Appellant State Highway Commission seeks an injunction against respondents Duane C. and Gonnie Wiggins from operating what is alleged to be an unlawful junk yard.
Appellant alleged that respondents operate a junk yard within 1,000 feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way of Missouri State Highway 25; that the junk yard was not lawfully in existence on August 4, 1966, in that it was “within 200 feet of the right-of-way of a state road” and was not screened; that the junk yard is not licensed to operate; and that after having given notice to “correct the violation of law within 60 days” respondents have failed to do so.
Respondents alleged that they operated “an automobile business” which had been in operation many years prior to August 4, 1966, and that on that date and at no time thereafter were any junked automobiles or parts maintained within 200 feet of State Highway 25. Respondents also alleged that Senate Bill 9, Laws of Missouri 1965, page 905 (now §§ 226.650-226.720, V.A.M.S., and hereafter referred to by section numbers) is unconstitutional for several reasons, at least one of which was not ruled on in Deimeke v. State Highway Commission, Mo., 444 5.W.2d 480.
At the conclusion of all the evidence the trial court found “the issues against [appellant] and in favor” of respondents, and it decreed that the “petition for injunction be denied and dismissed.”
We are first confronted with the issue of whether appellate jurisdiction is in this court. If so, it is solely because the case is one “involving the construction of the Constitution * * * of this state.” Art. V, § 3, Constitution of Mo., V.A.M.S.
A constitutional issue may be presented by a defendant in the trial court, and in the event of a ruling thereon adverse to the appellant, the issue may, if preserved for appellate review establish exclusive appellate jurisdiction in this court. For example, see Ivey v. Ayers, Mo., 301 S.W.2d 790. Appellant contends jurisdiction in this case is in this court because by finding “the issues” in favor of respondents, the trial court sustained respondents’ contention that §§ 226.650-226.720 are unconstitutional. Respondents filed no motion for new trial because they won in the trial court, but in the event the factual issues are decided against them on this appeal they have attempted to keep the constitutional issues alive by briefing them.
As a general rule, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, a general judgment for one party involves a finding in *902that party’s favor on all issues properly before the court. 49 C.J.S. Judgments § 441. The issue of the constitutionality of §§ 226.-650-226.720 was before the circuit court, and we necessarily conclude that the trial court held adversely to appellant on that issue. It may be that this appeal can be decided without reaching the constitutional issue, but jurisdiction once acquired is not lost because the appeal may be disposed of on other grounds. City of St. Louis v. Flynn, Mo., 386 S.W.2d 44; Haley v. Horjul, Inc., Mo., 281 S.W.2d 832. We mention one further matter to demonstrate the soundness of the above result. If this case should be transferred to the court of appeals, and if that court agreed with respondents’ contentions on the issues not involving the constitutionality of the statutes, then the case could be disposed of by that court. But if the court of appeals found those issues in accord with the contentions of appellant, then the challenge to the constitutionality of the statute must be ruled, an issue outside the jurisdiction of the court of appeals. The case would then have to be transferred to this court. However, this court has exclusive appellate' jurisdiction of the case or no jurisdiction at all; not exclusive jurisdiction of certain issues of a case. Exclusive appellate jurisdiction of a. case cannot depend upon how certain issues of that case are decided, with appellate jurisdiction in this court if decided one way but jurisdiction in the court of appeals if decided the other way. We conclude that appellate jurisdiction of this case is in this court.
It is provided in § 226.670, that no person shall establish or operate a junk yard, any portion of which is within 1,000 feet of the “nearest edge of the right-of-way of any interstate or primary highway” without first obtaining a license from the State Highway Commission. § 226.680 limits the granting of licenses to four specified categories, and § 226.690 provides that junk yards “lawfully in existence on August 4, 1966,” but which are within 1,000 feet of and are visible from the highway are to be screened, if feasible, by the State Highway Commission at its expense, and the Commission is empowered to acquire such lands or interest in lands as necessary for such screening.
Prior to the enactment of §§ 226.650-226.720, the statutory provision regulating junk yards was § 229.180, now repealed, which provided that “No auto wrecking yard or junk yard shall be established, maintained or operated within two hundred feet of any state or county road in this state, unless such auto wrecking yard or junk yard is screened * * Violation of this statute was made a misdemeanor. § 229.190.
Appellant called as a witness Duane C. Wiggins who admitted that he operated a junk yard. However, he further testified that prior to August 4, 1966, he measured a line parallel to the highway and 200 feet “from the edge of the pavement,” and that from then on he placed and kept all of his “salvagable vehicles” back of that line. However, his testimony indicates that on August 4, 1966, he was operating a junk yard, a portion of which was within 200 feet of the “nearest edge of the right-of-way” for State Highway 25. There was an attempt on the part of the appellant to show that after August 4, 1966 respondents had kept or maintained junk within 200 feet of the edge of the pavement, but that evidence was not persuasive. It certainly did not compel such a conclusion, and the trial court did not so find. There is no compelling reason why this court should not defer to the findings of the trial court in this respect. The essential question is one of law, and that is whether the 200 feet referred to in § 229.180 is to be measured from the “nearest edge of the right-of-way” or from the pavement, or from some other part of the road.
The basic rule of construction of a statute is to seek the intention of the Legislature, Julian v. Mayor, Councilmen and Citizens of City of Liberty, Mo., 391 S.W.2d 864, which should be ascertained *903from the words used, if that is possible, Christy v. Petrus, 365 Mo. 1187, 295 S.W.2d 122, and in doing so the words should be given their plain and ordinary meaning so as to promote the object and manifest purpose of the statute. City of St. Joseph v. Hankinson, Mo., 312 S.W.2d 4. The word “road” is a generic term, Inhabitants of Windham v. Cumberland County Commissioners, 26 Me. 406, and has no fixed legal meaning. Southern Ry. Co. v. Combs, 124 Ga. 1004, 53 S.E. 508. Depending upon the purpose of the statute in which the word is used it has been held to include ferries and bridges, Almond v. Gilmer, 188 Va. 822, 51 S.E.2d 272; the improved portion of a highway, Elms v. Flick, 100 Ohio St. 186, 126 N.E. 66; Armour & Co. v. Yoter, 40 Ohio App. 225, 178 N.E. 596; but not bridges over large streams, Hedrick v. Summers County Court, 71 W.Va. 732, 77 S.E. 359; nor approaches to bridges, Robinson v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of Passaic County, 91 N.J.L. 154, 102 A. 359; nor ditches, slopes or shoulders, Norfolk & W. Ry. Co. v. Faris, 156 Va. 205, 157 S.E. 819. The term “to the road” in a deed describing a line as extending to the road was held to mean the center of the road in Goodeno v. Hutchinson, 54 N.H. 159.
The Legislature of this State has used the term “road” with different meanings. In § 229.010 it is provided that all “public roads” shall not be less than 30 feet in width. This necessarily refers to the width of the public right-of-way. However, in § 229.030 it is provided that “public roads” shall be cleared of all obstructions therein “that hinder or interfere with travel or traffic thereon, and shall be made firm, and the surface thereof shall be kept in a reasonably smooth and level condition.” Here the term obviously refers to the traveled portion of the highway. It is also clear that the Legislature has recognized that the terms “right-of-way” and “road” are not necessarily the same. § 229.110 requires the trimming of a hedge fence “situated along or near the right of way of any public road,” and in § 229.150 it is made a crime to willfully obstruct or damage a “public road” “by turning water upon such road or right of way, or by throwing or depositing brush, trees, stumps, logs, or any refuse or debris whatsoever, in said road, or on the sides or in the ditches thereof, or by fencing across or upon the right of way of the same.”
Recognizing that the Legislature has used the term “road” with different meanings, we must attempt, by examining the total circumstances and the purpose or object of the legislation, to determine the intent of the Legislature when it used the term in § 229.180.
The obvious purpose of § 229.180 was to require that junk yards be screened from the view of the persons using the road, or that the portion of a junk yard nearest to a road be located not less than 200 feet from persons normally using the road. This is evident from the provision in the statute that when a junk yard was required to be screened, the screen should be “of sufficient height to screen the wrecked or disabled automobiles or junk kept therein from the view of persons using such road on foot or in vehicles in the ordinary manner.” A use of a road “in the ordinary manner” obviously refers to a use of that portion which has been prepared and adapted to travel; it would not refer to a use of the ditches, slopes, or grass-covered areas extending to what is referred to as the right-of-way line. This construction of § 229.180 is supported by the language subsequently used by the Legislature when it enacted §§ 226.650-226.720. Apparently the Legislature recognized that the language of § 229.180 did not express an intent to measure the 200 feet from the right-of-way line of a road, because § 226.670 provides that “No person shall operate, establish, or maintain a junkyard, any portion of which is within one thousand feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way of any interstate or primary highway, * * If the language of § 229.180 expressed an intent that the 200 feet therein provided for should be *904measured from “the nearest right-of-way line,” as contended by appellant, the Legislature would not have deemed it necessary to change the language and specifically provide that the one thousand feet should be measured from the “nearest edge of the right-of-way.” In addition, in the same legislative act in which § 226.670 was enacted using the reference to the “nearest edge of the right-of-way,” the Legislature included what is now § 226.720, pertaining to junk yards near “state and county roads” other than those referred to in § 226.670, and it there provided that “No junkyard shall be established, maintained or operated within two hundred feet of any other state or county road in this state unless such junkyard is screened * * It thus appears that in the same legislative act it is provided that the 1,000-foot limit should be measured from the “nearest edge of the right-of-way” and that the 200-foot limit should be measured from the “state or county road.” Some meaning must be attributed to the difference in the language, and the courts must give some effect to the change in language used by the Legislature when it enacted § 226.670. 82 C.J.S. Statutes § 384, p. 905. It is perfectly clear what was meant by the provision that the 1,000 feet should be measured from the “nearest edge of the right-of-way,” and it is equally clear that the Legislature did not use that term and the provision for measuring the 200 feet from “any state or county road” with the intent that they have the same meaning. When we consider the obvious purpose of § 229.180, and the subsequent recognition by the Legislature that § 229.-180 did not call for the measurement of the 200 feet to be from the “nearest edge of the right-of-way,” we conclude that the Legislature intended that the 200 feet provided for in § 229.180 should be measured from that portion of the highway which would be used by persons “using such road on foot or in vehicles in the ordinary manner,” and not from the “nearest edge of the right-of-way.” When so construed, and applied to the facts of this case, and when we give deference to the evaluation of the evidence by the trial court, appellant did not sustain its burden of establishing its right to the injunction requested.
One further matter merits a brief comment. § 226.700 authorizes appellant “to promulgate reasonable rules and regulations to implement” §§ 226.650-226.720, and appellant offered in evidence its “Rules For Licensing Junkyards.” Section 7 thereof provides that “Any junkyard which, on August 4, 1966, is located within 200 feet of the nearest right of way line of any interstate or primary highway and which is visible from said highway and is not screened * * * shall not be considered to be a junkyard lawfully in existence on August 4, 1966, * * *.” The statutory authority to promulgate reasonable rules and regulations does not include the authority to declare that the 200 feet provided for in § 229.180 must be measured from the nearest edge of the right-of-way when the construction by the courts of that statute is otherwise.
All the constitutional issues raised by respondent, and apparently ruled adversely to appellant by the trial court, were ruled adversely to respondent in Deimeke v. State Highway Commission, Mo., 444 S.W.2d 480, except the contention pertaining to the denial of equal protection of the laws. In view of our conclusion on the other issues we need not rule this remaining constitutional issue. However, as previously noted, this result does not deprive this court of appellate jurisdiction of the case.
The judgment is affirmed.
PER CURIAM.
The foregoing opinion written in Division Two by STOCKARD, C., is adopted as the opinion of the Court en Banc. The judgment is affirmed.
FINCH, J., concurs in separate concurring opinion filed. SEILER, MORGAN, HOLMAN and BARDGETT, JJ., concur and concur in separate concurring opinion of FINCH, J. *905DONNELLY, J., dissents in separate dissenting opinion filed. HENLEY, C. J., dissents and concurs in separate dissenting opinion of DON-NELLY, J.