Rogers v. Ivy

191 S.W. 728, 1916 Tex. App. LEXIS 1300
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 18, 1916
DocketNo. 176.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 191 S.W. 728 (Rogers v. Ivy) 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
Rogers v. Ivy, 191 S.W. 728, 1916 Tex. App. LEXIS 1300 (Tex. Ct. App. 1916).

Opinion

CONLEY, C. J.

Appellants filed suit in the district court of Panola county, Tex., on August 19, 1916, asking that a writ of injunction issue against H. B. Ivy, R. W. Terry, B. T. Crawford, and J. H. Spradley, county commissioners, George Harkrider, county judge, T. P. Christian, county clerk, and W. D. Hall, county treasurer, of Panola county, and asking that they be restrained from contracting for the expenditure and issuance of warrants and paying out $144,000 of funds belonging to said county.

The petition alleged, in substance, that the commissioners’ court of Panola county, Tex., had, on May 8, 1916, issued scrip against the permanent improvement fund, in the sum of $160,000, for the following purposes, to wit: $80,000 for courthouse purposes, $50,000 for jail repairs, and $30,000 for courthouse repairs; and further alleging that said warrants had been sold to one J. L. Arlitt for the sum of $144,000, and that said money had been paid into the county treasury of Panola county, Tex.; that said amount had been transferred to the road and bridge fund for the purpose of constructing roads and bridges; that said road and bridge fund was insolvent, and would be unable to repay said amount, and was already indebted in the sum of $175,000, which indebtedness was outstanding and bearing interest; that there was no special road tax in Panola county, and that taxable values of property within said county amounted only to. $5,000,000, and that, consequently, said fund would never be able to repay the indebtedness of $160,000; that petitioners were taxpaying citizens of Panola county Tex. By supplemental petition they alleged that a tax of 25 cents had been levied for the purpose of repaying said $160,000, and that petitioners, as taxpayers, would be damaged through the unlawful expenditure of said money, and asked for a temporary restraining order in the following language:

“Wherefore, premises considered, petitioners pray that this honorable court issue a temporary writ of injunction restraining said commissioners from expending said sum of $144,000, or any part thereof, and from creating any liabilities or contracts for the expenditure of said money, and from paying any items of indebtedness out of said sum of $144,000, and that the said T. P. Christian be restrained from issuing any warrants for the payment of any indebtedness out of said $144,000 which is chargeable to the road and bridge fund, and that the said W. D. Hill be restrained from paying any warrants or vouchers out of said $144,000, and that, upon a hearing hereof, this injunction be made permanent, and petitioners be granted such other and further relief as in law and equity they may justly be entitled to.”

A temporary restraining order was granted by the judge of the fourth judicial district, and the same was issued on August 18, 1916, and the application for injunction was set down for a hearing on August 25th. On that date the respondents, appeared and filed an answer, pleading to the jurisdiction of the court, setting up various exceptions and demurrers, alleging mainly that the amount had already been transferred to the road and bridge fund, and that the court was without power to restrain its expenditure for road and bridge purposes, and further pleaded a right or authority to expend said money by reason of an agreed judgment, which had theretofore been entered in said cause. Upon hearing said matter, the temporary restraining order- was dissolved, and injunction denied. Appellants filed a supersedeas bond in this cause, and appeal has been perfected to this court.

The supersedeas bond is in the ordinary form, though no order was entered below, in the dissolving of the temporary restraining order, suspending the judgment of the court during the appeal; consequently the injunction was not in force pending such appeal. Driving Club v. Ft. Worth Fair Association, 56 Tex. Civ. App. 162, 121 S. W. 213. Appel-lees have filed a motion to dismiss this appeal, on the grounds, among others, that the subject-matter of the suit has ceased to exist, which motion contains the following allegations, so far as affects that particular feature:

“Now come the appellees, by their attorneys, and move this court to dismiss the appeal herein for the following good and sufficient reasons, to wit: Because this is a suit to enjoin the commissioners’ court of Panola county from paying out and creating any debt payable out of the $144,000 which had theretofore been transferred to the second-class road and bridge fund, and that, before this suit had been filed, contracts had been made and bids advertised by said commissioners’ court with parties to build, make, improve, and construct such roads and bridges in Panola county in an amount sufficient to exhaust said money, and because the work has been performed by the contractors in conformity with the orders of the court, and the money paid for said work as contracted, and the subject-matter of this suit has ceased to exist, and there is now no question for this court to pass upon.”

*730 In support of this motion, the following affidavits have been presented:

“On this the. 4th day of December, A. D. 1916, personally appeared before me, the undersigned authority, H. B. Ivy and R. W. Terry, two of the defendants in the above cause, and who, being by me duly sworn, say on their oath, each for himself,
“(1) That they are now no longer commissioners for Panola county, Texas; that their term of office expired on the 4th day of .December, 1916, and their successors were, on the 4th day of December, 1916, sworn in and duly qualified as commissioners in their place, and they now have no authority as commissioners for such county.
“(2) And affiants further say that the subject-matter of the litigation in this cause has ceased to exist; that all the acts sought to be enjoined in this cause have been performed; that the order of the district court in dissolving the temporary injunction in this case did not hold the temporary writ in force during the appeal in this case, and said temporary writ was not to be in force any longer than the hearing of said matter by the district court. * *
“(4) Affiants further say that contracts had been made as to the building and improving of the public roads and bridges in Panola county, Texas, before this suit was filed, and all contracts have been completed and settled for so far as the fund would settle. Therefore all the acts and things sought to be enjoined in this cause have long since been performed.
“[Signed] H. B. Ivy,
“R. W. Terry.”

This affidavit is duly sworn to.

W. D. Hill, the county treasurer, also files the following affidavit:

“Before me, the undersigned authority, on this day personally appeared W. D.

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

Related

Antner v. State
114 S.W.2d 640 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1938)
Ben C. Jones & Co. v. Philquist
249 S.W. 516 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1923)
Lowen v. El Paso Valley Water Users' Ass'n
204 S.W. 441 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1918)
Stamper v. Alice State Bank & Trust Co.
198 S.W. 604 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1917)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
191 S.W. 728, 1916 Tex. App. LEXIS 1300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rogers-v-ivy-texapp-1916.