Graham v. City of Greenville

Citations

• 67 Tex. 62
• 2 S.W. 742
• 1886 Tex. LEXIS 616

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal Corporations—Legislative Power Over.—The legislature may annex, or authorize the annexation, of territory contiguous to the limits of an incorporated town or city, without the consent of the persons residing either in the corporation or the annexed territory. If the legislature should, however, prescribe that such territory should not be annexed to a municipal corporation unless a majority of the persons living therein shall assent thereto, this would not be a delegation of legislative power, but a concession to the parties to be affected of the privilege of accepting or rejecting a charter.</p> <p>2. Constitutional Law—Elections.—The provision of the Constitution requiring all elections by the people to be by ballot, is no restriction on the power of the legislature to provide that the will of persons desiring territory to be annexed to a contiguous municipal corporation may be ascertained in some other manner than by public election.</p> <p>3. Statute Construed—Elections.—Neither Article 503 of the Revised Statutes, nor any other law, provides in terms that the will of the inhabitants of a territory proposed to be annexed to an adjoining city, shall be ascertained at an election held, as in cases of other elections by the people. The persons interested may express their preferences on the subject by any method of voting which is satisfactory to themselves and to the city council. When it is shown by the proper affidavit that a majority have favored annexation, the city council is authorized to receive the territory on which they reside into the limits of the city.</p> <p>4. Same.—Even if the vote or method of ascertaining the will of the majority of the inhabitants is not expressed in accordance with the Constitution and laws, the action of the city council in admitting the territory is not void. The State alone can annul their act in a proceeding begun for that purpose, and its legality can not be questioned by a tax payer living in the annexed te