Court Opinion

ID: 9830662
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 20:22:07.836917+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:25.344363
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
The only power or authority given to the county judge to pass upon the sufficiency of the petition for the incorporation of a common school district is to receive the petition therefor, and to determine the facts presented to him in support of such petition, before the order of election is given by him and notice thereof issued. His power then ceases until after the election, when he is empowered to canvass the returns and declare the result. He has no power to interfere in any manner with the election after he has issued his order for the election. The statute has not given him any authority over the election after he has once ordered it. Gen. & Sp. Laws Reg. Sess. 1927, e. 238, p. 353 et seq.
The county judge recited in his order that the facts in the petition were true, and consequently that the petitioners were resident qualified voters, and when he did that the power to stop the election was ended with him. He had no authority to inquire into the qualifications of the voters after he issued the order of election.
No special exceptions were presented by-appellant to the petition for mandamus, only a general demurrer being filed, which was overruled by the court. The petition was not subject to general demurrer. The petition was sufficient to sustain the issuance of a mandamus to require the county judge to canvass the returns of the election held under his order. He had exercised all the power and authority given to him by the statute when he ordered the election, and he could take no further action in regard to the election until the returns were placed in his hands and it became his duty to canvass the returns and declare the result. He had fully adjudicated the question of the right of the signers of the petition to have an election ordered, and he had ordered it, and then ended his power and authority. There is nothing *121Reid in the eases of Johnson v. Elliott (Tex Civ. App.) 168 S. W. 968, and Trustees of Independent School Dist. No. 57 v. Elbon (Tex. Civ. App.) 223 S. W. 1039, cited by appellant, that sustains the action of appellant in refusing to canvass the returns of the election for the school district. The statute makes it his absolute duty to canvass the returns and declare the result. Merrill on Mandamus, § 43.
There is no merit in the motion for rehearing, and it is hereby overruled.