Sec. 5. That all former laws imposing and levying any occupation taxes upon the property enumerated in this act for the purposes of state or county taxes, and all laws and parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this act be and the same are hereby repealed. Sec. 6. The near approach of the close of the present session of the Legislature, and the fact that the state should not delay any legislation that would enforce the collection of the taxes for the present year upon the property enumerated in this act, creates an imperative public necessity and an emergency for the suspension of the constitutional rule requiring this bill to be read on three several days, and for the immediate passage of this act said rule is therefore suspended, and this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved July 9, A. D. 1879. Takes effect ninety days after adjournment. CHAPTER XLIV.-An act to amend chapter three, title fifteen of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the State of Texas, passed at the first session of the Sixteenth Legislature in the year 1879, by creating articles 1075 and 1076 thereof, relating to costs paid by counties. Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That chapter three, title fifteen of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the State of Texas, passed at the first session of the Sixteenth Legislature in the year 1879, shall be so amended that it shall contain articles 1075 and 1076, and so that said articles shall read as follows: "Article 1075. There shall be paid to the county judge, by the county, the sum of three dollars for each criminal action tried and finally disposed of before him. "Article 1076. The county judge shall present to the commissioners' court of his county, at a regular term thereof, an account in writing, specifying each criminal action in which he claims the fee allowed by the preceding article, which account shall be certified to be correct by such judge, and the same shall be filed with the clerk of the county court. The commissioners' court shall approve such account for such amount as they may find to be correct, and order a draft to be issued upon the county treasurer in favor of such judge for the amount so approved." Sec. 2. The near approach of the end of the session, and the fact that there is no provision in the law providing fees for county judges, creates an imperative public necessity and emergency that the rules requiring this bill to be read on three several days be suspended, and it is hereby suspended, and that this act take effect from and after its passage, and it is so enacted. Approved July 9, A. D. 1879. Takes effect from and after its passage. CHAPTER XLV.-An act to prescribe what character of buildings shall be erected and what articles shall be manufactured at the East Texas Penitentiary at Rusk. Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That the "East Texas penitentiary board" in contracting for the building of workshops and other improvements necessary and proper to put the East Texas penitentiary into operation, shall cause such improvements to be made and buildings to be erected as will, in its judgment, furnish employment for the largest number of convicts practicable, with machinery and tools which can be purchased and had without an extravagant outlay of money, and need not provide for the manufacture of iron. exclusively, but shall provide for smelting and casting iron, and may provide for more extensive iron works, if, after experiment, it shall be found advisable. Sec. 2. That the obscurity of the law relating to this subject creates an imperative public necessity that the rule requiring this bill to be read on three several days be suspended, and it is suspended, and that this act take effect from its passage, and it is so enacted. Approved July 9, A. D. 1879. Takes effect from and after its passage. CHAPTER XLVI.—An act to amend article 1057, 1058, and 1059 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the State of Texas, adopted at the regular session of the Sixteenth Legislature. Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That articles 1057, 1058 and 1059 respectively of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the State of Texas, passed and adopted at the regular session of the Sixteenth Legislature, be so amended as to read as follows: "Article 1057. Before the close of each term of the district court, the district or county attorney, sheriff and clerk of said court shall each make out a bill or account of the costs claimed to be due them by the state respectively in the felony cases tried at that term; the bill or account shall show "1. The style and number of the case in which the costs are claimed to have accrued. "2. The offense charged against the defendant. "3. The term of the court at which the case was disposed of. "4. The disposition of the case and that the case was finally disposed of and no appeal taken. "5. The name and number of defendants, and if more than one whether they were tried jointly or separately. "6. Where each defendant was arrested, or witness served, stating the county in which the service was made, giving distance and direction from county seat of county in which the process is served, and mileage shall be charged for distance by the most direct and practicable route from the court whence such process issued to the place of service. ". In allowing mileage the judge shall ascertain whether the process was served on one or more of the parties named therein on the same tour, and shall allow mileage only for the number of miles actually traveled, and then only for the journey made at the time the service was perfected. "8. The court shall inquire whether there have been several prosecutions for an offense or transaction that is but one offense in law, and if there is more than one prosecution for the same transaction or a portion thereof that could have been combined in one indictment against the same defendant, the judge shall allow fees to sheriffs, clerks and district and county attorneys in but one prosecution. "9. Where the defendants in a case have severed on the trial, the judge shall not allow the charges for service of process and mileage to be duplicated in each case as tried, but only such additional fees shall be allowed as are caused by the severance. "Article 1058. It shall be the duty of the district judge when any such bill is presented to him to examine the same carefully and to inquire into the correctness thereof, and approve the same in whole or part, or to disapprove the entire bill as the facts and law may require; and such bill, with the action of the judge thereon, shall be entered on the minutes of said court; and immediately on the rising of said court it shall be the duty of the clerk thereof to make a certified copy from the minutes of said court of said bill and the action of the judge thereon, and transmit the same by mail in registered letter to the comptroller of public accounts. "Article 1059. It shall be the duty of the comptroller upon the receipt of such claim and said certified copy of the minutes of said court, to closely and carefully examine the same, and if correct to draw his warrant on the state treasurer for the amount due in favor of the officer entitled to the same; provided, that if the appropriation for paying such accounts is exhausted, the comptroller shall file the same away, if correct, and issue a certificate in the name of the officer entitled to the same, stating therein the amount of the claim and character of the service performed. And all such claims or accounts not transmitted to, or placed on file in the office of the comptroller of public accounts within six months from the date of the final disposition of the case in which the services were rendered, shall be forever barred." Approved July 9, A. D. 1879. Takes effect ninety days after adjournment. CHAPTER XLVII.-An act defining the boundary lines of Montague county. Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That article 860 of the Revised Civil Statutes, adopted by the Sixteenth Legislature, February...., 1879, shall hereafter read as follows: "Beginning six miles west of the northeast corner of Wise county; thence west with the north line of Wise and Jack counties to a point four miles west of the northeast corner of Jack county; thence due north to Red river; thence down said river with its meanders to a point due north of the beginning; thence due south to the place of beginning." Sec. 2. That all laws and parts of laws in conflict with the above entitled act are hereby repealed. Sec. 3. The near approach of the close of the session creates a public imperative necessity that the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days should be suspended, and it is so suspended. Approved July 9, A. D. 1879. Takes effect ninety days after adjournment. CHAPTER XLVIII.-An act to prescribe the remedy and regulate the proceedings by quo warranto, and confer the jurisdiction in certain cases upon the district court of Travis county. Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That in case any person shall usurp, intrude into, or unlawfully hold or execute, or is now intruded into, or now unlawfully holds or executes any office or franchise, or any office in any corporation created by the authority of this state, or any public officer shall have done or suffered. any act which by the provisions of law works a forfeiture of his office, or any association or number of persons shall act within this state as a corporation without being legally incorporated, or any incorporation does or omits any act which amounts to a surrender or a forfeiture of its rights and privileges as a corporation, or exercises powers not conferred by law, or if any railroad company doing business in this state shall charge an extortionate rate for the transportation of any freight or passengers, or refuse to draw or carry the cars of any other railroad company over its line as required by the laws of this state, the attorney general, or district or county attorney, of the proper county or district, either of his own accord or at the instance of any individual relator, may present a petition to the district court of the proper county, or any judge thereof, in vacation, for leave to file an information in the nature of a quo warranto, in the name of the State of Texas; and if such court or judge shall be satisfied that there is probable ground for the proceeding, the court or judge may grant the petition and order the information to be filed and process to issue. Sec. 2. When it appears to the court or judge that the several rights of divers parties to the same office or franchise may properly be determined on one information, the court or judge may give leave to join all such persons in the same information in order to try their respective rights to such office or franchise. Sec. 3. When the information is filed, as hereinbefore provided, the clerk shall issue citation in like form as in civil suits commanding the defendent to appear at the return time of said court to answer the relator in an information in the nature of a quo warranto. If the information is filed in vacation the citation shall be returnable on the first day of the next succeeding term; if in term time it may be made returnable on any day of the same term, not less than five days after the date of the writ, as shall be directed by the court. Sec. 4. Every person or corporation who shall be cited as herein before provided shall be entitled to all the rights in the trial and investigation of the matters alleged against him, as in cases of trial of civil causes in this state; and in case of appeal to the supreme court, to which either party shall be entitled, the said court shall give preference to such case and hear and determine the same at the earliest day practicable; and all such appeals shall be prosecuted to the term of the court in session, at either branch, or the first term to be held, if not in session, after judgment has been rendered in the district court. Sec. 5. In case any person or corporation against whom any such is filed shall be adjudged guilty, as charged in the information, the court shall give judgment of ouster against such person or corporation from the office or franchise, and may fine such person or corporation for usurping, intruding into or unlawfully holding and executing such office or franchise, and shall also give judgment in favor of the relator for the costs of the prosecution. Sec. 6. The remedy and mode of procedure hereby prescribed shall be construed to be cumulative of any now existing. Sec. 7. Suits against persons illegally claiming or holding any state office or appointment as contradistinguished to a county or district office, shall be brought in the district court of Travis county. Sec. 8. Whereas, this session of the Legislature must adjourn in less. than three days from this date, therefore there exists an imperative public necessity for the passage of this act to supply a defect now existing in the laws of this state; it is therefore enacted that the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days be suspended. Approved July 9, A. D. 1879. Takes effect ninety days after adjournment. CHAPTER XLIX.-An act supplemental to and amendatory of an act entitled "An act to make an appropriation for the support. of the state government for the years beginning March 1, 1879, and ending February 28, 1881," approved April 23, 1879. Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That the following sums of money, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be and the same are hereby appropriated out of any money not otherwise appropriated for the periods hereinafter stated, viz: For the support of the public free schools for the years ending August 31, 1880 and 1881, one-sixth of all the ad valorem and occupation taxes that may be collected, exclusive of the cost of collection; all the annual poll tax levied for school purposes, exclusive of the cost of collection, and all the interest on the permanent school fund, including bonds and other interest-bearing indebtedness, now or hereafter belonging to said permanent school fund. Comptroller's Office. For additional clerk force for extra work in assessing] Adjutant General's Office. additional contingent fund. |