Case Name: John Adams v. The State
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1909-05-12
Citations: 56 Tex. Crim. 199
Docket Number: No. 4115
Parties: John Adams v. The State.
Judges: 
Reporter: Texas Criminal Reports
Volume: 56
Pages: 199–200

Head Matter:
John Adams v. The State.
No. 4115.
Decided May 12, 1909.
Abandonment—Failing to Support Minor Child—Constitutional law.
The Act of the Thirtieth Legislature p. 133, making it an offense to abandon the wife and children and fail to support the minor child, is unconstitutional. Ramsey, Judge, dissenting.
Appeal from the County Court of San Saba. Tried below before the Hon. J. T. Hartley.
Appeal from a conviction of failing to provide for minor child, etc., under Act of the Thirtieth Legislature, p. 133; penalty, a fine of $100.
The opinion states the case.
G. A. Waters and Leigh Burleson, for appellant.
F. J. McCord, Assistant Attorney-General, and Matt F. Alleson, for the State.
Counsel claimed that that part of the Act of the Thirtieth Legislature providing for the abandonment of minor children under the age of twelve years, etc., was legally severable siduum of said act: Article 3, section 35, Constitution of Texas; Roddy v. State, 16 Texas Crim. App., 502; Albrecht v. State, 8 Texas Crim. App., 216; Galveston, etc., Railway v. Grass, 47 Texas, 436; W. U. Tel. Co. v. State, 62 Texas, 630; Pollock v. Farmers Loan and Trust Co., 158 U. S., 601; Bishop under written laws, ch. 5, section 34.

Opinion:
DAVIDSON, Presiding Judge.
This conviction was had under the Act of the Thirtieth Legislature, page 133. The charge in this case was for failure to support the minor child. The provision with regard to this phase of the law is the same in regard to the abandonment of the wife insofar as the question involved the validity of the statute. For the reasons stated in Ex parte Smythe and Burch v. State, this day decided, the judgment in this case is reversed and the prosecution ordered dismissed.
Dismissed,.