Moore v. State

• Decision Date: 26 May 1909
• Citation: 119 S.W. 858
• Parties: MOORE v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

119 S.W. 858

MOORE v. STATE.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

May 26, 1909.

Appeal from Aransas County Court; F. Stevens, Judge.

C. H. Moore was convicted of obstructing a public road, and he appeals. Reversed.

S. N. Dorsett and W. H. Baldwin, for appellant. F. J. McCord, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

RAMSEY, J.

Appellant was convicted in the county court of Aransas county, on the 7th day of October, 1908, of willfully obstructing the public road, and his punishment assessed at a fine of $450. The appeal involves many questions; but, in view of the disposition we have concluded to make of the case, it becomes important to consider but one of them.

The record shows that the complaint was filed on the 29th day of June, A. D. 1908, by H. T. Bailey, before John C. Herring, clerk of the county court of Aransas county. On that day F. Stevens, county judge of Aransas county, appointed one John B. Eddins county attorney pro tem. to take the complaint and file the necessary information in reference to the offense of which appellant here stands charged. On the same day Eddins, purporting to be acting county attorney of Aransas county, Tex., filed an information against appellant on the complaint above recited, charging him with the offense of which he was later convicted. The term of the county court at which appellant was convicted began on the 5th day of October, 1908, and adjourned on the 25th day of the same month. After conviction appellant moved in arrest of judgment on the ground, in substance, that the information on which he had been tried was illegal and void, in that John B. Eddins, the person who presented said information to the court, was not at the time he so presented same a duly elected or appointed county attorney or assistant county attorney in said county, nor a duly appointed or elected district attorney of the district including Aransas county, or any officer of the state of Texas, or county of Aransas, empowered to present informations in said court. The facts are fully set up in the bill of exceptions, and in addition thereto the county judge, at the request of both parties, in approving the bill made the following statement: "Aransas county has not now, and has not had for several years, a regular county attorney; neither has it a resident district attorney. The district attorney for this district resides in Stockdale, Wilson county, about 150 miles away from this county. John B. Eddins, a practicing attorney at this bar, was appointed by me to represent the state in this cause in vacation, and drew and filed the information in vacation, but was afterwards appointed by me during the term at which this cause was tried to represent the state generally in all criminal causes during said term, which order appears on the minutes of the county court of this county."

Appellant makes the proposition that a county judge has...