Aldridge v. Hamlin

184 S.W. 602, 1916 Tex. App. LEXIS 319
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 4, 1916
DocketNo. 886.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 184 S.W. 602 (Aldridge v. Hamlin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aldridge v. Hamlin, 184 S.W. 602, 1916 Tex. App. LEXIS 319 (Tex. Ct. App. 1916).

Opinion

HENDRICKS, J.

This case involves the ■contest of an election, over the removal of the county seat of Parmer county, Tex., from Farwell to Parmerton. The county judge, in announcing the returns and declaring the result of the election, stated a total of 228 votes, 110 for the county seat remaining at Farwell, 114 for removal to Parmerton, three for Friona, and one for Bovina. As canvassed, Parmerton not having received the majority (its vote being equal to Friona and Farwell), the result was declared in favor of the county seat remaining at Far-well. The election was ordered on September 15, 1913, and held October 18, 1913.

The district judge concluded that the vote of one of the boxes was incorrectly shown in the returns and the ballots in that box were recounted, and, after passing upon the qualifications of certain voters, challenged by both sides, and rejecting two ballots, on account of their condition, announced a numerical result as follows: “For remaining at Farwell, 100 votes; for removal to Bovi-na, 1 vote; for removal to Parmerton, 95 votes; for removal to Friona, 3 votes;” the trial judge also declaring, “that the true result of said election was in favor of the county seat remaining at Farwell.”

The trial court sustained 17 challenges offered by the contestees as to the qualifications of voters casting their ballots for removal to Parmerton, which were deducted by the court from Parmerton’s vote. The action of the trial court rejecting ten of said voters is not excepted to in this court. The appellants, however, attack the rulings of the court as to the qualification of the following voters, deducted from the total vote for removal to Parmerton: T. M. Yelverton, Wilbur Ford, A. J. Grim, S. G. Deanda, Meteo Romo, Jim Martin, and W. A. Anderson.

[1] W. A. Alderson (or Anderson) was a claimant of public land in New Mexico, but the court held he was in reality a resident and citizen of Parmer county, Tex., on the theory that his evanescent visits to his claim and temporary stay of very short duration in New Mexico did not manifest a real intention to reside on the land, or make that state his home; that he worked for one Jersig, a ranch owner in Texas, continuously since 1910, and for a year or more previous to the election was foreman of Jersig’s ranch; that some time during 1912 he relinquished his claim in New. Mexico, concluding that he could not make his proof of occupancy. The court had the right to conclude that he was a resident of the state of Texas, on the first day of January, 1912, and, being subject to the payment of a poll tax, and not having the same, was not entitled to vote.

[2] The court found that the voter Wilbur Ford was convicted of a felony (theft of cattle), and his punishment assessed at two years in the penitentiary; that he had not been pardoned, nor his civil rights restored. The trial judge had suspended the sentence of this defendant under the provisions of chapter 44, Acts of the Thirty-Second Legislature. This act, affecting this particular question, was held unconstitutional in the case of Snodgrass v. State (Cr. App.) 150 S. W. 162, 41 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1144, and in a companion case (Cr. App.) 150 S. W. 178. The law was amended and held constitutional on account of the elimination of certain features, in Baker v. State, 70 Tex. Cr. R. 618, 158 S. W. 998. We are disposed to follow the Court of Criminal Appeals on this question, and hold that the sentence of suspension was void, and that the voter wás not qualified.

Deanda and Romo, whose votes were deducted by the court from Parmerton’s total, were Mexicans. They began to work for the railroad company on the section at Bovina in September, 1913, and left in November, 1913.

[3] Another Mexican, who was a section hand upon the same section, and who voted *604 at the same election, testified that Deanda and Romo began work at Bovina after he (Rubalcoba) went there. Elliott and Warren, in the employment of the railroad company, testified from the records of the company that the Mexicans began work for the railroad company in Parmer county, in September, 1918, and' their work ended in November, 1913. Bovina, where these men worked, was not a large place, and the precinct is sparsely settled. Others testified as to their acquaintanceship with the people of that section and knew of no other Mexicans residing in this precinct, except those working on the section. The testimony, though of a negative character as to the residence of these Mexicans (except during {he period of their employment as section hands), was sufficient to exclude the time of residence to qualify them as eligible voters. This character of testimony is permissible and relevant. McCormick v. Jester, 53 Tex. Civ. App. 306, 115 S. W. pp. 282, 283.

The finding of the trial court, as to the residence of Jim Martin in Texas, making him eligible to a poll tax, which he failed to pay, is so fully sustained by the voter’s own testimony, it is unnecessary to discuss it.

[4] The voter A. J. Grim, rejected by the court, was an old man, unmarried and unable to take care of himself. Pie came to Parmer county in 1906, bought some land and improved it for the purpose of making the same a tenant farm and home, “provided he could get some ohe there with whom he could stay.” He worked at a hotel in Bovina, Parmer county, in part pay for his room and board, until the building was burned. In the fall of the year 1912 he went to Hereford, Deaf Smith county, staying at various hotels, making occasional trips to Parmer county, to look after his rents — the length of his visits being brief. He said:

“I went to Hereford to work at the hotels, because I could not get employment in Bovina and at no place close to my farm.”

Part of the time while residing at Hereford, he was a hotel drummer, meeting trains at that place. His mode and manner of living at hotels at Hereford was similar to that at Bovina.

We are inclined to think that his intention to make his farm home at a time in the future, provided he could associate some one with him who would care for him, interposed a condition of expectation and contingency insufficient to constitute a residence on his farm in Parmer county, especially after he removed to Deaf Smith county, if the trial court was disposed to take that view of it.

[5] The court clearly had a right to reject the voter Yelverton. The statement of the evidence by appellants, under their thirty-first assignment of error, shows that the voter, beginning as early as April, 1913, was living and earning a' livelihood in Curry county, N. M., though he claimed his home at Bovina, Tex. There is no testimony that Yelverton ever lived in Parmer county, except the hearsay statement by one Bruner, for whom Yelverton worked, that the latter claimed that his home was in that county. He married in January, 1914, but at least to that time was found continuously working and residing in New Mexico. It was with the trial court to decide the place of his residence.

[6] As to the challenges of contestants, the appellants herein, against some of the votes cast for Farwell, and overruled by the court, we find as follows: Ike Brown was a man of family, and proved his occupancy upon public land in New Mexico.

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Bluebook (online)
184 S.W. 602, 1916 Tex. App. LEXIS 319, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aldridge-v-hamlin-texapp-1916.