Burns v. Town of La Grange
| Decision Date | 01 January 1856 |
| Citation | 17 Tex. 415 |
| Parties | J. R. BURNS v. THE TOWN OF LA GRANGE. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
The defendant in a prosecution before the mayor of a town, for violating an ordinance of the town, is entitled under the constitution (art. 4, sec. 19) to a trial by jury. [ Post, 643.]
The proceedings of a mayor's court in a prosecution for the violation of a town ordinance are examinable on certiorari from the district court, but it would seem that the prosecution is not triable de novo.
Quære, whether a defendant who has been convicted and punished before a justice of the peace, for an assault and battery, can be tried and punished in a mayor's court for the same act under an ordinance of the town.
Appeal from Fayette. Tried below before the Hon. John Hancock.
J. R. Burns, for appellant, cited Town of Raleigh v. Daugherty, 3 Hum. 11;1 Bay, 389; 1 Bac. 504; 2 P. Wms. 209, to the point that the corporation had no power to pass ordinances for the punishment of ordinary offenses. And 3 Story, Com. Con. pp. 652-4; Mag. Chart. ch. 29; 2 Just. 45; 3 Black. Com. 349; 1 Bay, 389, to the point that the appellant was entitled to a trial by a jury.
J. T. Harcourt, for appellee. The plea of autre fois convict cannot avail the appellant, because the same act constitutes two offenses.
The provision of the charter is not in conflict with the constitutional right of trial by jury, as that right can only attach where “the life, the liberty, the personal safety of the citizen are immediately brought into jeopardy.” The doctrine that such a summary conviction is not an infringement of the right of trial by jury is as old as the law itself. (Black. Com. vol. 2, p. 281.)
The appellant was tried before a justice of the peace in the town of La Grange for an assault and battery committed within the corporate limits of the said town, and fined twenty dollars with cost, which he paid and received the certificate of the justice of such fine and payment. On the next day he was brought before the mayor of the town and tried for the same assault and battery, under an ordinance for the punishment of assaults and battery, on which trial he offered in bar the certificate of the justice of the peace, which defense was overruled, and he then demanded a trial by jury, which was refused, and he was fined thirty dollars. The case was taken by certiorari to the district court, which court dismissed the certiorari, on demurrer; from which judgment the appellant appealed.
The charter of the corporation of the town of La Grange provides “that the mayor shall, in a...
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Ex Parte Martinez
...and even for the purpose of nullifying judgments obtained for the nonobservance of fundamental rights. A case in point is Burns v. La Grange, 17 Tex. 415. In that case Burns was tried and convicted in a municipal court without a jury for violating a city ordinance. The court held the certio......
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Landry v. Hoepfner
...Rico 1976). 17 In Texas, it has always been the rule that any criminal prosecution entitles the defendant to a jury. See Burns v. La Grange, 17 Tex. 415 (1856) (offense authorizing maximum of $30 fine and no imprisonment); Smith v. San Antonio, 17 Tex. 644 (1856) (permitting gambling on pre......
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Stutsman v. City of Cheyenne
...983; Work v. State, 2 O. St. 297; Slaughter v. People, 2 Doug. 334; Welch v. Stowell, 2 Doug. 331; State v. Berry, 68 N.H. 495; Burns v. LaGrange, 17 Tex. 415; Smith San Antonio, 17 Tex. 644; Green v. Briggs, 1 Curt. C. C. 311; Saco v. Wentworth, 37 Me. 165; Danner v. State, 89 Md. 220.) In......