Lowe v. Commissioners' Court of Val Verde County

69 S.W.2d 153
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 14, 1934
DocketNo. 9438.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 69 S.W.2d 153 (Lowe v. Commissioners' Court of Val Verde County) 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
Lowe v. Commissioners' Court of Val Verde County, 69 S.W.2d 153 (Tex. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

MURRAY, Justice.

H. J. Lowe and six other resident citizens of Val Verde county, who are the appellants herein, petitioned Hon. Brian Montague, judge of the Sixty-Third judicial district of Texas, which district includes Val Verde county, for a temporary injunction to restrain the commissioners’ court of Val Verde county from expending county funds in the purchase of certain lands to be used as a part of the right of way of state highway No. 3.

The right of the commissioners’ court to so expend funds of the county is found in the provisions of chapter 79, Acts of the 41st Legislature, Fifth Called Session, printed at page 243, also known as Senate Bill No. 82. Appellants contend that this act of the Legislature violates section 35, article 3, of the Constitution, in so far as the same purports to authorize counties to pay for right of ways out of the road and bridge fund, any special road fund, or any other available fund, for the reason that the caption of said act is insufficient to give notice of an intention to pass such legislation.

The trial judge, in his fiat, wherein he denied the relief sought, wrote a very full and learned discussion of the law governing this case, which reads as follows:

“The foregoing petition having been presented to me, upon consideration thereof, it is ascertained that there is involved the sufficiency of certain legislative enactments purporting to be those under which the threatened action or contemplated action of the Commissioners Court of Val Verde County is and will be based.
“As regards Chapter 186, of the Acts of the 39th Legislature, Regular Session, page 456, it is observed that the general purpose of the legislation was to make adequate provision ‘for the construction and maintenance of a State Highway system under the control of the State Highway Department.’
*154 “The above and foregoing is deemed to be the essential and controlling subject of the Legislation contemplated.
“Enumerated in the caption as a part of the detailed provisions to accomplish this general object are found, among others, the following:
“(a) Authorizing the Commissioners Court of any county to grant aid for the improvement of the State Highway Department of any section br sections of said highway in said county.
“(b) Regulating the manner of paying such aid.
“(c) Authorizing the condemnation of materials to be used in the improvement of said highway system.
“Relative to the body of the enactment these provisions just quoted, as being in the caption, are elaborated upon with sufficient and minute detail.
“In Section 14 of said Chapter 186, the Acts of the 39th Legislature, is found an obviously erroneous reference to the Articles of the Revised Statutes applicable in condemnation proceedings which necessitated an amendment, and this was effected in Section 1 of Chapter 10, page 243 Acts of the 41st Legislature, Third Called Session.
“The caption of this last legislation, in addition to the stated purpose of correcting the erroneous reference to the applicable statutes, contains the following:
“(a) Conferring authority on Commissioners Courts to acquire new or wider right of way or land for material or borrow pits.
“(b) Prescribing regulations relative thereto.
“The body of the Act relevant to these provisions of the caption last quoted is in this language:
“ ‘Any commissioners court is hereby authorized to secure by purchase or condemnation on behalf of the State Highway Commission such -new or wider right-of-way or land or lands for material or borrow pits, and to pay for such lands out of the county road and bridge fund, or out of any special road funds as may be provided by law.
“ ‘The State Highway Commission shall be charged with the duty of furnishing to the County Commissioners Court the plat or field notes of- such right-of-way, or land, as may be required, after which the Commissioners Court may and is hereby authorized to purchase or condemn with title to the State Highway Department in accordance with, such field notes, and to pay for same as provided in this Act.’
“Obviously, the caption of this Act specially provides that the Commissioners Court, shall be expressly empowered to do the very things the complainants herein assert that they lack the power to do; and the body of' the Act, in addition to the provision carrying, out the expressed purpose of granting the Commissioners authority to acquire ‘new or wider right-of-way,’ likewise makes effective the second quoted purpose of the caption,, ‘prescribing regulations relative thereto,’ by empowering that court to acquire such new or wider right-of-way, etc. ‘by purchase or condemnation,’ and authorizing payment therefor, out of the road and bridge fund or any special road funds as may be provided by law.
“The foregoing enactment was again amended by Section 1, Chapter 79, page 243. Acts of the 41st Legislature, Fifth Called Session, the caption to which is:
“ ‘An Act to amend Section 1 of Chapter 16, the Acts of the Third Called Session of the 41st Legislature, and declaring an emergency.’
“In substance, the body of this Act is practically the same as that enacted by the Third Called Session of the same Legislature, except that the source from which the Commissioners Court was authorized to pay for the new or wider right-of-way etc. was enlarged, and in this Act of the Legislature such court was authorized to pay therefor.
“ ‘Out of the county road and bridge fund or out of any special road fund or any available county funds.’

“The law under which the Commissioners Court of Val Veyde County is presumed, to be acting, in the light of the allegations made in the bill of complaint, is the foregoing unless Chapter 207 of the Acts of the 43rd Legislature [Vernon’s Ann. Civ. St. art. 6674n] is applicable.

“In as much as in the caption of this last-mentioned Act, and twice in the body thereof, the purpose of that enactment is stated to be the acquisition of a right-of-way' for stream bed diversion, and the complaint before the Court is devoid of any allegation that there is any stream bed diversion in: volved in the proposed or threatened act of the Commissioners Court, it is not deemed that this last Act of the Legislature, just referred to, is in any sense relevant or applicable.'

*155 “It seems too clear for argument that Chapter 186 of the Acts of the 39th Legislature, and Chapter 10 of the Acts of the 41st Legislature, Third Called Session, are both impervious to the attack herein made upon them by complainants. It is hardly conceivable how these acts could have more fully complied with the demands of section 35 of art 3 of the Constitution.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Atwood v. Willacy County Navigation District
284 S.W.2d 275 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1955)
Walker v. State
116 S.W.2d 1076 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1938)
Garvey v. Wood
101 S.W.2d 288 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1937)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
69 S.W.2d 153, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lowe-v-commissioners-court-of-val-verde-county-texapp-1934.