Ex parte Scwartz

2 Tex. Ct. App. 74
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 1, 1877
StatusPublished

This text of 2 Tex. Ct. App. 74 (Ex parte Scwartz) 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
Ex parte Scwartz, 2 Tex. Ct. App. 74 (Tex. Ct. App. 1877).

Opinion

Winkler, J.

L. B. Hunt, marshal of the city of Paris, Lamar county, Texas, answered the writ, and on oath “ says that it is true that he has in his custody Lewis Scwartz, party mentioned in the application for habeas corpus. That he holds said Lewis Scwartz in his custody-by virtue of a mittimus issued by M. H. Burnett, mayor of the city of Paris, Lamar county, Texas, issued out of said mayor’s court on the 19th day of September, A. D. 1876, and placed in his hands for execution by said mayor; that the fine and costs were never collected ; which said mittimus is hereto annexed and made part hereof.”

The mittimus recites “ that, on the 8th day of September, 1876, one Lewis Scwartz was tried before M. H. Burnett, mayor of the city of Paris, for an assault and battery, and fined five dollars, and the further sum of sixteen dollars and thirty-five cents costs of suit, and, in default of payment of said fine and costs, to be committed to the city prison (calaboose), to be discharged at the rate of one dollar per day. That an appeal was taken to the county court of Lamar county. That, on the 15th day of September, 1876, said [77]*77appeal was dismissed, and a procedendo ordered to be issued to the mayor’s court, from which said appeal was taken, commanding the mayor to execute the judgment theretofore rendered in said cause, and commanding the city marshal to “ take the body of the aforesaid Lewi's Scwartz and him commit to the city prison (calaboose) of the city of Paris, to be there safely kept, in default of the payment of said sum of five dollars fine, and also the further sum of sixteen dollars and thirty-five cents costs of suit, until said amounts be fully and completely discharged.” Dated September 19, 1876, and signed by the mayor.

Agreeably to the statement of facts sent up with the record, the attorney who represented the relator on the trial before the mayor prepared for his client an appeal bond, which was accepted and approved by the mayor, which bond is set out in the record as “ conditioned that the defendant will abide the judgment of the county court that may be rendered in this cause which bond was “filed and approved ” by the mayor on September 8, 1876, and which, the attorney says, he ascertained was, as he believed, technically insufficient, and he prepared another, which is also set out in the record, and which is dated September 13, 1876, in which the said Scwartz and his sureties bound themselves to pay to the city of Paris the sum of $50, ‘' conditioned that the said Lewis Scwartz shall prosecute his appeal with effect, and shall pay such fine and costs as shall be awarded against him by the county court of Lamar county, as well as all costs that may have been adjudged against him in the court below.” That the attorneys for the accused presented this last-named bond to the mayor, who refused to receive it—the attorney telling the mayor that the first bond filed was defective. The m ay or declined to receive this second bond, on the ground "that the case had been appealed to the county court, and that he had delivered the papers to the clerk.”

[78]*78The mayor testified as to the trial had before him, and said he approved the first appeal bond, “ after examining the securities thereon, but did not examine the bond otherwise,” and corroborates the attorney in his testimony as to returning the papers to the county court, and the presentation and his declining to receive the second bond, because, he says, “ the case had gone beyond my jurisdiction.” The mayor testified as follows: “I issued the paper attached to Marshal Hunt’s return after receiving a procedendo from the county court which is also set out in the record, and recites that, on motion of the county attorney, the cause was dismissed “ for the want of a sufficient appeal bond,” and commanding the mayor to “ proceed to execute and carry out the judgment of your [the mayor’s] court in said cause.”

The city marshal testified that he held the appellant under the writ attached to his return of the writ of habeas corpus, and “that the fine and costs had never been paid.”

Several bills of exception are set out in the record. One is that the applicant asked M. H. Burnett, who was being examined in the case, “ What kind of a judgment did you render in this case, and have you your docket here?” which was objected to by the county attorney, and the objection was sustained by the court, and a bill of exceptions taken.

Another is as to the ruling of the court in refusing to admit a petition for certiorari, prepared for the purpose of removing the original case from the mayor’s court to the county court, which appears to have been presented to the county judge, and by him rejected, on September 21, 1876.

Another raises a question as to the correctness of the ruling of the court in refusing certain testimony offered as to something that occurred in the mayor’s court, alleged to be “ connected with the difficulty,” and which was ruled out on the objection of the relator’s attorney.

From the record before us, and from which we have [79]*79quoted as above, it must be apparent that the sole object of the petition for habeas corpus is to make the writ answer the purposes of an appeal from the mayor’s court to the county court, and to revise the action of the county court in dismissing his appeal, and to afford redress against the action of the county judge in refusing to award a writ of certiorari sought for the purpose of affording relief against the action of the mayor in the case. On the hearing of the writ the county judge dismissed the case and remanded the appellant to the custody of the city marshal, and from this action the applicant appeals.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2 Tex. Ct. App. 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-scwartz-texapp-1877.