Crouch v. Craik

• Decision Date: 12 June 1963
• Docket Number: No. A-9447,A-9447
• Citation: 369 S.W.2d 311
• Parties: Doug CROUCH, Criminal District Attorney of Tarrant County, Relator, v. Honorable Harold CRAIK, Judge et al., Respondents.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 311

369 S.W.2d 311

Doug CROUCH, Criminal District Attorney of Tarrant County, Relator, v. Honorable Harold CRAIK, Judge et al., Respondents.

No. A-9447.

Supreme Court of Texas.

June 12, 1963.

Rehearing Denied July 17, 1963.

Doug Crouch, Dist. Atty., Albert F. Fick, Jr., and J. E. Winters, Asst. Dist. Attys., Fort Worth, for relator.

M. Hendricks Brown, Fort Worth, for respondents.

SMITH, Justice.

Clark's Worth, Inc., and a number of its employees filed suit for injunctive relief and also for damages and for a declaratory judgment under the Uniform Declaratory Judgment Act of the State of Texas, against the Honorable Doug Crouch, individually and in his capacity as Criminal District Attorney of Tarrant County, Texas. In that suit Clark's Worth, Inc., alleged that it owned and operated a department store in the City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas, and was engaged in selling and offering for sale merchandise such as clothing; home, business and office furniture, etc.; and that it and its employees, respondents herein, were lawfully operating such business and especially were not violating any of the provisions of Articles 286 ¹ and 287, ² of Vernon's Annotated Penal Code commonly known as the 'Sunday Closing Laws' of Texas, but to the contrary all operations were permitted and were in accordance with Article 286a ³ of the same Code.

Clark's Worth, Inc., et al., further alleged that Crouch and his aids and assistants have arrested, caused to be arrested falsely, imprisoned and falsely charged each of the individual respondents herein for the alleged violation of the above mentioned sections of the Penal Code of Texas.

Clark's Worth, Inc., takes the position that Articles 286 and 287, supra, were either repealed or amended by the enactment of Articles 286a, supra, by the Legislature, thus leaving no authority for the prosecution of the criminal charges against the individual respondents. Clark's Worth, Inc., et al., allege that under Section 4 ⁴ of Article 286a, supra, the operation of any business whether by an individual, partnership or corporation contrary to the provisions of Article 286a, supra, would constitute a public nuisance, and under the provisions of Section 4, Crouch could apply to any court of competent jurisdiction for a writ of injunction restraining any violation of such Act. It appears that the respondents were taking the position that Section 4, supra, provided Crouch's only remedy.

Crouch filed an answer and motion to dismiss alleging, among other things, that the 153rd District Court, the Civil District Court wherein the suit was pending, and the Court over which the Honorable Harold Craik, District Judge, presided lacked jurisdiction to the Clark's Worth's suit and was without power to enjoin and restrian the Criminal District Attorney of Tarrant County, Texas, from enforcing the criminal laws of the State of Texas. The Court overruled the motion to dismiss and in an order dated December 10, 1962, after stating that all allegations in the Clark's Worth et al. petition were accepted as true, held that the District Attorney had a 'full, adequate and complete remedy to enforce the provisions of the Act (286a), a remedy which would be fair and not oppressive to any of the parties involved.'

After a hearing, which began on January 7, 1963, the Court denied Clark's Worth et al. any recovery for monetary damages, either actual or exemplary, and denied the prayer ⁵ for a declaratory judgment, stating that such judgment was unnecessary in view of the injunctive relief ⁶ granted. Final judgment was rendered and entered on January 28, 1963. Clark's Worth, Inc., et al., appealed from that portion of the judgment denying damages and a declaratory judgment. Crouch did not appeal from the judgment wherein injunctive relief was granted in favor of Clark's Worth, Inc., et al., but on February 8, 1963, filed in this court his motion for leave to file a petition for writ of mandamus and prohibition. On February 13, 1963, the motion for leave to file was granted and on March 27, 1963, the cause was submitted both by briefs and oral argument.

The relator, Doug Crouch, seeks relief in this court praying that a writ of mandamus issue commanding the respondent, the Honorable Harold Craik, Judge of the 153rd Judicial District Court of Tarrant County, Texas, to set aside the permanent injunction granted by him on January 28, 1963, in cause number 26815-C on the docket of said court, and that this court issue a writ of prohibition prohibiting him, as District Judge, from in anywise interfering with the relator in the enforcement of the provisions of Articles 286, 286a and 287 of the Penal Code of the State of Texas, and prohibiting said Judge from entering any order adjudging or attempting to adjudge the relator or his deputies in contempt of said court by reason of any alleged disobedience of the injunction.

The writ of mandamus and writ of prohibition will issue for the reasons now to be stated. The respondent, Craik, was without power to enter the order granting the injunction. Therefore, the order was void, and in such a situation, this court does not hesitate to exercise its jurisdiction and grant the writs prayed for. Yett v. Cook, 115 Tex. 175, 268 S.W. 715, 281 S.W. 843; Seagraves v. Green, 116 Tex. 220, 288 S.W. 417; Pickle v. McCall, 86 Tex. 212, 24 S.W. 265; State v. Ferguson, 133 Tex. 60, 125 S.W.2d 272.

The respondent, Craik, admits in his brief, filed in this court, that Articles 286, 286a and 287 of the Texas Penal Code are valid statutes and have not been repealed. Section 5a of Article 286a expressly provides that it was not the intention of the Legislature to repeal Articles 286 and 287 by the adoption of 286a. However, Judge Craik does claim that Article 286 has been amended by the Legislature by its adoption of Article 286a, and that the relator, Crouch, is using the latter statute as a guise to perpetrate a gross abuse of the authority of his office. Judge Craik argues that the Clark's Worth Department Store, in his opinion, is abiding by the law, as declared in Article 286a, and that the acts of Crouch in filing complaints for violations of the provisions of Article 286 were arbitrary and unlawful and the arrests which followed were unreasonable.

Ordinarily a court of equity, such as the acting court in this case, is not concerned with the enforcement of criminal laws. Judge Craik was, therefore, completely without authority to even suggest that the relator, in the exercise of his duties, should proceed under Section 4 of Article 286a, or should proceed in accordance with his interpretation of the Penal Code. Assuming all of the allegations of Clark's Worth to be true, we still have no basis for holding that a court of equity has the power by injunction to stay the prosecution of criminal proceedings. The power and authority to interpret Articles 286, 286a and 287 rests solely with the courts of this state exercising criminal jurisdiction. It is only where a criminal statute is void and vested property rights are being...