Hayden v. Dallas County
Hayden v. Dallas County
Opinion of the Court
Upon a hearing, appellant’s petition for temporary injunction was overruled, and he has appealed. The subject matter of the suit was a written contract between Dallas County and the Automatic Voting Machine Corporation, dated May 29, 1940, for the lease of eighty voting machines over a four-months period — June 1 to September 30, 1940. Charles E. Hayden, as a taxpaying citizen and property owner, for himself and others similarly situated, sought to restrain the performance of the contract by either party, alleging same to be wholly void and unenforceable. Plaintiff’s petition for interlocutory and permanent relief extends through 28 pages of the transcript, but the facts underlying his detailed charges of invalidity, touching the contract in question, must be briefly stated.
The Automatic Voting . Machine Corporation, herein referred to as company, is a Delaware corporation, and has never had a permit to transact business in Texas.
There was evidence before the court that the defendant company had heretofore rented and later sold numbers of the machines to Gregg and Bexar Counties under contracts similar, so far as applicable, to Dallas County’s rental contract; performance bonds being entered into in each case by said corporation. The machines were in full compliance with Texas laws (Art. 2997a), as mechanical voting devices. Mr. Lounsbury testified further that his company, for educational purposes during election years, always send one or more technicians to localities where machines are maintained, , to instruct officials in handling them and in their use; and the company would continue such service as long as necessary; that after 20 years, if Dallas County changed custodians, and made the request of the factory, it would send the necessary technicians down to break in new men.
Appellant’s main grounds for asserting that Dallas County and defendant company are attempting to consummate a void transaction, are these: (1) That the voting machine concern is a foreign corporation, without a Texas permit; that the rental contract whereby voting machines are shipped into the State for temporary use, constitutes intrastate rather than interstate commerce; and that perforce of Art. 2031a, any payment under such lease contract is void and an unlawful diversion of tax funds, therefore, properly enjoinable; (2) that neither Arts. 1659, 2368a or 2997a, relative to competitive bidding, was complied with, rendering the rental contract void; it being argued that after the time had expired for acceptance of the Voting Company’s bid, Dallas County accepted only a part of said original offer, without re-advertisement; the result being a mere counter proposition by the county that could not legally be the basis of a contract between the parties under aforesaid statutes.
As stated, appellant’s suit is in-junctive in character and challenges the right of either party to perform the above rental contract on account of alleged invalidity ; hence its terms must be examined for a determination of whether defendant company was thereby engaged in an intrastate transaction. By the writing, the machines were to be shipped into Texas from another state, rented by Dallas County for four months, and then reshipped to Jamestown, N. Y., by the lessee; rentals being expressly payable to the lessor at its home office by September 1. The company was to furnish with the machines an instructor to enlighten custodians thereof in their use. The shipment of chattels from one state to another for lease only does not divest the transaction of its interstate character. This rule has been many times illustrated in the lease of moving picture films. Binderup v. Pathe Exchange, 263 U.S. 291, 44 S.Ct. 96, 68 L.Ed. 308. The terms of the contract in suit are well within the pronouncement of our
But, if we be mistaken in our conclusion that Art. 2031a is inapplicable to the contract in question, still the penalty of Sec. 5 thereof declares the acts of the offending corporation -void only “as to it”. Thus, the rights of the other contracting party are not affected. Hence, in this instance, it is Dallas County, in its discretion, and not plaintiff taxpayer, that is entitled to raise the inhibition of the statute. The county has not seen fit to do so. “It is the general rule under such a statute that contracts made in violation thereof are not void but voidable only, at the election of citizens who are parties thereto, * * (Italics ours.) Fletcher on Corporations, Vol. 17, p. 595; Yewell v. Board of Drainage Com’rs, 187 Ky. 434, 219 S.W. 1049. Even if we should assume the contract voidable in its inception as regards Dallas County,' it is one which this corporate body was authorized to make and was subject to later ratification, as was done. Williams v. Pure Oil Co., 124 Tex. 341, 78 S.W.2d 929; Kutzschbach v. Williamson County, Tex.Civ.App., 118 S.W.2d 930.
Finally, we think, the successive steps taken by the Commissioners’ Court, resulting in the rental contract for voting equipment, were in substantial compliance with all relevant statutes on competitive bidding. Bids were first sought on the rental of eighty machines, for a period not
No irregularity is shown in filing more than one bid; or in the submission of an alternative and conditional bid by a company which is the sole bidder; the record disclosing no other concern in the United States to be engaged in the business of renting voting machines. The disposition of bids under such situation, it seems to us, is peculiarly a matter for the sound discretion of the County Commissioners.
All assignments and propositions upon consideration are overruled, and the order refusing a temporary injunction will be affirmed.
Affirmed.
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