J. C. Engleman Land Co. v. Donna Irr. Dist. No. 1

• Decision Date: 05 February 1919
• Docket Number: (No. 6216.)
• Citation: 209 S.W. 428
• Parties: J. C. ENGLEMAN LAND CO. et al. v. DONNA IRR. DIST. NO. 1 et al.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

209 S.W. 428

J. C. ENGLEMAN LAND CO. et al. v. DONNA IRR. DIST. NO. 1 et al.

(No. 6216.)

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. San Antonio.

February 5, 1919.

Rehearing Denied February 26, 1919.

Appeal from District Court, Hidalgo County; V. W. Taylor, Judge.

Suit by the J. C. Engleman Land Company and others against the Donna Irrigation District No. 1 and others. Petition for appointment of a receiver and restraining orders denied, and petitioners appeal. Affirmed.

Jas. A. Graham, of Brownsville, for appellants.

F. W. Seabury, of Brownsville, and Proctor, Vandenberge, Crain & Mitchell, of Victoria, for appellees.

FLY, C. J.

This is an appeal from an order of a district judge, made in vacation, denying the appointment of a receiver, and denying restraining orders as against the directors, agents, attorneys, and employés of the corporation, to prevent them from interfering with the receiver, and to deliver all property belonging to it. The suit was instituted by the Engleman Land Company against the irrigation district and G. B. Merriwether, F. G. Eppright, H. P. Jones, A. F. Hester, and A. T. Elliott, its directors, for a debt of $11,755.28, and in a subsequent petition the appointment of a receiver and a restraining order against the directors was sought, and in the alternative it was sought to remove the directors from office and restrain them from interfering with the management and control of the corporation. Nat Wetzel, claiming to be a voter in and resident of the district, intervened in the suit, adopting the pleadings of the plaintiff.

The Donna Irrigation District is a public corporation, organized under the statutes of Texas. Article 1118, and title 73, c. 2, Rev. St. It was created for a public purpose, and receives all its powers from the legislative act which created it, and cannot be dissolved, or have its powers destroyed, at the suit of any one except the state, from which it received its vitality. Kenney, Irr. and Water Rights, § 1404; Farnham, Waters and Water Rights, § 617, p. 1942; 15 R. C. L. § 46, p. 495. As said by the Supreme Court of California, in People v. Irrigation Dist., 98 Cal. 206, 32 Pac. 1047:

"The defendant is a public corporation, organized under a general law of the state, enacted by the Legislature for the purpose of promoting the general welfare."

The statute creating irrigation districts places their management and control in the hands of the board of directors, and there is no provision for dissolving such corporations, or the appointment of receivers at the instance of creditors. As said in the California case, herein cited, irrigation districts are not clothed with all the powers of municipal corporations, and yet all their powers and duties are public, and a receivership could with equal propriety be granted to take charge of the affairs of a city or county as of an irrigation district. Being created for public purposes by the state, the state alone can dissolve such corporations or take charge of its affairs. Fallbrook Irr. Dist. v. Bradley, 164 U. S. 112, 17 Sup. Ct. 56, 41 L. Ed. 369.

The statute gives the irrigation districts the authority to appoint boards of equalization to...