Dickson v. Strickland

• Court: Texas Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: Greenwood
• Citation: Dickson v. Strickland, 265 S.W. 1012 (Tex. 1924)
• Decision Date: 15 October 1924
• Docket Number: (No. 4215.)
• Parties: DICKSON v. STRICKLAND, Secretary of State, et al.

Page 1012

265 S.W. 1012

DICKSON v. STRICKLAND, Secretary of State, et al.

(No. 4215.)

Supreme Court of Texas.

October 15, 1924.

Certified Questions from Court of Civil Appeals of Third Supreme Judicial District.

Suit by Charles M. Dickson against J. J. Strickland, Secretary of State, and others. Decree for defendants, and plaintiff appealed to Court of Civil Appeals, which certifies questions. Questions answered.

I. W. Stephens, of Fort Worth, and Chas. M. Dickson, of San Antonio, for plaintiff.

W. A. Keeling, Atty. Gen., L. C. Sutton, Asst. Atty. Gen., and W. G. Love, of Houston, Jno. W. Brady, of Austin, John H. Bickett, Jr., of San Antonio, and Ocie Speer, of Fort Worth, for defendants.

GREENWOOD, J.

Certified questions from the honorable Court of Civil Appeals of the Third Supreme Judicial District of Texas, in an appeal from the district court of Travis county, Fifty-Third judicial district.

This case is before the Supreme Court on a certificate from the honorable Court of Civil Appeals reading as follows:

"The above styled and numbered cause is pending in this court on appeal from the district court of Travis county, Fifty-Third judicial district. The questions herein certified are material to a decision of the appeal, and grow out of the nature and result of the suit and the facts disclosed by the record before us, which, in so far as deemed material to this certificate, are the following:

"Charles M. Dickson, a resident citizen and legal voter and property taxpayer in the county of Bexar, state of Texas, brought the suit `as provided for in articles 3082, 3083, and 3083-a of the Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, and as otherwise provided by law,' against Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson and her husband, James E. Ferguson, J. J. Strickland, Secretary of State of Texas, and the county judge, county clerk, and sheriff of each of the counties of Texas, as members of the election board in such counties, for a temporary injunction restraining them from placing, or causing to be placed, the name of Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson as a candidate for Governor on the official ballot to be used in the general election to be held in the several counties in Texas on the 4th day of November, 1924, and to contest her right to hold the office of Governor under the Constitution and laws of Texas.

"Plaintiff's petition alleged, and the admitted facts show the following:

"That on September 25, 1917, the defendant Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson was, has been ever since, and is the wife of the defendant James E. Ferguson; that on September 25, 1917, the Senate of Texas, sitting as a court of impeachment for the trial of said James E. Ferguson, who was then Governor of Texas, on certain charges preferred by the House of Representatives, adjudged and decreed that he be removed from the office of Governor of Texas, and thereafter be disqualified to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under the state of Texas; that thereafter said James E. Ferguson announced himself as a candidate for the office of Governor to be voted on at the Democratic primary election ordered to take place on Saturday, July 26, 1924, but at the suit of one John F. Maddox, a voter and citizen of Texas, he was enjoined from having his name placed on the ticket at said primary election by the district court of Harris county, Tex., which judgment was affirmed by the Court of Civil Appeals for the First Supreme Judicial District of Texas, upon answers by the Supreme Court to questions certified in said cause by said Court of Civil Appeals; that thereafter the name of the said Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson was placed on the ballot used at the primary elections held on July 26, 1924, and August 23, 1924, at which primary elections she received a majority of the votes cast for nomination for the office of Governor, and in consequence thereof she received the Democratic nomination for Governor on September 3, 1924, from the Democratic Convention of Texas, which assembled in Austin on September 2, 1924; and on September 3, 1924, the chairman and secretary of said convention delivered to the acting secretary of state of Texas, a certificate containing the names of those nominated by said convention, which said list of names, including the name of said Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson, was certified and transmitted by said acting Secretary of State to the county judge of each county in the state of Texas; and the list of names, including that of Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson, to be placed upon the official ballot for the approaching November election, is now in the hands of the several judges of the state of Texas, or will be in due course of mail, and, unless restrained from doing so, the county clerks of the several counties in Texas will cause the name of said Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson to be placed on the official ballot as the Democratic candidate for Governor of Texas, and, unless restrained from doing so, the official ballot containing her name as said candidate will be placed in the hands of the officers and judges of said November election by the election board of each county.

"It is contended in the petition that Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson is ineligible to hold the office of Governor, (1) because she is a woman; (2) because she is a married woman; and (3) because she is the wife of James E. Ferguson, who stands impeached and thereby disqualified to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under the state of Texas.

"As a further cause of ineligibility to the office of Governor on the part of Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson, the petition, after setting forth the facts with reference to the impeachment and the injunction proceeding against James E. Ferguson, alleges:

"`And thereupon the said James E. Ferguson, as your petitioner is informed, believes, and charges, caused the name of his wife to be placed on the ballot at said primary election as a candidate for Governor in pursuance of an understanding, as your petitioner is informed, believes, and charges, between the said James E. Ferguson and his wife, that by this means the said James E. Ferguson would become a candidate in the name of his wife for the Democratic nomination for the office of Governor, and, that, if said nomination was obtained in the name of his wife, then the said James E. Ferguson would be the Democratic nominee for Governor of Texas in the name of his wife, and be elected Governor of Texas in the name of his wife, and, if elected in the November election, the said James E. Ferguson would be the real Governor and the said Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson merely a figurehead or Governor in name only; and that, in pursuance of this understanding, her name as candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor was again placed on the ballot to be used at the primary election held August 23, 1924.' `Wherefore your petitioner charges that the said James E. Ferguson is the real candidate for Governor, using his wife's name, with her consent, for the purpose of circumventing and evading the force and effect of the impeachment decree disqualifying him from acting as Governor, or becoming a candidate therefor.'

"The defendant Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson, in reply to the allegations in the last two quotations from plaintiff's petition, pleaded the following denial:

"`In this connection this defendant specially denies that the defendant James E. Ferguson caused this defendant's name to be placed on the ballot at the said primary election as a candidate for Governor, or that he caused her name to be so placed on said ballot in pursuance of any understanding, either express or implied, that by so doing the said James E. Ferguson would become a candidate in the name of this defendant, or with any understanding or agreement that, if said nomination was obtained, the said James E. Ferguson would be the nominee for Governor in the name of this defendant, or with any understanding or agreement that, if she was elected at the November election, the said James E. Ferguson would be the real Governor, and this defendant a mere figurehead, or Governor in name only. This defendant further specially denies that the said James E. Ferguson is the real candidate for Governor, or that he is using this defendant's name with her consent for the purpose of circumventing or evading the force and the effect of the impeachment decree referred to in the plaintiff's petition. And this defendant further specially denies that if she is elected to the office of Governor that the said James E. Ferguson will become the real Governor of Texas, as is alleged in plaintiff's petition, and denies that in the event of her election she will become only nominally the Governor of said state. This defendant further alleges in that connection that she became a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the office of Governor upon her own volition and without any understanding or agreement, either express or implied, with her husband, James E. Ferguson, or any one else, that in the event of her nomination and election the said James E. Ferguson would hold or administer the office of Governor, or that he would be the real Governor and she a mere figurehead. That this defendant, in the event of her election to the office of Governor, will hold and administer said office in her individual capacity as is required by the oath of office which she will take, and that her election will not result in the said James E. Ferguson becoming either nominally or actually the Governor of Texas, or controlling or administering the affairs of said office.'

"This pleading was adopted by defendant James E. Ferguson.

"In reply to this denial, the plaintiff pleaded two articles which appeared in the Ferguson Forum during the campaign in which Mrs. Ferguson received the Democratic nomination for Governor, and a circular to the voters in said campaign, signed by Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson. It was admitted by the defendants that these two published articles were issued by authority of defendants James E....