Lane v. Bell

115 S.W. 918, 53 Tex. Civ. App. 213
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 9, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 115 S.W. 918 (Lane v. Bell) 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
Lane v. Bell, 115 S.W. 918, 53 Tex. Civ. App. 213 (Tex. Ct. App. 1909).

Opinion

DUUKLIU, Associate Justice.

By a temporary writ of injunction issued by the District Court of Cooke County, Gracie Lane was restrained from using a certain house as a bawdy house or for purposes of prostitution, and from the judgment of the court awarding such writ the defendant has appealed to this court. B. Y. Bell, a citizen of Cooke County, was plaintiff in the suit for injunction, which was brought under and by virtue of articles 362a and 362b, chapter 122, pages 247-248, Acts of the Thirtieth Legislature,- which are as follows:

“Article 362a. The habitual, actual, threatened or contemplated use of any premises, place, building or part thereof, for the purpose of keeping, being interested in, aiding or abetting the keeping of a bawdy or disorderly house, shall be enjoined at the suit of either the State or any citizen thereof. Any person who may use, or who may be about to use, or who may aid or abet any other person in the use of any premises, place or building or part thereof, may be *215 made a party defendant in such suit; provided, that the provisions of this article and article 362b shall not apply to, nor be so construed as to interfere with the control and regulation of bawds and bawdy houses by ordinances of incorporated towns and cities acting under special charters and where the same are actually confined by ordinance of such city 'within a designated district of such city.

“Article 362b. The Attorney-General and the several district and county attorneys shall institute and prosecute all suits that said Attorney-General or such district or county attorney may deem necessary; to enjoin such use; provided, that such suit may be'brought and prosecuted by any- one of such officers; and provided further, that nothing in the above proviso contained shall prevent such injunction from issuing at the suit of any citizen of this State who may sue in his own name, and such citizen shall not be required to show that he is personally injured by the acts complained of, and the procedure in all cases brought hereunder shall be the same as in other suits for injunction, as near as may be; provided, that when the suit is brought in the name of the State by any of the officers aforesaid the petition for injunction need not be verified.”

Plaintiff alleged in his petition that defendant was actually and habitually keeping a certain house as a bawdy house where prostitutes were permitted to resort and reside for the purpose of plying their vocation.. The house was described as being situated in the town of Gainesville, on the north side of West Church Street, in a locality generally known as Silver City. The petition contained the further allegation that plaintiff was unable to give a better description of the house than that which has been given above.

Appellant has assigned error to the action of the trial court overruling her special exception questioning the sufficiency of that description of the house. We think there was no error in this ruling of the court and the assignment challenging its correctness is overruled. ' (6 Cyc., 209.) The petition failed to allege that the town of Gainesville was not an incorporated city or town acting under a special charter assuming by ordinances the regulation of bawds- and bawdy houses and confining them within designated districts of said city. Defendant specially excepted to the petition on the ground that it should have negatived the existence of such facts, but the exception was overruled by the trial court. The proviso in article 362a above quoted in express terms limits the general scope of the enacting clause of article 362a, although Chief Justice Conner is inclined to hold that so far as affecting the right conferred upon the citizen to enjoin a bawdy house as given in article 362a, the proviso contained in that article is made inapplicable by the last proviso in article 362b. In support of this special exception to the petition appellant has cited many authorities, all of which support the general rule of pleading announced in Gillis v. Rosenheimer, 64 Texas, 246, that when an injunction is sought the material and essential elements which entitle the pleader to the relief shall be so certain as to negative every reasonable inference arising from the facts so stated, from which it might be deduced that he might not, under other supposable facts connected with the subject, thus be entitled to relief. Accord-, *216 ing to our interpretation, the authorities cited by appellant go no further than to enforce this_ general rule of pleading, and do not sustain the exception to the petition now under discussion. With practical unanimity the authorities seem to hold that where there is an exception embraced in the enacting clause of a statute, the plaintiff suing under the statute must in his pleading negative such exception. But a proviso contained in the same clause or in a subsequent clause of the statute is a matter of defense and need not be negatived by the plaintiff seeking relief given by the statute. American Digest, Century edition, vol. 39, p. 1093, citing many decisions, among them, Chicago, B. & Q. Ry. v. Carter, 20 Ill. (10 Peck.), 390; Ohio & M. Ry. v. Brown, 23 Ill. (13 Peck.), 94; Great Western Ry. Co. v. Hanks, 36 Ill., 281; Lynch v. People, 16 Mich., 472; Osburn v. Lovell, 36 Mich., 246; Faribault v. Hulett, 10 Minn., 30; Wilmington & R. Ry. v. Robeson, 27 N. C., 391. See also Tomlinson v. Bainaka (Sup. Ct. Indiana), 70 N. E. 155.

The title of the Act above mentioned reads as follows: “An Act to amend article 359, chapter 4, title 10, of the Penal Code of the State of Texas, defining what constitutes a bawdy house and a disorderly house, so as to include any assignation house and any house in which spirituous, vinous or malt liquors are sold or kept for sale without having first obtained a license under the laws of the State to retail such liquors; also adding article 359a, defining the offense of procurer and providing the punishment therefor; also to amend articles 361 and 362, chapter 4, title 10, of the Penal Code of Texas, stating who shall be guilty of the offense of keeping, being concerned in keeping or permitting to be kept, a bawdy house and a disorderly house, and prescribing the punishment therefor; also by adding articles 362a and 362b, to prevent, by means of the writ of injunction at the suit of the State or any citizen thereof, the habitual, actual, contemplated or threatened use of any premises, place, building or part thereof, for the purpose of keeping, or being in any manner interested or responsible for the keeping of a bawdy house or disorderly house, and providing suitable fines and imprisonment for the violation of this Act.”

Appellant’s sixth assignment of error reads as follows: “The trial court erred in overruling this appellant’s first demurrer to plaintiff’s petition herein because that part of House Bill Ho. 10, passed by the Thirtieth Legislature and set forth on pages 246 to 248 of the general laws of said Thirtieth Legislature, authorizing the issuance of an injunction, is invalid because the caption of said House Bill Ho. 10 states that the writ of injunction may issue at the suit of the State or any citizen to prevent the use of any building, while article 362a of said bill Ho.

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Bluebook (online)
115 S.W. 918, 53 Tex. Civ. App. 213, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lane-v-bell-texapp-1909.