Court Opinion

ID: 9681492
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:51:29.246562+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:34.215865
License: Public Domain

NYE, Chief Justice,
concurring.
On original submission, Panel B of this Court held that the Texas Constitution conferred upon a county court jurisdiction to hear a misdemeanor official oppression offense. This Court granted appellant’s motion for an En Banc rehearing to consider the propriety of the panel’s holding. After argument and upon reconsideration, we all agree that appellant’s first ground of error should be sustained and that the judgment of the trial court should be reversed.
The appellant was charged with “official oppression” in violation of TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. See. 39.02 (Vernon 1974). The case was tried in the County Court of Cameron County. Appellant argued there and on appeal that jurisdiction should have been in district court since Art. V, § 8, of the Texas Constitution provides that the district court shall have original jurisdiction “of all misdemeanors involving official misconduct.” Article V, § 16, of the Texas Constitution provides that county courts “shall have original jurisdiction of all misdemeanors of which exclusive jurisdiction is not given to the Justices Court....” By such language, the Constitution would appear to invest the county courts with jurisdiction over misdemeanors involving official misconduct. However, it has long been held that the county court does not have concurrent jurisdiction with the district court in cases involving official misconduct, such jurisdiction being exclusive in the district court. Simpson v. State, 137 S.W.2d 1035 (Tex.Crim.App.1940); Hatch v. State, 10 Tex.Ct.App. 515 (1881). The original panel opinion in this case held that Art. V, § 8, did not encompass the offense of official oppression, TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. Sec. 39.02 (Vernon 1974), and that jurisdiction was properly in the county court.
Prior to the enactment of the new Texas Penal Code in 1973, a plethora of articles in the old penal code forbade various conduct by county, district and state officials and provided that there should be misdemeanor *7punishment for such violations.1 None of these illegal acts were titled “official misconduct,” but the offenses concerned misconduct in office. While many of these articles were never the focus of judicial opinions, where a question arose as to whether the district court or county court had jurisdiction over the misdemeanor offense, the original Texas Court of Appeals and the early Court of Criminal Appeals both reviewed the nature of the accused’s conduct to determine whether the crime was one “involving official misconduct.”
For example, in Bolton v. State, 69 Tex.Cr.R. 582, 154 S.W. 1197 (1913), the failure of a tax assessor to report collected fees was determined to constitute official misconduct. In Robinson v. State, 470 S.W.2d 697 (Tex.Crim.App.1971), where a municipal warrant officer converted municipal money for his own use, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that this conduct constituted official misconduct within the meaning of Art. V, § 8, Texas Constitution. In Simpson v. State, 138 Tex.Cr.R. 622, 137 S.W.2d 1035 (1940), official misconduct occurred where a police officer beat a suspect to gain a confession. In Brackenridge v. State, 27 Tex.App. 513, 11 S.W. 630 (1889), the original Texas Court of Appeals held that, where a county judge demanded fees unauthorized by law, such conduct constituted official misconduct.
Before the present penal code was enacted, offenses were classified as involving official misconduct if the alleged conduct was “an act, either of omission or commission, on the part of an officer, by which the legal duties imposed by law have not been properly and faithfully discharged by the officer.” Watson v. State, 9 Tex.Ct.App. 212 (1880). The legislature has defined official misconduct in relation to county officers as follows:
“By ‘official misconduct,’ as used herein with reference to county officers, is meant any unlawful behavior in relation to the duties of his office, wilful in its character, of any officer intrusted in any manner with the administration of justice, or the execution of the law; and includes any wilful or corrupt failure, refusal or neglect of an officer to perform any duty enjoined on him by law.”
See TEX.REV.CIV.STAT.ANN. arts. 5973 and 5968 (Vernon 1962). See also Bolton, 154 S.W. at 1197; and Robinson, 470 S.W.2d 697.
Only where an indictment did not allege misconduct in office, or where the misconduct did not relate to corruption, willful neglect, or failure of duty, has the conduct committed by the official been found to be outside the ambit of the term “official misconduct.” See Sumrall v. State, 284 S.W. 957 (Tex.Crim.App.1926); Craig v. State, 31 Tex.Cr.R. 29, 19 S.W. 504 (Tex.Ct.App.1892).
In the 1974 Penal Code, Chapter 39, titled “Abuse of Office,” replaced the multitude of old penal provisions relating to misconduct in office. TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. art. 39.01 was titled “official misconduct.” TEX.PENAL CODE art. 39.02 was titled “official oppression,” and TEX.PENAL CODE art. 39.03 was titled “Misuse of Official Information.” Other sections have since been added to this chapter of the Penal Code by the legislature. See generally, TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. Chapter 39 (Vernon Supp.1985).
Under the new penal code, however, only three published cases have dealt with the offense of official oppression. In Emerson v. State, 662 S.W.2d 92 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1984, pet. granted) (still pending before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals), the Houston Court of Appeals considered the issue that is currently before this Court and determined that an offense of official oppression fell within the ambit of the phrase “official misconduct” *8as used in the Texas Constitution and that, therefore, jurisdiction of such offense was in the district court. A companion case, Emerson v. State, 664 S.W.2d 787 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1984, pet. ref’d), contained the same issue as the first Emerson case, but the Houston Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the case on other grounds. Even before the Emerson cases, this Court recognized (albeit through dicta) that offenses of official oppression were triable in the district court. See Zuniga v. State, 664 S.W.2d 366 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1983, no pet.).
The original opinion of Panel B of this Court placed great emphasis on the fact that the new penal code included both an “official misconduct” offense and an “official oppression” offense. As noted by the Houston Court in Emerson, however, “the Code Construction Act expressly provides that the title captions do not limit or expand the meaning of any statute.” TEX.REV.CIV.STAT.ANN. art. 5429b-2, sec. 3.04 (Vernon Supp.1985). I would also find that, the title of the offense has no significance in determining whether the district court or county court properly has jurisdiction. Instead, we should focus upon the conduct made illegal by Sec. 39.02 (official oppression), and we should find that such conduct is of the type contemplated by the Constitutional phrase “involving official misconduct” and, therefore, such offenses under this section must be tried in the district court.
I agree that appellant’s motion for rehearing should be granted and appellant’s first ground of error sustained. I agree that all remaining grounds of error are overruled for the reasons set out in the panel opinion.

. See Arts. 98, 100, 101, 102, 103, 107, 113, 114, 115, 118, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 323, 324, 349, 353, 362, 366, 368, 370, 371, 372, 373, 380, 381, 382, 383, 384, 385, 386, 387, 388, 389, 390, 391, 392, 393, 394, 395, 396, 397, 398, 399, 400, 402, 407, 411, 412, 413, 414, 416, 420, 421, 422, 423, 425, 426, 640, 641, 831, 832, 1041, 1157, 1158, 1175, 1176, 1539 and 1540.