Whittenberg v. Craven

258 S.W. 152
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 30, 1924
DocketNo. 422-3441
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 258 S.W. 152 (Whittenberg v. Craven) 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
Whittenberg v. Craven, 258 S.W. 152 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1924).

Opinion

HAMILTON, J.

Mrs. Lillian Whittenberg, mother of Grace Lee Grimes, a child 9 years of age, filed in the Fifty-Fourth district court of McLennan county, an application for writ of habeas corpus to secure the release and possession of the child, alleging that it was restrained of its liberty by F. A. Craven, acting under an order of the county court of said county.

As the result of a complaint duly filed in the county court of McLennan county, sitting as a juvenile court, charging that Grace Lee Grimes was a dependent child, and in response to the verdict of a jury, returned in the trial of the case, that Grace was a dependent child, the county court had entered the following order:

“It appearing to the court that said Grace Lee Grimes is under 16 years of age, to wit, 9 years of age, and that the evidence adduced shows her to be a dependent child, it is therefore ordered, adjudged, and decreed that said child is a dependent child, and a ward of this court, and subject to this and all further orders of this court until finally discharged, or until she reaches the age of 21 years.”

On the same day, the court had issued an order of commitment as follows:

“In the above-entitled cause, it appearing to the court that it is to the best interest, morally and physically, of the child, Grace Lee Grimes, that she be turned over to the care and custody of F. A. Craven, probate officer of McLennan county, a suitable person residing in Waco, Mc-Lennan county, it is therefore ordered, adjudged, and decreed by the court that the said Grace Lee Grimes be turned over to the care and custody of F. A. Craven, subject to the following stipulations: Until further ordered by this court. And it is further ordered that said F. A. Craven, probate officer, have the right to the custody of said child subject to the further orders of this court.”

The above facts, judgment, and order were all alleged in Craven’s answer to the petition for writ of habeas corpus. The district court granted the application for the writ and awarded the custody of the child to Mrs. Whittenberg. The Court of Civil Appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court, with instructions to dismiss the cause. 216 S. W. 251.

The Constitution of Texas, article 5, § 8, provides that—

. “The district court shaíl have * * * original jurisdiction and general control over executors, administrators, guardians and minors, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law * * * and shall have general original jurisdiction over all causes of action whatever for which a remedy or jurisdiction is not provided by law or this Constitution, and such other jurisdiction, original and appellate, as may be provided by law.”

No provision of the Constitution confers on , the county court jurisdiction and control over minors, but article 5, § 16, provides that—

“The county courts shall have the general jurisdiction of a probate court.' They shall * * * appoint guardians of minors, idiots, lunatics, persons non compos mentis, and common drunkards. * * * ”

[153]*153The contention of the plaintiff in the trial court, plaintiff in error here, was that the judgment and order of the county court were void because of lack of jurisdiction to direct the custody and control of Grace Lee Grimes, and that the statute (Rev. St. arts. 2184-2190), in terms authorizing the procedure, is in violation of the portions of article 5, § 8, of the Constitution quoted above. The Court of Civil Appeals held that the proceeding in the county court in this case was a proceeding to appoint a guardian for Grace Lee Grimes, and that “the effect of the judgment of that court was to appoint F. A. Craven as such guardian, either temporary or permanent,” and was, for that reason, authorized by that portion of article 5, § 16, quoted above.

If the proceeding in the county court was a proceeding for the appointment of a guardian, the holding of the Court of Civil Appeals was correct, of course. Therefore, it is necessary to determine whether it was, or not, a proceeding to appoint a guardian.

Prior to the enactment of title 38 of the Revised Civil Statutes, of which the articles under consideration form a part, the Legislature had enacted title 64 of R. O. S., providing for the appointment of guardians and fully regulating the rights, powers, duties, etc., of guardians and wards. If chapter 1 of title 38, concerning dependent and neglected children, under and by virtue of which the proceeding in this case was brought in the county court of McLennan county and held by the Court of Civil Appeals to have been one for the appointment of a guardian, does authorize the appointment of guardians, then, the articles under consideration, 2184-2190, and those articles of title 64, pertaining to the appointment, rights, duties, etc., of guardians are in pari materia.

“Statutes are in pari materia, which relate to the same person or thing, or to the same class of persons or things. The word ‘par’ must not be confounded with the term ‘similis.’ It is used in opposition to it, as in the expression, ‘magis pares sunt quam similes;’ intimating not likeness merely, but identity. It is a phrase applicable to public statutes or general laws, made at different times, and in reference to the same subject.” United Society v. Eagle Bank of New Haven, 7 Conn. 456, 468, 469; State v. Gerhardt, 145 Ind. 439, 44 N. E. 469, 33 L. R. A. 313; Waterford, etc., Turnpike v. People, 9 Barb. (N. Y.) 161; State v. Wirt County Court, 63 W. Va. 230, 59 S. E. 884, 981.

[1,2] In the construction of a particular statute or in the interpretation of its provisions, all acts relating to the same subject, or having the same general purpose, should be read in connection with it, as together constituting one law. Such statutes, being in pari materia, and relating to the same subject, are to be taken together and so construed, in reference to each other, as that, if practicable, effect may be given to the entire provisions of each. The object of the rule is to ascertain and carry into effect the intention of the Legislature, and it proceeds upon the supposition that the several statutes relating to one subject were governed by one spirit and policy, and were intended to be consistent and harmonious in' their several parts and provisions. If they cannot be construed so as to be consistent and harmonious in their several parts and provisions, then either the hypothesis that they relate to the same subject must be abandoned or else the later statute, in so far as it cannot be recoiiciled and made consistent and harmonious with the earlier, will be construed as repealing those provisions of the earlier statute between which and the provisions of'the later statute irreconcilable repugnancy exists. With these principles as guides, let us examine articles 2184-2190 and the provisions of title 64, covering the rights, powers, and duties, etc., of guardians. The italics in the statutes quoted below are ours.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
258 S.W. 152, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/whittenberg-v-craven-texcommnapp-1924.