N.W. 123; Canard v. State, 174 Ark. 918, 298 S.W. 24; Southern Ry. Co. v. Combs, 124 Ga. 1004, 53 S.E. 508; New Deemer Mfg. Co. v. Kilpatrick, 129 Miss. 268, 92 So. 71; Schlesinger v. City of Atlanta, 161 Ga. 148, 129 S.E. 861.

¶3 With the opinion of the Court of Appeals thus corrected, writ deniéd.

All the Justices concur.
/239/ala/662 · .json · Public domain