Brown v. State

11 S.W. 1022, 28 Tex. Ct. App. 65, 1889 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 131
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 20, 1889
DocketNo. 6520
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 11 S.W. 1022 (Brown v. State) 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
Brown v. State, 11 S.W. 1022, 28 Tex. Ct. App. 65, 1889 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 131 (Tex. Ct. App. 1889).

Opinion

White, Presiding Judge.

Two judgments nisi were rendered in the lower court upon the bail bond in this case. The first was rendered on the 7th day of February, 1887. Alias capias issued, the defendant Brown was rearrested, was placed in jail, and on February 12 his verbal motion to set aside the judgment nisi coming on to be heard, it was sustained, the judgment was set aside, and he was discharged from arrest without being required to enter into a new recognizance, the court not believing that under the law he was required to give a new bond. On the 12th day of September, 1887, thereafter, the defendant Brown having again failed to appear when his case was called for trial, a second forfeiture and judgment nisi was taken upon the bail bond. Scire facias issued to the sureties, to which, amongst other defenses, they insist that they are and were discharged from further liability upon said bond, because after the first forfeiture and defendant’s rearrest the old bond became functus officio, and the court should have required him to enter into a new recognizance or bail bond, under the provisions of article 461 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as follows: “In all cases where a forfeiture is declared upon a recognizance or bail bond a capias shall be immediately issued for the arrest of the defendant, and when arrested he shall be required to enter into a new recognizance or bail bond, unless the forfeiture [67]*67taken has been set aside under the third subdivision of article 452, in which case the defendant and his sureties shall remain bound under his present recognizance or bail bond.” The third subdivision of article 452 provides that sickness of the principal, or some uncontrollable circumstance arising from no fault on his part, will exonerate a defendant and his sureties from liability on forfeiture.

It is a further provision of article 462 of the Code of Criminal Procedure that “ when a defendant who has been arrested for a felony under a capias has previously given bail to answer said charge, his sureties shall be released by such arrest, and he shall be required to give new bail.” Gary v. The State, 11 Texas Ct. App., 527.

The judgment setting aside the forfeiture does not show upon what ground the defendant’s verbal motion was predicated, nor the grounds upon which the court acted in setting it aside—it is wholly silent on the matter. We' will presume that the grounds upon which the motion was based, as well as those upon which the court acted, were the statutory ones mentioned in subdivision 3 of article 452. To presume otherwise would be to presume that the court acted in defiance of the plain letter of the law. As presented in the record, we can not hold that the sureties have been relieved of their liability on account of the action complained of.

In answer to the second forfeiture and judgment nisi the sureties filed two motions, one to quash the scire facias and the other to quash the bail bond. To the writ of scire facias it was objected that it did not run “in the name of the State of Texas,” as is required in the statute (Code Crim. Proc., art. 443, subdiv. 1), which prescribes the requisites for such writs. The writ commenced, “The State of Texas: To the sheriff or any constable,” etc., “greeting.” This was sufficient. Willson’s Grim. Forms, 601. It in fact made the writ run “in the name of the State of Texas.” Werbriski v. The State, 20 Texas Ct. App., 131. Our Constitution provides that “the style of all our writs and process shall be The State of Texas.’” Const., art. 5, sec. 12; Willson’s Crim. Stats., sec. 2020.

A second objection was that the writ failed to state an offense over which the District Court had jurisdiction. The objection was that whilst the writ stated the offense with which defendant was charged as “embezzlement,” it did not state that the amount charged to be embezzled was over twenty dollars, and therefore did not show jurisdiction in the District Court.

The writ recited that defendant' and sureties were bound in the penal sum of §500, “ conditioned that the said defendant should make his personal appearance before the honorable District Court of Bosque County, Texas, on the third Monday in August, 1886, then and there to answer the State of Texas upon a charge by indictment, duly presented in said court, wherein D. B. Brown, said defendant, is charged with the offense [68]*68of embezzlement,” etc. One of the statutory requisites for bail bonds is “that the offense of which the defendant is accused be distinctly named in the bond, and that it appear therefrom that he is accused of some offense against the laws of the State.” Code Crim. Proc., art. 288, subdiv. 3.

It is contended that though “embezzlement” is eo nomine an offense against the laws of this State, that it is nevertheless, by express terms of the statute creating it, an offense made punishable in the same manner as is the crime of theft (Penal Code, art. 786), and that the crime of theft is punishable either as a felony or a misdemeanor, dependent upon the value of the property stolen—it being a felony if the value is twenty dollars and over, or a misdemeanor if under that amount in value (Penal Code, art. 736); that the felony theft is alone within the jurisdiction of the District Court, and that the same rule requires that embezzlement, to be within the jurisdiction of the District Court, must have been of property of value of twenty dollars or over; that in this case the scire facias failing to show or allege that the property embezzled was of twenty dollars or over in value, is fatally defective, does not show jurisdiction in the District Court, and should therefore have been quashed. This same objection was urged to the sufficiency of the bail bond in the motion to quash that instrument, it failing also to state that the defendant was charged by indictment with embezzlement of property of over twenty dollars in value. In the indictment the amount alleged to have been embezzled was $49.90. It is further contended that both the bond and the scire facias are defective because they do not state the offense with which the principal is charged in the indictment. Code Crim. Proc., art. 287, subdiv. 2, and art. 443, subdiv. 4. We will discuss the two grounds of the two motions together.

A scire facias under our practice is required to subserve the purposes both of a petition and a writ. Willson’s Crim. Stats., sec. 2020. It sets forth the cause of action upon which the judgment final will be claimed, and in this class of cases, as in all others where a moneyed judgment is sought, it is elementary that the pleadings must show that the court whose authority is invoked, has jurisdiction of the subject matter over which it is asked to exercise its jurisdiction. Again, “ it has been settled that where a bail bond or recognizance is taken after indictment found, the very offense of which the principal stands charged must be named in the bond, not the class of offenses.” Keppler v. The State, 14 Texas Ct. App., 173. “Nor is it sufficient to use in the bond general terms which in legal classification may include the offense with which the defendant stands charged.” Foster v. The State, 27 Texas, 236; Smalley v. The State, 3 Texas Ct. App., 202; Addison v. The State, 14 Texas Ct. App., 568; Vivian v. The State, 16 Texas Ct. App., 262.

If, however, we examine these cases we will find that they are based [69]*69upon the fact that either the offense as stated in the bond was not eo nomine

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
11 S.W. 1022, 28 Tex. Ct. App. 65, 1889 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 131, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-state-texapp-1889.