Ex parte Palmateer, A-3370
| Decision Date | 31 October 1951 |
| Docket Number | No. A-3370,A-3370 |
| Parties | Ex parte PALMATEER. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
James E. Anderson and James E. Robinson, Amarillo, for relator.
James W. Witherspoon, John D. Aikin, Wayne Thomas and Mel Ruth Aikin, Hereford, for intervenor respondents, Pearl Marie Palmateer and others, minors.
This is an original proceeding instituted in this court by Ralph H. Palmateer for a writ of habeas corpus releasing him from the restraint of an order of the District Court of Parmer County entered on May 28, 1951, adjudging him to be guilty of constructive contempt of that court for violating an order entered therein on July 15, 1941, in a divorce suit commanding him to pay $60 per month toward the support of his three minor children until each reached the age of sixteen years. It appears that a valid judgment of contempt was entered but that no written order of commitment or other type of warrant was ever issued and delivered to the sheriff. Relator was confined in jail from May 28, 1951, until this court recently ordered his release on bond, pending a decision on the merits of his application.
The question determinative of the case is whether a peace officer may legally imprison a citizen who has been adjudged to be in contempt of court when there has not been issued and delivered to such officer a writ of commitment authorizing him to do so. We have discovered but few authorities on this precise question. Most of the cases in this State dealing with the question in any way are decisions by our Court of Criminal Appeals, but, as held by this court in Ex parte Scott, 133 Tex. 1, 10, 123 S.W.2d 306, 311, 126 S.W.2d 626, 'Since contempt proceedings are essentially criminal in nature it follows that they should conform as nearly as practicable to proceedings in criminal cases.'
An early decision which has been most frequently cited is Ex parte Kearby, 35 Tex.Cr.R. 531, 34 S.W. 635; Id., 35 Tex.Cr.R. 634, 34 S.W. 962, 964. In that case there was neither a written judgment of contempt nor a written commitment. In ordering the relator discharged the court stated: 'Both of these steps should have been taken, and without both no court ought to be armed with the power to imprison a citizen, no matter what the contempt may have been.' A number of later decisions have cited and followed the decision in that case. In most of them there was neither a written judgment nor a written order of commitment. However, in Ex parte Alderete, 83 Tex.Cr.R. 358, 203 S.W. 763, where there was a written judgment of contempt the relator was discharged because there was not issued and delivered to the sheriff a written commitment. In Ex parte Ogden, 63 Tex.Cr.R. 380, 140 S.W. 345, the relator was imprisoned under a verbal order. Later during the term the court entered a written order, but no written...
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