Case Name: LA CRANDALL et al. v. LEDBETTER et al.
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1908-03-31
Citations: 159 F. 702
Docket Number: No. 1,759
Parties: LA CRANDALL et al. v. LEDBETTER et al.
Judges: Before PARDEE, McCORMICK, and SHELBY, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: Federal Reporter
Volume: 159
Pages: 702–703

Head Matter:
LA CRANDALL et al. v. LEDBETTER et al.
(Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
March 31, 1908.)
No. 1,759.
Sunday — Contracts—Validity—Public Amusement.
Under Pen. Code Tex. art. 199, forbidding the keeping open of places of public amusement on Sunday, and defining such places to mean theaters, etc., and such other amusements as are exhibited and for which an admission fee is charged, a contract providing for the appearance and exhibition of persons as performers in places of public amusement on Sunday in theaters, for admission to which a fee is charged, cannot be enforced in the courts of that state, in so far as it includes Sunday exhibitions.
[Ed. Note. — For other definitions, see Words and Phrases, vol. 6, pp. 5389-5390.]
Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of Texas.
W. H. Atwell, for appellants.
P. Barry Miller, John C. Robertson, and James J. Collins, for appellees.
Before PARDEE, McCORMICK, and SHELBY, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
The contract between the appellants and the Interstate Amusement Company, which is the basis of this suit, was not attached to the bill, nor offered in evidence; but, by fair implication from the averments of tlie bill, it is a contract providing for the appearance and exhibition of appellants as performers in places of public amusement on Sunday in theaters for admission to which a fee is charged. Such a contract, in so far as it includes Sunday exhibitions, is in derogation of article 199 of the Penal Code of the state of Texas, and therefore cannot be enforced in the courts of the state of Texas.
Tor this and other reasons apparent on the record, the decree of the District Court, dismissing the bill, is correct; and it is affirmed.