McBeath v. Campbell

12 S.W.2d 118
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 2, 1929
DocketNo. 1118—5045
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 12 S.W.2d 118 (McBeath v. Campbell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McBeath v. Campbell, 12 S.W.2d 118 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1929).

Opinion

CRITZ, J.

This ease was originally filed in the district court of Foard county, Tex., by P. M. McBeath, plaintiff in error, hereinafter designated plaintiff, against D. D. Campbell, sheriff of Foard county, Tex., and his official bondsmen, who are private individuals, and W, Frank Edmonson, sheriff of Wilbarger county, Tex.,.and his official bondsman, New Amsterdam Casualty Company, a corporation, for damages on account of an alleged false arrest and imprisonment of the plaintiff by said two sheriffs. The pleadings of the parties are rather voluminous, and we will not attempt to restate them here. Suffice it to say' that the pleadings of all parties are sufficient to raise the issues here discussed.

We find it necessary to make a rather extended statement of the evidence in the case, which is in substance as follows:

The plaintiff himself was sworn as a witness, and testified, in substance, that he had a brother by the name of A. D. McBeath who died on the 14th of January, 1926. (It seems that this brother was found dead in a box car under circumstances that led to suspicion of foul play.) Plaintiff then further testified that after the burial of his brother he was called to the courthouse in Foard county on Saturday night, and questioned by the county attorney and the defendant Campbell in regard to what he knew about his brother’s death; that later on Sunday night, 'January 17, 1926, while he was staying at his father-in-law’s house about 5 miles from Crowell, and about 11 o’clock at night the city mar-shall of Crowell and another man, not an officer, came to said house, and requested plaintiff to come to town, stating that the de[119]*119fendant Campbell wanted bim to come, and that the district attorney was there and wanted to talk to him; that plaintiff went to town with said two parties in their car, and was brought directly to the courthouse; that a few minutes after he arrived in the courthouse he saw the district'attorney, the defendant Campbell, and one Boyd McClendon, the latter being a deputy of the defendant Edmonson, and several other parties; that he did not know whether these parties all came together or part at a time; that Mr. Campbell was there part of the time during the events that occurred later; that he went into Sheriff Campbell’s office and was there Questioned and talked to by the district attorney in regard to his brother’s death and accused of killing his brother; that he denied the killing; that at this time defendant Campbell told him that this was getting mighty serious and it would be better to come clean and tell the truth about it; that he told him that he had told the truth all the way through; that they kept him there at the courthouse in Foard county about 1 ½ hours, and then Mr. Boyd McClendon, who is shown to be a deputy sheriff from 'Wilbarger county, came back and said to the plaintiff, “Well, come and go with us;” that said McClendon then arrested the plaintiff and searched him, finding no arms; that he was then carried and put in an automobile and turned around the corner, and some one in the automobile said that he had forgotten his overcoat, and that they turned around and came to the sidewalk, and Mr. Campbell, who was about half way from the steps of the courthouse to the street, went back and unlocked the door, and went in and got the overcoat, with the party leaving it, and that the two came back out together; that at the end of the steps Mr. Campbell turned to the left and Mr. Boyd McClendon turned to the right, and plaintiff was then carried to "Vernon, county seat of Wilbarger county, by Boyd McClendon and others, and locked up in jail; that they showed him no warrant, and, as far as he knew, no one claimed to have a warrant; that after he was locked up in Yernon in Wilbarger county he asked the jailer to send a telegram to Tom Bell at the bank at Crowell to let the folks know where he was; that his arrest took place on Sunday night, the 17th of-January, 1926; that it was the 18th that he asked for the message to be sent to Mr. Bell;. th.at this request was refused by the jailer • that they carried him to jail on Sunday night; that he had- no communication with any of his friends or relatives, or any one else, that night or Monday; that on Tuesday, Judge Leak, an attorney for plaintiff, came up and said he would have a habeas corpus trial. The plaintiff further testified that Judge Leak had been employed by his father-in-law. The plaintiff further testified that they had the habeas corpus Tuesday night at 7 o’clock, no testimony being heard, and agreed to let him out on $2,500 bond; that they got the bond fixed up, signed, and accepted, and plaintiff was fixing to start home, when Sheriff Edmonson told him they had received a telegram or something from the Hardeman county sheriff, and had to hold him longer, and could not turn him loose, this being Tuesday night; that he was carried back to jail and again locked up and kept there until 11 o’clock Wednesday morning, when he was released and went home, and was never arrested again. Plaintiff further testified that he had heard something about the defendant Campbell having filed a complaint against him, charging him with murder, but was never arrested on any warrant on that complaint. (Campbell testified to having made this complaint on the 18th, but the docket entry of the justice court in Crowell shows that the complaint was filed on the 19th, docketed on the 19th, and the case dismissed the 19th without any warrant having been issued thereon.) We will state at this point that the record fails to disclose any legal authority for any bond, even by agreement, at the habeas corpus, under the facts above testified to.

The defendant L. D. Campbell was called as a witness by the plaintiff, and testified, in substance, that he remembered the occasion of the plaintiff being in his office on Sunday night in January, 1926; that he did not know who communicated with the plaintiff, and did not have anything to do with his being there; that he had no communication with the parties who caused plaintiff to come to the courthouse in Crowell;' that on that day the district attorney told Campbell that he wanted to have an investigation that night in regard to the McBeath killing at the courthouse; that he told the district attorney that he had to go to Foard City on other business, and the district attorney requested that he leave the courthousé open, and the sheriff’s office open, so that he could get in; that he did as requested and went to Foard City, and came back after going to Foard City and Sid Phillips’ house; that the first time that he learned that anybody had gone after McBeath was when he saw him in the hall of the courthouse; that later plaintiff was taken to said witness’ office, where he remained about 30 or 40 minutes, and the district attorney talked to plaintiff; that at that time the county attorney, the district attorney, and several other parties were there, including Mr. Watts and Mr. McClen-don, deputy sheriffs from Wilbarger county; that he had no conversation with these parties about what was to be done with the plaintiff; that he never arrested, McBeath, and, as far as he was concerned, McBeath was at liberty to go at any minute he got ready; that the district attorney told him, when they got ready to leave for Vernon, that he had had warrants for the plaintiff’s arrest issued in Hardeman county; that he [120]*120did not know why they took him to Wilbarger county on a warrant from Hardeman county.

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Bluebook (online)
12 S.W.2d 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcbeath-v-campbell-texcommnapp-1929.