Ex Parte Cain

• Decision Date: 23 June 1909
• Citation: 120 S.W. 999
• Parties: Ex parte CAIN.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

120 S.W. 999

Ex parte CAIN.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

June 23, 1909.

Application for a writ of habeas corpus by Tom Cain for his discharge from confinement, charged with violation of an ordinance of the City of Wichita Falls. Relator remanded to custody.

F. J. McCord, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

RAMSEY, J.

Appellant presents his application for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging in substance that he is illegally restrained of his liberty and confined by the city marshal of the city of Wichita Falls, and that he is so restrained by virtue of a certain warrant of arrest issued upon a complaint charging him with the violation of a certain city ordinance of the city of Wichita Falls, attached to his application. It is alleged that this ordinance is unconstitutional and void, and that he ought not to be restrained of his liberty by reason of any alleged violation of the same. Attached to the application is a warrant in due form for the arrest of appellant by the recorder of the city of Wichita Falls, and a return by the city marshal reciting in substance that he is held by virtue of said warrant. Accompanying the application is an affidavit by R. V. Guinn, charging in substance a violation of the city ordinance of said city, in that the said relator had made an addition to a wooden building situated within the fire limits, fully described and set out in said affidavit. A copy of the ordinance of the city of Wichita Falls is attached to the application, in which the fire limits of said city are distinctly set out, and it is provided that it shall be unlawful for any person thereafter to erect any building or structure of any other material than brick or stone for the walls, and metal, gravel, or slate for the roof, of such building or structure, except as therein provided. It is provided that any building hereafter erected, having more wood on the outside of the building than that required for the door and window frames, roof, eaves, doors, shutters, sash, porticos, and steps, shall be deemed a wooden building, subject to the penalties imposed by the preceding section; provided, however, that this section shall not be construed so as to prohibit awnings. It is also provided that it shall not be lawful for any person to move any wooden building within the fire limits to any other place within the same, nor from without to within the same, nor to elevate, nor to make an addition to, nor to cover with shingles or other combustible material,...