Court Opinion

ID: 9833662
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 22:55:40.964736+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:44:05.679787
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Appellants filed a motion for rehearing in this cause, asking the court to set aside the judgment reversing and remanding this cause for a new trial, and asking the court to enter a judgment reversing the judgment of the lower court and rendering this cause in favor of appellants, or, in the alternative, to reverse and render the same on the question of venue, with instructions to the lower court to enter a proper order changing, the venue. In the light of this motion, we have again carefully reviewed the record in this case, and we are of the opinion that we made the correct disposition of the same in our original opinion.
As stated in our original opinion, the appellants challenged the sufficiency of the proof to show that the stock law was in effect in Fisher County. We did not deem it necessary to pass directly upon this question. However, after mature and deliberate consideration, we are of the opinion that the proof offered by the plaintiff in the court below was insufficient to show that the stock law was in effect in Fisher County. Plaintiff offered in evidence an order of the Commissioners Court canvassing the returns of the election and the county judge’s proclamation declaring said law to be in effect.
The cause seems to have been tried on the theory that the Commissioners Court . could tabulate and count the votes. Such tabulation did not meet the requirements of the law. King v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 74 S.W. 773; Texas Electric Railway v. Reese, Tex.Com.App., 280 S.W. 179.
Article 6961 of the Revised Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St., provides as follows:
“The returns shall be opened tabulated and counted by the county judge in the presence of the county clerk and at least one justice of the peace of the county, or of two respectable freeholders of the county, and an order showing the result shall be duly recorded in the minutes of the commissioners court in the said county. *768The order showing the result of said election this (thus) determined, certified and recorded, shall be held to be prima facie evidence that all the provisions of law have been complied with in presenting the petition, the action of the court thereon ordering the election, the giving of notice and holding said election, and in counting and returning the votes and declaring the result thereof, and, if said election be thgn declared to be in favor of the stock law, then after thirty days from said date, it shall be prima facie evidence that the proclamation required by law has been made and published as required by law.”
There is no showing in this' record that the returns of the election were opened, tabulated and counted by the county judge in the way and manner provided in said Article 6961. If upon another trial such an order is not introduced in evidence by the plaintiff, we are of the opinion that the pleas of privilege filed herein should be sustained.
Appellants earnestly insist that we render judgment herein in their behalf, but after a careful and thoughtful consideration, we are of the opinion that the ends of justice will be better subserved by remanding the cause for a new trial, both upon the merits and the pleas of privilege. Associated Oil Co. v. Hart, Tex.Com.App., 277 S.W. 1043; Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Howell, Tex.Civ.App., 117 S.W.2d 857; Ohio Oil Co. v. Varner, Tex.Civ.App., 150 S.W.2d 185.
From Associated Oil Co. v. Hart, supra [277 S.W. 1045], we quote:
“It is the r.ule, where a judgment has been reversed, to remand to the trial court rather than to render, where the ends of justice will be better subserved thereby. Such remanding has often been ordered to supply additional testimony, to amend the pleadings, and even to show jurisdiction.”
As said by Judge Brewster in London Terrace v. McAlister, Tex.Sup., 180 S.W.2d 619, 621:
“Our decisions show that causes have been remanded after a reversal rather than rendered, when the case was tried on the wrong theory, when the evidence was not fully developed, when issues raised by the pleadings were not passed on, when the findings of fact were insufficient, when there were defects in pleading or in parties, or when it seemed probable that the ends of justice would be better subserved thereby. See 4 Tex. Dig. Appeal and Error, ®=51177 et seq.”
Appellant’s motion for rehearing is in all things overruled.