Mulkey v. State

201 S.W. 991, 83 Tex. Crim. 1, 1918 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 54
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 6, 1918
DocketNo. 4675.
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 201 S.W. 991 (Mulkey v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mulkey v. State, 201 S.W. 991, 83 Tex. Crim. 1, 1918 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 54 (Tex. 1918).

Opinion

*3 PRENDERGAST, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of violating a quarantine order by the Live Stock Sanitary Commission for the eradication of ticks.

The complaint and information are very complete. They allege a proper election in said county on September 18, 1915, ordered by the commissioners court upon the petition of the necessary qualified voters for the eradication of ticks; that the election was carried and so declared by the commissioners court; an order by that court duly made and duty published; that the county judge of said county property notified the Live Stock Sanitary Commission of the result of said election and that said Commission caused to be issued a supplemental proclamation by the Governor proclaiming a quarantine around said county; that tick eradication was property begun under said proclamation on February 14; that said Commission promulgated and the Governor proclaimed the rules and regulations known as order III, and effective February 15, 1917, for the certification, treatment and handling of live stock into, within, or from a special quarantined area of which said county was a part, said order being as follows: "It shall be unlawful for any cattle, . . . to be moved into, within or from said area until they have been inspected and certified to by an inspector of the Live Stock Sanitary Commission or the United States Bureau of Animal Industry. Inspectors shall not issue certificates on such live stock moved within or from said area unless they have been dipped-—one dipping if free of ticks and two or more dippings with an interval of at least seven days where they are infected with ticks,” and that on February 27 - appellant did unlawfully move, and cause same to be done, from a point in said Concho County into certain premises in Eunnels County, which was a part of said area, certain cattle without first having them inspected and certified to by an inspector of said Commission or United States Bureau of Animal Industry, showing them to be free from infection, and that said cattle had not been dipped according to said order, the said tick eradication huv and said rules and regulations of said Live Stock Sanitary Commission being in full force and effect in said county.

Appellant contends, in substance, that the information charges no offense because it charges the violation of an order prescribed by the Live Stock Sanitary Commission and not an Act of the Legislature, and that, the Legislature can not delegate the lawmaking power to said Commission in violation of section 1, article 3, of the Constitution.

Article 16, section 23, of the Constitution, expressly authorizes the Legislature to pass laws for the regulation of live stock and the protection of stock-raisers in any part of the State, and that it may exempt from the operation of said laws other portions, sections or counties. That section also provides for submitting any such law to a vote of the people to be affected thereby. Under this provision of the Constitution both the civil courts and this court have held that the Legislature can pass any such law- affecting any given locality in the State and make it *4 effective with or without submitting it to a vote. Armstrong v. Traylor, 87 Texas, 598; Graves v. Rudd, 65 S. W. Rep., 63; Brazeale v. Strength, 196 S. W. Rep., 247; McGee v. State, 194 S. W. Rep., 951; Ex parte Thompkins, 47 Texas Crim. Rep., 356; Roberson v. State, 42 Texas Crim. Rep., 595, and other cases.

The law of this State (article 7312 et. seq., Revised Statutes), created our Live Stock Sanitary Commission and prescribes its duties and powers. Under that law the said commission was “authorized and empowered to establish, maintain and enforce such quarantine line and sanitary rules as it may be necessary . . ., quarantine any district, county or part of county, within this State when it shall determine the fact that cattle or other live stock in such district, county or part of county are affected ... to make and promulgate rules and regulations which shall permit and govern inspection . . . treatment, handling and method and manner of delivery and shipment of cattle and other live stock from a quarantined district, county or part of a county or any other district . . . shall give notice of such rules and regulations by a proclamation issued by the Governor.” And article 7314a further provides:. “It shall be unlawful to move or allow to move' any cattle or other live stock from any quarantined district, county, part of county or premises to any other district, county, part of county or premises in manner, method or condition other than those prescribed by the Live Stock Sanitary Commission and proclaimed by the Governor.” And article 7314b further provides: “¡No live stock shall be moved to or from such special quarantined district, pastures or premises in a manner, method or condition other than those prescribed by the Live Stock Sanitary Commission.” (Section 3, Acts 1913, page 354.)

Section 2 of the Act of 1913, page 354, is: “That cattle or other live stock may be moved from a quarantined district, county, or part of county, or from quarantined premises into any other district, county, part of county, or premises, under and in compliance with the rules and regulations of the Live Stock Sanitary Commission, as proclaimed by the Governor, but it shall be unlawful to move or allow to move any cattle or live stock from any quarantined district, county, part of county or premises, to any other district, county, part of county or premises, in. manner, method or condition other than those prescribed by the Live Stock Sanitary Commission and proclaimed by the Governor.”

In St. Louis S. W. R. R. Co. v. Smith, 49 S. W. Rep., 627, it was said by our Fort Worth Court of Civil Appeals that where our Live Stock Sanitary Commission has declared quarantine lines as to animals so as to prevent communication of disease therefrom and has prescribed rules and regulations to make such quarantine effective and the Governor has properly proclaimed them “such lines and such regulations have all the force of law, and, as such, should be obeyed by every class of our citizenship,” and it was held in that case that where said commission had quarantined against cattle from Louisiana being shipped *5 into this State and it had been properly proclaimed by the Governor, that Smith, the plaintiff therein, could not recover from the railroad the value of the cattle shipped by him in violation of that quarantine ■ and proclamation. That case was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court.

In Smith v. State, 74 Texas Crim. Rep., 232, where appellant was convicted for driving his cattle across the quarantine line in violation of the line so established by our said commission; that such line and regulations by the commission was not the exercise of a delegation of the power to legislate; that such authority therefor was contained in the law enacted by the Legislature to that effect, citing several decisions.

In 3 C. J. (Corpus Juris), page 50, it is said: “The authority of the Legislature to enact laws for the protection of domestic animals, and to prevent the spread of infectious or contagious diseases among them, is everywhere recognized as a valid exercise of the police power of the State.

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Bluebook (online)
201 S.W. 991, 83 Tex. Crim. 1, 1918 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mulkey-v-state-texcrimapp-1918.