Prince v. Inman, 5062

• Decision Date: 26 May 1955
• Docket Number: No. 5062,5062
• Citation: 280 S.W.2d 779
• Parties: Robert B. PRINCE et al., Appellants, v. Floyd INMAN, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 779

280 S.W.2d 779

Robert B. PRINCE et al., Appellants, v. Floyd INMAN, Appellee.

No. 5062.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Beaumont.

May 26, 1955.

Rehearing Denied June 15, 1955.

John T. Lindsey, Port Arthur, W. C. Lindsey, Port Neches, for appellants.

Clyde E. Smith, Jr., Woodville, for appellee.

R. L. MURRAY, Chief Justice.

The appellants Price et al. sued Inman, the appellee, seeking to enjoin him from acting as a member of the Board of Trustees of Warren Independent School District, in Tyler County. The District Court of Tyler County granted a temporary restraining order and after a trial dissolved such order and refused the application by appellants for a writ of injunction. The appellants have duly perfected their appeal from such judgment of the District Court.

The appellants are all duly elected and qualified members of the Board of Trustees of the Warren Independent School District. The appellee was a duly elected and qualified member of said Board of Trustees, having been elected to that position in April 1954.

On August 16, 1954 Inman sold his home in Warren and with his wife and two children moved to Nacogdoches County where he took employment as a salesman for the Phelan Company, a wholesale grocery concern. His employment there began August 15th. His family did not go with him at that time but came later. He stayed there about 32 or 33 days and then moved with his family back to Warren in Tyler County. The appellants say that when he sold his home and took his family to Nacogdoches County, lived in a rented house and entered his children in school, he had ceased to reside in Tyler County and thus vacated the office of a member of the Board of School Trustees. They say that he believes himself to be a member of the Board and attempts to attend meetings of the Board and if not restrained or enjoined will in that way interfere with the lawful members of the Board in their duties and will try to act as a Board member when he has in fact vacated that office.

The appellee on the other hand testified that he at no time permanently changed his residence from Tyler County to Nacogdoches County, but took the position with Phelan Company in Nacogdoches purely on a trial basis, intending at the time that he went to Nacogdoches to return to Warren, in the School District, if the job in Nacogdoches did not prove satisfactory to him. In corroboration of this intent on his part that his move was temporary in the event the job in Nacogdoches proved unsatisfactory, he shows by other evidence that his employer in Warren, who was his father-in-law, did not hire a replacement for him while he was away but kept his position open for him in case he should desire to return to Warren. He did not tell the Phelan Company that if he was not satisfied with the job he would return to Warren. He also showed by other evidence that he had expressed this intent to several people in Warren to return to Warren if not satisfied in Nacogdoches. He left part of his furniture stored in Warren when he left. In Nacogdoches, when he was trying to rent a home for his family, he was requested to sign a long term lease but refused to do so, saying that 'he might not be there a week, that he was wanting to test his job.'

Mr. Withers, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, testified that Mr. Inman, the appellee, was asked by him what he was going to do about his position on the Board, and he said, 'I am not going to resign because this is an approval job and I may come back.'

The trial was to the court without a jury and the trial court filed the following findings of fact:

'Findings of Fact

'No. 2-That the defendant, Floyd Inman, is one of the duly elected and qualified Trustees of said school district, having been elected by popular vote at a regular election in April, 1954, and qualified immediately thereafter as required by law and plaintiffs admit the truth of this finding.

'No. 3-I find that in August, 1954, the defendant temporarily left the District in the Warren, Texas, Tyler County area and went to Nacogdoches County for the purpose of trying out a job, but that he had no intention of vacating or abandoning his office as Trustee.

'No. 4-I find that the defendant did sell his house located within said district, but refused to buy a place in Nacogdoches because he did not intend to change his legal residence and domicile unless the employment which he was trying out on a trial basis proved unsatisfactory.

'No. 5-I find that defendant's stay in Nacogdoches was only temporary and that he did not accept the employment, but returned to Warren, Tyler County, Texas, within 32 days, where he has continued to live.

'No. 6-I find that the defendant did not at any time resign from or vacate the office of Trustee. He made every effort to perform his duties as such officer, but was prevented by plaintiffs from attending Board meetings after his return.

'No. 7-I find that under all the facts in this case including the fact that he did not resign as Worthy Patron of the Order of the Eastern Star, and that his former employer, Archie Spurlock, held the defendant's job open for him awaiting his return, and the fact that Spurlock refused to hire a man to take his place because he knew Inman was in Nacogdoches on a trial basis, that the defendant had formed no intention to make Nacogdoches his permanent residence, and that his temporary absence from Tyler County did not change his legal residence and domicile, and that he is and has been at all times involved herein a duly qualified and acting trustee of said school district and is entitled to all the rights and privileges of the office which he legally holds.

'No. 9-I find that the defendant did not sell his household furniture, but stored a part of it at the home of his father-in-law, Archie Spurlock, in Warren, and I further find that he stored the furniture because of the temporary status of his stay in Nacogdoches.'

The appellants' only point on appeal is that the trial court erred in making the finding of fact that appellee had formed no intention to make Nacogdoches his permanent residence, and that his temporary absence from Tyler County did not change his legal residence and domicile, and that the court's conclusion of law predicated on said finding of fact that appellee Inman is a qualified school trustee of the Warren Independent School District, are both contrary to the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence and the law applicable thereto, so as to be clearly wrong and unjust, and to constitute an abuse of his discretion.

It appears to be well settled that a school trustee of an independent school district is a county officer. Kimbrough v. Barnett, 93 Tex. 301, 55 S.W. 120; Miller v. Coffee, Tex.Civ.App., 17 S.W.2d 1100; Lamb v. State, Tex.Civ.App., 267 S.W.2d 285. As such officers, school board trustees are required by Article 16, § 14 of Vernon's Ann.St. Constitution of Texas to reside within the school district.

Failure to reside in the district serves to create a vacancy in the office. The Constitutional Article is held to be self-enacting and when...