Court Opinion

ID: 9667044
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:33:24.072744+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:34.364318
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
We have carefully considered appellant’s motion for a rehearing and the same is overruled.
We wish to add another reason for our holding in this case.
The provision of the statute with reference to attorney’s fees which is here being considered was first passed by the Legislature as House Bill No. 27, Chapter 47, p. 93, of the Act of 1909. This act of the Legislature was first construed by the Supreme Court in Missouri, K. & T. Ry. Co. of Texas v. Mahaffey, 105 Tex. 394, 150 S.W. 881. The Supreme Court held that this act was .limited to claims of not more than $200 in amount, for two reasons: First, because the caption of the act so limited the subject matter of the act and under the provisions of Sec. 35 of Art. 3 of the state Constitution the provisions of the act could not be construed as including any subject matter not stated in the caption, and, second, because the body of the act limited the amount of the attorney’s fees to not more than $20, and this limitation indicated an intention on the part of the Legislature to limit the application of the provisions of the act to small claims of not more than $200 in amount. The provisions of this act were codified in 1911 as Article 2178. The statute was amended in 1923, and as amended was codified in 1925 as Art. 2226 of the Revised Civil Statutes of that year.
When the Legislature re-enacted this law as Art. 2226 it was not governed by the provisions of § 35 of Art. 3 of our Constitution. Section 43 of Art. 3 so provides in the following language: “Sec. 43. The first session of the Legislature under this Constitution shall provide for revising, digesting and publishing the laws, civil and criminal; and a like revision, digest and publication may be made every ten years thereafter; provided, that in the adoption of and giving effect to any such digest or revision, the Legislature shall not .be limited by sections 35 and 36 of this Article.”
Thus the caption of the original act or of any prior amendment thereto became of no importance.. American Indemnity Co. v. City of Austin, 112 Tex. 239, 246 S.W. 1019. See also: Royal Crown Bottling Co. v. Minugh, 244 S.W.2d 531, decided by this Court on November 7, 1951.
When, in 1949, the Legislature again amended this act it eliminated therefrom the limitation of the amount of attorney’s fees recoverable to $20 and provided only that they should be reasonable. Thus the two reasons given by the Supreme Court for its interpretation of the original act do not now exist and there is no longer any reason for such a construction of the act. American Indemnity Co. v. City of Austin, supra.
The provisions of Art. 2226, supra, not now being limited in any way by the caption of the original act and the Legislature, by amendment, having removed the $20 limitation theretofore existing as to the amount of recoverable attorney’s fees, the provisions of Art. 2226, supra, now apply to all claims described in the Article even though such claims are in an amount of more than $200.
We adhere to our original decision in this case.