Title: Mitchell v. Purolator Security, Inc.

State: texas

Issuer: Texas Supreme Court

Document:

515 S.W.2d 101 (1974) Johnnie H. MITCHELL et al., Appellants, v. PUROLATOR SECURITY, INC., Appellee. No. B-4544. Supreme Court of Texas. October 30, 1974. Franklin L. Smith, County Atty., Thomas R. Bandy, Asst. County Atty., James R. Riggs, City Atty., Gerry Miller, Asst. City Atty., Corpus Christi, John L. Hill, Atty. Gen., Lewis A. Jones, Asst. Atty. Gen., Austin, for appellants. Strasburger, Price, Kelton, Martin & Unis, John H. Marks, Jr., and Royal H. Brin, Jr., Dallas, Keys, Russell, Watson & Seaman, Louis W. Russell, Corpus Christi, for appellee. DANIEL, Justice. This is a direct appeal from a temporary injunction in favor of Purolator Security, Inc., appellee, an armored car common carrier, against the appellants, Johnnie H. Mitchell, Sheriff of Nueces County, and other law enforcement officials. The trial court's order temporarily enjoined the appellants from applying and enforcing the prohibitions of Sections 46.02 and 46.03 of the Texas Penal Code, V.T.C.A. (the "handgun" law) against the appellee and its employees. At the threshold we are confronted with the question of whether this appeal is one which falls within the very limited direct appeal jurisdiction of this Court under Article V, Section 3-b of the Texas Constitution, Vernon's Ann.St. and Article 1738a of the Vernon's Ann.Revised Civil Statutes.[1] For the reasons hereinafter stated, we have concluded that it does not. The appellate jurisdiction of this Court is generally restricted to appeals from the intermediate Courts of Civil Appeals. A limited and restricted exception is contained in Article V, Sec. 3-b of the Texas Constitution, as follows: Under the above constitutional authority, the legislature adopted Article 1738a, as follows: The appellee, Purolator Security, Inc., a Texas corporation, operates an armored car service in various counties of the State, including Nueces, for the purpose of transferring coin, currency, and other valuable personal property from place to place, using the public streets and thoroughfares. According to uncontroverted portions of its sworn petition, Purolator services federal reserve banks, national banks, and state banks whose funds are insured by various federal agencies, as well as numerous business establishments which need to transport and receive large sums of money. In the past its armored car operators have armed themselves with handguns. Purolator alleged that this practice by its "highly trained, well paid, and fully bonded" personnel was necessary to insure the safe delivery of its transfers of valuable property and to deter robbery and other crimes, to all of which the appellants offered controverting evidence. Purolator alleged that Section 46.02 of the Penal Code, forbidding the carrying of a handgun, did not apply to its employees while on duty traveling or on its own premises or premises under its control; that if it did, the law was unconstitutional; that the appellant officers in Nueces County had adopted a contrary interpretation of the law and had advised Purolator that, beginning January 1, 1974, they would arrest all armored car personnel who carried side arms or handguns while discharging the business of the company; that the proposed manner of enforcement would result in irreparable injury and damage to its business and to the security of currency, coin, and other valuables being transported from place to place in the ordinary course of commerce; and that it had no adequate remedy at law to protect its business from being destroyed by the threatened arrests. The relevant portions of the Texas Penal Code, effective January 1, 1974, provide: *103 After a hearing on Purolator's petition, the trial court entered its order, the relevant portion of which reads: Unless the foregoing order can be interpreted as having been granted on the grounds of the unconstitutionality of the above mentioned statutes, this Court has no jurisdiction of a direct appeal therefrom. Our decisions have been strict in applying the constitutional and statutory requirements for a direct appeal. It is not enough that a question of the constitutionality of a statute may have been raised in order for our direct appeal jurisdiction to attach in injunction cases; in addition the trial court must have made a holding on the question based on the grounds of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the statute. Gibraltar Savings Assn. v. Falkner, 162 Tex. 633, 351 S.W.2d 534 (1961); Standard Securities Service Corp. v. King, 161 Tex. 448, 341 S.W.2d 423 (1960); Holmes v. Steger, 161 Tex. 242, 339 S.W.2d 663 (1960); Gardner v. Railroad Commission, 160 Tex. 467, 333 S.W.2d 585 (1960); Bryson v. High Plains Underground Water Conservation Dist. No. 1, 156 Tex. 405, 297 S.W.2d 117 (1956); Corona v. Garrison, 154 Tex. 124, 274 S.W.2d 541 (1955). In the present case relief was sought primarily on the ground that the statute does not apply to appellee's operating personnel while transporting money *104 and other valuables or while on appellee's premises or those under its control, and in the alternative, its application to them would be unconstitutional. The trial court has made no holding on either question. It has only issued a temporary injunction to preserve the status quo until the case can be developed in full. The temporary injunctive relief was not granted or denied on the ground that the statute is constitutional or unconstitutional, and hence we have no jurisdiction to hear a direct appeal from the order of the trial court. Appellants present other points of error relating to the power of a trial court to enjoin the enforcement of a penal statute, the sufficiency of the trial court's statement of reasons for granting the temporary injunction, and the lack of vested property rights of the appellee in the use of public streets. Clearly, these additional points are also beyond the scope of our jurisdiction in direct appeals. Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed for want of jurisdiction. GREENHILL, C. J., and POPE, J., concur in the result. [1] Statutory references are to Vernon's Annotated Texas Civil Statutes. [2] Emphasis supplied unless otherwise noted.