
    SHOREGERE v. WHITE.
    (S. C., Thomp. Cas., 148-149.)
    Knoxville,
    September Term, 1858.
    EXEMPTION PROM PUBLIC DUTIES. Strictly construed.
    A provision in a charter of a railroad exempting the “president, directors, clerks, agents, officers, and servants of the company from military duty, serving- on juries, and working on public roads,” dpes not apply to persons employed by the company to construct the road, or to their hired laborers. Statutes exonerating- individuals from the common burdens imposed on citizens generally, must be strictly construed. [Statute unconstitutional. Such statutes as this are unconstitutional, because class legislation. Neely v. State, 4 Lea, 316 (overruling Hawkins v. Small, 7 Bax., 193); Stratton v. Morris, 5 Pickle, 533.]
   McKinney, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court:

There is no error in the judgment of the circuit court. The provision of the charter exempting the “president, directors, clerks, agents, officers, and servants of the company from military duty, serving on juries and working on public roads,” has no application to persons employed by the company to construct the road, or to their hired laborers.

An exemption of this nature exonerating individuals from the common burdens imposed upon citizens generally, must be taken strictly, and must not be extended by construction beyond tbe manifest intention of tbe legislature.

Upon no just construction of the words of the charter can it be maintained that the contractors engaged in building the road, and their employes, are servants of the company, in the sense in which that term is used in the charter.

Judgment affirmed.  