44 Tex. 631 | Tex. | 1876
The question in this case is, has the mayor of La Grange the right, under the Constitution and laws of Texas as they now exist, to exercise the powers of a justice of the peace in issuing a warrant of arrest, and binding over a party under a bond for his appearance in the District Court of the county of Fayette, upon a charge of theft from a house?
The act of incorporation passed in 1856 gave to the mayor of La Grange such powers.
The Constitution of 1869 provides for five justices of the peace in each county, to be elected for the five precincts. That excludes the idea of the mayor being ex officio a justice of the peace, either under the general law, as contained in the code, or under the special law of incorporation.
This power, conferred by the general law authorizing the incorporation of any city or town by the acts of its own citizens passed in 1858, (Paschal’s Dig., art. 5270,) was taken away from such cities and towns by a repealing clause in the amendatory act of 1873. (13th Leg., p. 99, sec. 3.)
The mayor, therefore, had no jurisdiction of the case of theft from a house with which the defendant was charged, and no right to require him to give a bond, and for that reason the bond was not one upon which a judgment of forfeiture could he rendered.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded.
Reversed and remanded,