State v. Eversole

889 S.W.2d 418, 1994 WL 499278
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 27, 1994
DocketC14-94-00015-CR, C14-94-00016-CR, C14-94-00017-CR and C14-94-00018-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 889 S.W.2d 418 (State v. Eversole) 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
State v. Eversole, 889 S.W.2d 418, 1994 WL 499278 (Tex. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

MAJORITY OPINION

CANNON, Justice.

The District Attorney for Harris County appeals the order of the district court quashing four indictments. The State brings five points of error challenging the district court’s decision. Upon review, we sustain the State’s first three points of error. However, we overrule the State’s fourth and fifth points of error and affirm the judgment.

The indictments involve two provisions of the Election Code, to wit, §§ 253.035(h) and 254.031(a)(3), (4). Section 253.035(h) provides:

Except as provided by Section 253.042, a candidate or officeholder who makes political expenditures from his personal funds may reimburse his personal funds from political contributions in the amount of those expenditures only if:
(1) the expenditures from personal funds were fully reported as political expenditures, including the payees, dates, purposes and amount of the expenditures, in the report required to be filed under this title that covers the period in which the expenditures from personal funds were made; and
(2) the report on which the expenditures from personal funds are disclosed clearly designates those expenditures as having been made from the person’s personal funds and that the expenditures are subject to reimbursement.

Tex.Eleo.Code Ann. § 253.035(h) (Vernon Supp.1994). Section 254.031(a)(3) & (4) provides:

Except as otherwise provided by this chapter, each report filed under this chapter must include:
[420]*420(3) the amount of political expenditures that in the aggregate period exceed $50 and that are made during the reporting period, the full name and address of the persons to whom the expenditures were made, and the dates and purposes of the expenditures;
(4) the amount of each payment made during the reporting period from a political contribution if the payment is not a political expenditure, the full name and address of the person to whom the payment is made, and the date and purpose of the payment.

Tex.Eleo.Code Ann. § 254.031(a)(3), (4) (Vernon Supp.1994). The Election Code also provides:

Each report filed under this chapter must be accompanied by an affidavit executed by the person required to file the report. The affidavit must contain the statement: “I swear, or affirm, that the accompanying report is true and correct and includes all information required to be reported by me under Title 15, Election Code.”

Tex.Elec.Code Ann. § 254.036(b).

The State alleges that Commissioner Ever-sole misrepresented the expenditure of approximately ninety-seven thousand dollars, over a two-year period, from his officeholder account by “reimbursing” himself for personal expenditures, but listing himself as the “payee” pursuant to §§ 253.035(h) and 254.031(a). Stated another way, the State alleged Commissioner Eversole should have reported the underlying payees instead of himself, and, that he listed himself as payee to intentionally mislead the public as to those expenditures.

In their first point • of error, the State argues that the district court erred in granting Eversole’s Motion to Quash on the basis the oath required by Tex.Eleo.Code Ann. § 254.036(b) (Vernon Supp.1994), could not support a perjury prosecution because the oath required a legal conclusion. In reaching this decision, the district court expressly relied upon Schoenfeld v. State, 56 Tex.Cr. 103, 119 S.W. 101 (Tex.Crim.App.1909). We find that case inapplicable because we hold the oath required by the Election Code does not amount to a legal conclusion.

In Schoenfeld, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held:

Where the statement which is the basis of the accusation is a matter of construction, or deduction from given facts, the fact that it is erroneous, or is not a correct construction, or is not a logical deduction from all the facts, cannot constitute it perjury or false swearing. A witness cannot be guilty of perjury in giving his opinion as to the legal effect of facts about which he is required to testify.

Schoenfeld, 119 S.W. at 103-104. This Court has recently reaffirmed the rule a witness cannot be guilty of perjury in giving his opinion as to the legal effect of facts about which he is to testify. Brasher v. State, 715 S.W.2d 827, 831 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1986, no pet.). From our reading of the cases, it is apparent Commissioner Ever-sole cannot be prosecuted for perjury if (1) his statement was a matter of construction or deduction from given facts, and, his construction was erroneous, incorrect, or illogical, or (2) an opinion about the legal effect of facts about which he is required to testify.

Thus, in reality, the Schoenfeld rule is very narrow in its application. In Schoenfeld, the testimony fell into the first enumerated category: the witness testified concerning the construction of a written contract. Although neither party has cited us to any cases which fall into the second category, we accept Commissioner Eversole’s interpretation that testimony by a police officer to the effect a particular search warrant fulfills all of the prerequisites of Chapter 18 of the Penal Code, or by an attorney that a contract contained all language required by the Uniform Commercial Code, would probably fall into the second enumerated category.

The question then becomes, what was Commissioner Eversole required to swear to, and did such testimony fall into one of the two enumerated categories established by Schoenfeld? Commissioner Eversole swore his officeholder report was “true and correct,” and it contained all information required under Title 15 of the Election Code. That information includes expenditures from [421]*421personal funds, including payees, dates, purposes and amounts, which were reported as political expenditures and reimbursed from political contributions. Tex.EleC.Code Ann. § 253.035(h) (Vernon Supp.1994). Commissioner Eversole did not swear to a legal conclusion. He swore his officeholder report contained true and correct information, to wit, the payees of expenditures from personal funds which were reimbursed from political contributions. It did not. Under the facts of this case, we hold the rule enunciated in Schoenfeld does not apply. Had the. Legislature elected to make perjury a penalty under the facts presented here, then Commissioner Eversole’s statement in the affidavit that the report was true and correct and contained all required information would support such an indictment. We sustain the State’s first point of error, subject to our overruling point of error number four.

In its second point of error, the State contends the district court erred when it concluded the term “payee”, as found in Tex.Eleo.Code Ann. § 253.035(h)(1) (Vernon Supp.1994), was unconstitutionally vague and ambiguous. We agree. In interpreting a statute, we generally give words their ordinary meaning. Geters v. Eagle Ins. Co., 834 S.W.2d 49, 50 (Tex.1992); One 1985 Chevrolet v. State,

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889 S.W.2d 418, 1994 WL 499278, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-eversole-texapp-1994.