Hibbitts v. Robison

• Decision Date: 04 March 1926
• Docket Number: (No. 3152.)
• Citation: 281 S.W. 574
• Parties: HIBBITTS et al. v. ROBISON et al.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 574

281 S.W. 574

HIBBITTS et al. v. ROBISON et al.

(No. 3152.)

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. Texarkana.

March 4, 1926.

Rehearing Denied March 18, 1926.

Appeal from District Court, Morris County; R. T. Wilkinson, Judge.

Injunction suit by C. A. Robison and others, trustees of the Naples independent school district, and others against C. D. Hibbitts and another, trustees of said school district, and others. From an order granting a temporary injunction, defendants appeal. Reversed and rendered.

This was a suit by C. A. Robison, Sam W. Robison, and W. W. Harwell, trustees of the Naples independent school district, and W. W. Robison, Fred Hampton, and J. R. Hampton, "citizens, taxpayers, and patrons" of the school in said district, against C. D. Hibbitts and W. O. Bryan, also trustees of said school district, A. Lewis, who, it was alleged, was assuming to act as a trustee thereof, one T. D. Masters, who, it was alleged, had contracted to construct a school building for said district, and the Morris County National Bank, which, it was alleged, was the depository of $34,000 the proceeds of bonds voted for use in acquiring a site and constructing a schoolhouse thereon. It was for an injunction restraining Masters from constructing the house on land described as the "old school site," on the ground that same had never been lawfully selected and designated for that purpose; restraining Hibbitts, the president of the board of trustees, and Bryan, the secretary thereof, from drawing warrants against funds of the district on account of such building, and the bank from paying any such warrants, if drawn, out of funds in its hands belonging to the district. At the hearing before the district judge in vacation to determine whether a temporary injunction should be issued as prayed for by the plaintiffs, appellees here, it was shown by minutes kept of proceedings of the board of trustees that the trustees (seven in number) determined at a meeting held May 30, 1925, to call in four citizens of the district to assist them in selecting a site for the building to be constructed, and that at a meeting June 1, 1925, of the trustees and the four citizens six voted to locate the building on said "old school site," and five to locate it on what was described as the "Sam Moore place." It appeared from oral testimony of witnesses admitted at the hearing that four of the seven trustees and one of the four citizens voted for the Sam Moore place as a site for the building, and that three of the trustees and three of the citizens voted for the "old school site." There was testimony that Masters, by authority of a contract entered into between him and the school district, had commenced the construction of the school building on the "old school site" at the time the suit was instituted. The appeal is from an order of the district judge granting a temporary injunction as prayed for by appellees.

Lloyd E. Price, of Texarkana, C. G. Engledow, of Pittsburg, and W. E. Newland, of Naples, for appellants.

Henderson & Bolin, of Daingerfield, and J. A. Ward, of Mt. Pleasant, for appellees.

WILLSON, C. J. (after stating the facts as above).

It appeared from testimony heard by the district judge that no appeal was prosecuted from the order of June 1, 1925, determining that the new building should be constructed on the "old school site." Appellants insist that it therefore appeared that the judge was without power to grant the injunction. Appellees, on the other hand, insist it appeared that a majority of the trustees voted in favor of constructing the building on the Sam...