Trustees of Independent S. Dist. v. Johnson County, Etc.

• Court: Texas Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: Greenwood
• Citation: Trustees of Independent S. Dist. v. Johnson County, Etc., 52 S.W.2d 71, 122 Tex. 48 (Tex. 1932)
• Decision Date: 02 July 1932
• Docket Number: No. 6250.,6250.
• Parties: TRUSTEES OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST. OF CLEBURNE v. JOHNSON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE et al.

52 S.W.2d 71

TRUSTEES OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST. OF CLEBURNE v. JOHNSON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE et al.

No. 6250.

Supreme Court of Texas.

July 2, 1932.

Error to Court of Civil Appeals of Tenth Supreme Judicial District.

Suit for mandamus by the Johnson County Democratic Executive Committee and others against the trustees of the Independent School District of Cleburne, in which the commissioners' court of Johnson county intervened. Judgment for relators and interveners was affirmed by the Court of Civil Appeals [52 S.W.(2d) 68], and defendants bring error.

Reversed and rendered.

Walker & Baker, of Cleburne, for plaintiffs in error.

Mitchell Davis and Penn J. Jackson, both of Cleburne, for defendants in error.

GREENWOOD, J.

G. Cone Smith and others, members of the County Democratic Executive Committee of Johnson County, as relators, and T. E. Darcy and others, the county judge and county commissioners of Johnson county, as interveners, sued C. L. Edgar and others, trustees of the independent school district of the city of Cleburne, as respondents, in the district court of Johnson county, to compel the trustees to allow relators and interveners to use certain schoolhouses in the city of Cleburne for the purpose of holding Democratic primaries on July 23, 1932, and August 28, 1932, and for the purpose of holding the general election on November 8, 1932. The district court rendered judgment awarding relators and interveners a writ of mandamus to compel the trustees to permit said schoolhouses to be used for holding said primaries and general election, and the Waco Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the judgment of the district court.

The Court of Civil Appeals based its judgment on the conclusion that article 2932 of the Revised Statutes so limited the right of the trustees to possess, control, and manage public free school houses in a city which has assumed control and management of its public free schools and which has determined that such control and management shall be in the board of trustees, that the trustees could not lawfully withhold such houses from use for holding primaries or elections under the finding of the trial court that it was practicable to hold the primaries and general election in the schoolhouses, despite the action of the trustees in refusing to consent to the holding of the primaries and election in the buildings under their control. 52 S.W. (2d) 68.

Article 2932 provides that: "In all cases where it is practicable so to do, all elections shall be held in some school house, fire station or other public building within the limits of the election precinct in which such election is being held. No charge shall be made for the use of such building, except that any additional expense actually incurred by the authorities in charge of such building on account of the holding of the election therein shall be repaid to them by the party who would be liable for the expenses of holding the election under the existing law. If there be no public building so available, such election may be held in some other building."

We think it manifest that article 2932 governs only general and special elections and not primaries, since the place of holding primary elections is expressly and differently provided for in article 3103 of the Revised Statutes, which reads: "The places of holding primary elections of political parties in the various precincts of the State shall not be within one hundred yards of the place at which such elections or conventions are held by a different political party. When the chairmen of the executive committees of the different parties cannot agree on the places where precinct primary elections to be held on the same day shall be held, such places in each precinct shall be designated by the county judge, who shall cause public notice thereof to be given at once in some newspaper in the county, or if there be none, by posting notices in some public place in the precinct."

It is not necessary for us to determine how the words "elections" and "election" would be construed in article 2932 under the decisions of Koy v. Schneider, 110 Tex. 369, 218 S. W. 479, 221 S. W. 880, and Newberry v. United States, 256 U. S. 232, 41 S. Ct. 469, 65 L....