Case Name: Ex parte FORD
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1920-12-16
Citations: 226 S.W. 410
Docket Number: No. 5341
Parties: Ex parte FORD.
Judges: 
Reporter: South Western Reporter
Volume: 226
Pages: 410–411

Head Matter:
Ex parte FORD.
(No. 5341.)
(Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
Dec. 16, 1920.)
Intoxicating liquors &wkey;>132 — Relator, licensed to sell intoxicants, could not be convicted on theory license revoked by act prohibiting sale where license laws re-enacted by same session.
The Acts of the Thirty-Fifth Legislature (1918) Fourth Called Session, on the subject of intoxicating liquors, should be construed together, so that, under chapter 24, prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors, and chapter 23, 'amending and re-enacting the license laws, relator, regularly licensed to sell intoxicating liquors, could not be convicted of selling such liquors without a license on any theory that his license was revoked by chapter 24.
Habeas corpus on behalf of John P. Ford.
Discharge of relator ordered.
Brown & Wilchar, of El Paso, E. B. Robertson, of Ft. Worth, p.nd Joseph M. Nealon, of El Paso, for appellant.
Alvin M. Owsley, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

Opinion:
MORROW, J.
The relator'was charged with the sale of intoxicating liquors without a license, the alleged offense taking place in February, 1919. Prior to that date, he obtained a license, regularly issued by the state, authorizing him to sell intoxicating liquors, which license had not been revoked. It affirmatively appears that the alleged offense was not committed within a "zone," described in Ex parte Hollingsworth, 83 Tex. Cr. R. 400, 203 S. W. 1102, nor within a district wherein the sale was prohibited under the local option prohibition law. The prosecution is maintained upon the theory that the license to sell was revoked by chapter 24, Acts 35th Leg. 4th Called Sess., which prohibited the sale of intoxicating liquors. This act was by this court declared inoperative in Ex parte Myer, 207 S. W. 100. At the same session of the Legislature, in chapter 23, the license laws were amended and re-enacted. Following a well-established rule, this court, in Ex parte Fulton, 215 S. W. 331, and in Coleman v. State, 220 S. W. 1097, held that the acts of the Thirty-Fifth Legislature, Fourth Called Session, upon the subject of intoxicating liquors should be construed together. Applying this rule, we think, under the facts before us, the prosecution could not be maintained.
The discharge of the relator is therefore ordered.