Trimble v. Hawkins

197 S.W. 224, 1917 Tex. App. LEXIS 802
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 30, 1917
DocketNo. 8812.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 197 S.W. 224 (Trimble v. Hawkins) 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
Trimble v. Hawkins, 197 S.W. 224, 1917 Tex. App. LEXIS 802 (Tex. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

BUCK, J.

Appellant applied to the district judge of Montague county for a writ of injunction to restrain appellee, alleged to be the inspector in and for said county and acting under the live stock sanitary commission of Texas, from requiring appellant’s cattle to be dipped. A hearing was had upon the law questions involved, and presumably some testimony was introduced. We say presumably, for there is among .the papers in this case an instrument purporting to be a statement of facts, but it is not signed by counsel or approved by the judge. Hence we cannot consider it as a statement of facts, or for any other purpose. From an order and judgment denying the relief sought, plaintiff has appealed.

.Both parties have filed briefs, and appel-lee has, subsequent to the submission' of this cause, presented to this court a motion to set aside the submission and for a writ of cer-tiorari to correct the record,' alleging that the purported petition contained in the record, though it bears the file mark of the district clerk as of date May 28, 1917, is not in fact the petition upon which the judgment was rendered; that in fact such purported amended petition was never filed in the district clerk’s office until after the hearing, and that neither appellee nor his counsel knew of such instrument having been filed until subsequent to the filing of the record in this court. It is further alleged that the district clerk’s true file mark, as shown on this amended petition, on file in the district clerk’s office, is of date June 4, 1917, instead of May 28, as it appears in the record. Attached to this motion is what is alleged to be the original petition upon which the hearing was had.

We have concluded that this motion should be overruled, inasmuch as such attached original petition contains substantially the allegations of the amended petition, even though we are authorized to entertain the motion for certiorari filed subsequent to submission. Owing to the fact that this is the last week of our term, it would be impracticable for the cause to he disposed of at this term, should we grant appellee’s motion. Moreover, it is not made to appear that any substantial advantage would accrue to appellee or appellant should we grant the motion, or that the record would be in such shape that we could pass more intelligently or with more light on the questions presented. No amended record is tendered for filing by the motion. Hence we have concluded that the motion should be overruled.

*226 The petition for injunction is rather lengthy, but, penetrating through the somewhat tropical verbiage by which the allegations of fact in the petition are at times obscured, it appears that the plaintiff alleged:

(1) That he was the owner of nine head of cattle all free from and clean of ticks and of all infectious and communicable diseases, that said cattle have not been exposed to ticks or such diseases, and that the premises on which said cattle are kept are also free from ticks.

(2) That the vats provided for the dipping of these cattle and other cattle in Montague county are filled with a liquid poison, injurious and dangerous to stock if dipped therein, and that said dip so used and proposed to be used had not been prepared by any competent person qualified to determine the requisite ingredients to be used, or the requisite proportions to be observed.

(3) That appellee had required plaintiff to have his cows dipped by the sheriff of Montague county, and had driven them a distance of eight miles and back within four hours’ time; that no inspection had been made in Montague county by defendant or his agents to determine the presence of ticks on the cattle or premises.

(4) That said defendant proposes and threatens to dip said alleged clean cattle again; that said dipping causes their noses, udders and around their horns to become blistered and cracked and sore; their milk to be greatly diminished, and many of the cattle so dipped have died as a result thereof.

(5) That plaintiff has mo adequate legal remedy, that defendant is insolvent, and that plaintiff has suffered and will suffer monetary damages.

(6) That fraud and misrepresentation were made by appellee and those interested in securing the passage of the quarantine law as applied to Montague county in the election held for that purpose.

(7) That the county commissioners had appropriated $5,000 to provide dipping vats and dipping fluid, without charge to owners of cattle, but the defendant had caused and procured, forced, and compelled the citizens' of Montague county to prepare dipping facilities at their own expense, etc.

We think that portion of the petition attacking the election does not present a legal ground for the injunctive relief sought. Nor do we think it necessary to consider the question of the appropriation by the county, or the authority of the county commissioners’ court to make such appropriation to provide vats and dipping fluid, except to say that in our opinion it is questionable whether the authority contained in section 3, p. 109, of the Acts of the Thirty-Fifth Legislature of 1917 authorizes the commissioners’ court to make an appropriation for constructing or leasing necessary public dipping vats within their county for the eradication of fever-carrying ticks. The disease for which this appropriation is authorized seem to be limited to anthrax, hog cholera, glanders, etc., as mentioned in said section. But in this appeal we are not called upon to decide, and therefore do not decide, whether such authorized appropriation may be legally made to cover expenses incident to the dipping of cattle against ticks.

It is only necessary for us to state that in our opinion, before the live stock sanitary commission, or its agents or inspectors, are authorized to require cattle to be dipped for the purpose of eradicating the fever-carrying tick, it is a prerequisite that an inspection be had under the authority of said live stock sanitary commission of the county, district, or premises cattle from which are required to be dipped, and that such inspection shall disclose the presence of such ticks and the necessity for such dipping. Section 1 of this act. Section 2 of the act provides that for the purpose of eradicating the obnoxious tick the live stock sanitary commission, hereinafter called commission— “is empowered and directed to establish special quarantine districts, where such diseases, or infections of such diseases, are known to exist. * * * The live stock sanitary commission shall have the power to quarantine the premises or pastures located in said special quarantine districts and the domestic live stock thereon situated in such quarantine districts or elsewhere, when to their knowledge such pastures or premises, or the live stock located,thereon are infected with or have been exposed to, a malignant, contagious, infectious, or communicable disease, or the infection thereof.”

Section 4 of the act further provides that it is the duty of the said commission—

“whenever they have reason to believe, or shall receive notice that any malignant, contagious, infectious, or communicable disease, or infection thereof, exists among any domestic animals in this state, to immediately investigate, and if such disease is found to exist, or if they have reason to believe such disease exists, to immediately quarantine such animals and the premises upon which they are located.”

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Bluebook (online)
197 S.W. 224, 1917 Tex. App. LEXIS 802, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trimble-v-hawkins-texapp-1917.