Pleading in the District and County Courts of Texas . By John C. Townes , LL. D., Professor of Law, University of Texas. (Austin, Texas: Published by the author. 1901. Pp. xvi, 525.)

One of the benefits expected from the founding of the University Law School was the opportunity that would be given to those chosen as professors to comprehensively study the distinctive features of Texas jurisprudence and to present to the profession, in permanent form, the matured results of their researches and reflections in this field. The volume on Pleading in the District and County Courts of Texas is the first fruit of this kind that has come from Professor Townes' connection with that institution. The subject selected is of general interest to every practitioner and has not heretofore met with the systematic treatment that has been desired. There was no danger, therefore, in this day of digest-making and encyclopedic learning, that a conscientious attempt to present that branch of the law in a more instructive and inviting form would meet with an unfavorable reception.

The work is what the profession had a right to expect from such a source—a lucid law treatise on philosophic lines. The book is not, as is so frequently the case, “a mere compilation of scattered instances,” nor a collection of disconnected and apparently arbitrary rules, but the outcome of an earnest effort to search out the principles underlying our system of pleading as they have been developed and elucidated in our legislative and judicial precedents. The author recognizes that law is a liberal science and its doctrines should be exhibited as capable of progression, improvement, and refinement; his book shows Texas pleading as a living member of Texas jurisprudence. To the student of the law, and no practitioner has probably become so busy as to care to deny himself that title, this treatise will prove most welcome.

The work bears evidence that the writer has not failed to turn to practical account the lessons he has learned from oral exposition and discussion in the classroom. The teacher of a body of bright young men, as no other person, comes to perceive the difficulties that inhere in the study of law, and is able to select that method of arrangement and treatment of detail best calculated to interest the student and impress on his mind the doctrines stated.

But while the work is elementary and well adapted to lessen the labors of the student, it is a convenient reference manual for the busy practitioner. The questions likely to arise in daily practice have received due attention. The established distinctions are worked out with sufficient fullness. The conflicts in the decisions, are noted and the author's reasons given as to which rests upon the firmer foundation. The practitioner who carefully studies the book will seldom find himself, in regard to the topics of which it treats and so far as the doctrines have been announced by the courts, without an authoritative guide. The book is a book of principles, but these are not attempted to be evolved from the author's “inner-consciousness,” but in nearly every instance are supported by either a constitutional or statutory provision or an adjudged case. Like any other work that proposes to set forth a consistent theory of a subject instead of a digest of points, it should first be read as a whole with sufficient care to understand the general plan of division of the various subjects and sub-topics. To such a reader of the book there will be no lack of details and practical illustrations. While it would be expecting too much to require, and especially in a first book, that all the precedents on pleading scattered throughout our statutes and reports should be brought together, digested, and methodized, the work is a most valuable contribution of materials toward that end. It presents a comprehensive view and its defects of omission and of details can be expanded in the few instances in which the treatment is too meager, and explained in those where it is obscure, in a subsequent edition.

The convenience of the book for reference purposes is increased by full quotations of the constitutional and statutory provisions applicable to the topics considered, and by an appendix containing all the rules of the several Texas courts. These alterations effected in the law of pleading, with the judicial interpretations of them, are brought down to date.

No pains have been spared to make the mechanical features of the publication all that could be desired. The usual typographical errors in a first edition did not fail to escape the search of the proof reader.

A brief reference, in conclusion, to the particular topics treated may not be out of place. The civil jurisdiction of the district and county courts and questions relating to venue and the provisions for the organization of these courts are treated in a way that will prove acceptable to the practitioner. There is a useful chapter upon the general principles of pleading. The different instruments of pleading under our system and what they should contain and their relations to each other are thoroughly discussed. An exposition is given of pleading in those instances that require special rules, as in cases of libel, slander, mandamus, quo waranto, trial of right of property, and trespass to try title. There is an admirable chapter on proceedings in personam, in rem, and quasi in rem, wherein each is defined and distinguished from the other.

There is further a well-reasoned dissertation on the difficult subjects of parties to suits and of joinder and misjoinder of causes of action. The two opening chapters contain a philosophic contribution to the literature of the law upon jurisdiction of courts and the judicial functions of government.

One of the best parts of the volume is the tracing out, from original sources, of the development of the Texas judicial system. The history of the law is sometimes looked upon as of subordinate consideration, but this brief though comprehensive historic résumé will prove highly profitable reading to the Texas lawyer. The author has performed with fidelity his arduous task and it is to the interest of the profession that he continue his labors.

Clarence H. Miller .

How to cite:
Miller, Clarence H., "Pleading in the District and County Courts of Texas", Volume 005, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 255 - 257. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v005/n3/review_13.html
[Accessed Tue Dec 2 20:27:11 CST 2008]