Ex Parte Haney

• Decision Date: 28 June 1907
• Citation: 103 S.W. 1155
• Parties: Ex parte HANEY.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 1155

103 S.W. 1155

Ex parte HANEY.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

June 28, 1907.

Appeal from Palo Pinto County Court; E. B. Ritchie, Judge.

Application of Rube Haney for a writ of habeas corpus. From an order of the county judge remanding him to custody, applicant appeals. Applicant discharged.

C. Nugent and Eli Oxford, for appellant. F. J. McCord, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

HENDERSON, J.

Appellant was arrested on an information charging him with violating the local option law in the Gordon independent school district No. 32 of Palo Pinto county. Appellant sued out a writ of habeas corpus before the county judge of said county, and was remanded to custody, and has prosecuted an appeal to this court.

Appellant questions the legality of the local option law in said independent school district on the ground that said school district is not such a political subdivision of the county as under the Constitution is authorized to adopt local option. The specific objections urged by appellant are as follows: "(1) That said election is null and void under the Constitution of the state of Texas, because the Legislature is without any authority to enact a law authorizing the commissioners' court to order an election in any school district, and more especially in independent school districts, in the state of Texas, under article 16, § 20, of the Constitution of 1876, and as amended in 1891. (2) That the commissioners' court is without any authority under the Constitution and laws of the state of Texas to have a local option election in an independent school district, because an independent school district is not the class, kind, nor character of subdivision of a county contemplated by the Constitution of the state of Texas of 1876 (article 16, § 20), as amended in 1891. That the petition upon which said election is based is null and void, and without legal force or effect, because said petition orders an election in territory not recognized as a political subdivision by the Constitution and the laws of Texas. (3) That independent school districts are simply corporations for school purposes alone, and are not recognized by the Constitution and laws as local option territory."

To support his contention appellant refers us to the provisions of section 20, art. 16, of the Constitution, and to the construction thereof in Ex parte Heyman, 45 Tex. Cr. App. 532, 78 S. W. 349. In said case we had before us a combination of seven out of the eight justice precincts in the county as a subdivision of the county formulated by the commissioners' court, and we there, in construing said constitutional provision, used this language: "Now, under the above rule of construction, when the Constitution named certain known subdivisions of counties, and then authorized the Legislature to empower the commissioners' court to designate such other subdivisions of a county for local option purposes, obviously we would understand that the power conferred was to name some other existing subdivision such as those already mentioned. `Such,' in this connection, we think unmistakably means `subdivisions of like character, political subdivisions of the county.'" We note, in illustrating our position, among other things, we stated that commissioners' precincts and school districts were of like character with those mentioned in the Constitution. The question of school districts was not before us in that case, and we are now confronted, for the first time, with the proposition that school districts are like political subdivisions with those mentioned in the Constitution. The question, therefore, is, can we so regard them?

To our mind it is very clear that commissioners' precincts are of like character, because the Constitution in terms provides for such commissioners' precincts, and they constitute a part of the judicial autonomy of the county itself. Commissioners' precincts, justice precincts, towns, and cities are all a part of the political machinery of the county, and are designated as such by the Constitution, and from which officers appertaining to the county are elected. Each is an integral part...