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where such property is situated within seven years after the death of the owner, it shall be prima facie evidence that there was no will, and where no lawful claim is asserted to or lawful acts of ownership exercised in such property for the period of seven years, and this has been proved to the satisfaction of the court, it shall be deemed prima facie evidence of the death of the owner, and of the failure of heirs, and the court trying the cause may, if such evidence is not rebutted, find therefrom in favor of the State; provided further, that any one paying taxes to the State on such property, either personally or through an agent, shall be held to be exercising lawful acts of ownership in such property within the meaning of this act, and shall not be concluded by any judgment unless made a party to such escheat proceedings, and a personal service of citation be had upon him, if a resident of this State, and his address can be secured by reasonable diligence, but if he is a non-resident of the State, and can not be found, the personal service of citation shall be made upon any agent of such claimant, if such agent, by the use of reasonable diligence, can be found; such reasonable diligence to include an investigation of the records of the office and inquiry of the State and county tax collector and the State and county tax assessor of the county in which the property sought to be escheated is situated.

Article 1822. When the district or county attorney shall be informed or have reason to believe that an executor or executors, if more than one, has been named, under the will of any person who has died without heirs and without having devised his estate, has not accepted the trust, that no administrator with the will annexed, has been appointed; or where such attorney shall discover that no letters of administration on the estate of an intestate who has died without heirs have been granted, or where such attorney finds any estate, real or personal, in the condition specified in the next preceding article (1821) he shall file a petition in behalf of the State in the district or the county where such property or any part thereof lies, which petition shall set forth a description of the estate, the name of the person last lawfully seized or possessed of same, the name of the tenants or persons in actual possession, if any, and the names of the persons claiming the estate, if any such are known to claim or whose claim may be discovered by the exercise of reasonable diligence, and the facts or circumstances in consequence of which such estate is claimed to have escheated, and the diligence exercised to discover the claimants of same, praying that such property be escheated and for a writ of possession for the same in behalf of the State. Such petition shall be sworn to by such attorney.

Article 1823. The clerk of the court shall issue citation, as in other civil causes, for such of the defendants as shall be alleged in the petition to hold possession of or claim such estate and for such other persons as this act provided shall be cited, requiring them to appear and answer at the next term of court.

Article 1830. When any judgment shall be rendered that the State be seized or possessed of any estate, such judgment shall contain a description thereof, and shall vest title in the State; such judgment when rendered for real estate shall further provide that no writ of possession for such property shall issue within two years from the date

when such judgment becomes final, and no sale thereof be made within such time. Such title to such real property or any part thereof, so adjudged to the State, being subject to divestiture at the suit of any claimant not personally served with citation in such escheat proceedings, who shall institute suit therefor, against the State, in any court having jurisdiction, within two years after the date when such judgment in the escheat proceedings have become final, and who shall finally be adjudged owner of the property, for the recovery of which the suit is brought or any part thereof.

SEC. 2. The great necessity for this act, the existing law upon this subject not being sufficient to protect the rights of property owners, which are now being seriously impaired and destroyed by judgments and sales manifestly unjust, creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity requiring the suspension of the constitutional rule that bills be read on three several days in each house, and the same is hereby suspended, and that this act take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.

Approved March 29, 1907.

Takes effect ninety days after adjournment.

RAILWAY EMPLOYEES-LIMITING THE WORK HOURS OF

H. B. No. 364.]

SAME.

CHAPTER LI.

An Act to prohibit any corporation or receiver operating a line of railway in whole or in part in the State of Texas, or any officer, agent or representative of such corporation, or receive from requiring or knowingly permitting any conductor, engineer, fireman, brakeman, train dispatcher or telegraph operator who has been on duty for fourteen consecutive hours, to perform any work until he has had, at least eight hours off duty, except in certain cases, and to prohibit any such corporation or receiver, or any officer, agent, or representative thereof from requiring or knowingly permitting any such employee who has been on duty for fourteen consecutive hours, and who has gone off duty to again go on duty, or perform any work for such corporation or receiver until he has had at least eight hours off duty, and providing penalties for violation of this Act, and prescribing the venue of suits and prosecutions thereunder, and repealing Chapter Thirty-One of the Acts of the Twenty-eighth Legislature, and declaring an emergency.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas:

SECTION 1. It shall hereafter be unlawful for any corporation or receiver operating any line of railroad in whole or in part in this State, or any officer, agent or representative of such corporation or receiver to require or knowingly permit any conductor, engineer, fireman, brakeman, train dispatcher or telegraph operator, who has been on duty for fourteen consecutive hours to perform any work until he has had at least eight hours off duty, except in cases where such fourteen hours expires while a train is between stations or at a station where there are no facilities for sidetracking such train, in either of which events the conductor, engineer, fireman, or brakeman, or all of them, may be per

mitted to proceed with such train to the first station where such facilities can be had, but no further; provided, however, that in case said fourteen hours shall expire when a train is within twenty miles of a terminal toward which it is going, or within twenty miles of its destination, the aforementioned employes operating such train may be permitted to proceed to such terminal or destination, but in such case shall not be required or permitted to do any switching or other work which would in any manner retard them in speedily reaching such terminal or destination; provided further, that this Act shall not apply in case of casualty upon such railroad, directly affecting such employee, nor shall it apply to sleeping car companies.

SEC. 2. It shall hereafter be unlawful for any corporation or receiver operating any line of railroad in whole or in part in this State, or any officer, agent, or representative of such corporation or receiver to require or knowingly permit any conductor, engineer, fireman, brakeman, train dispatcher or telegraph operator, who has been on duty for fourteen consecutive hours and who has gone off duty, to again go on duty or perform any work for such corporation or receiver until he has had at least eight hours off duty.

SEC. 3. Any corporation or receiver operating a line of railroad in whole or in part within this State, who shall violate any of the provisions of this Act shall be liable to the State of Texas in a penalty of not less than two hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars for each offense, and such penalties shall be recovered and suit therefor shall be brought in the name of the State of Texas in any court having jurisdiction of the amount in Travis County, Texas, or in any county into or through which said railroad may pass. Such suit or suits may be brought either by the Attorney General or under his direction or by the County Attorney or District Attorney of any County or judicial district into or through which said railroad may pass, and such attorney bringing any action under this Act shall be entitled to a compensation of one-third of the total amount of penalties recovered.

SEC. 4. Any officer, agent or representative of any corporation or receiver operating any line of railroad in whole or in part within this State, who shall violate any of the provisions of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction therefor shall be punished by a fine of not less than One Hundred Dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars for each offense, or by confinement in the County jail for not less than ten nor more than sixty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment, and such person so offending may be prosecuted under this Section, either in the County where such person may be at the time of the commission of the offense, or in any County where such employee has been permitted or required to work in violation of this Act.

SEC. 5. The fact that there is now no adequate law to prevent railroad employees from being required and permitted to work for more than fourteen consecutive hours without rest, and that it is extremely dangerous to the traveling public, as well as to the property rights of the citizens of this State, that trains should be operated by men who have been on duty for more than fourteen consecutive hours without rest, creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity that the Constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days be sus

pended, and that this Act take effect from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.

Approved April 1, 1907.

Takes effect ninety days after adjournment.

COURTS-CREATING THE COUNTY COURT OF DALLAS

H. B. No. 447.]

COUNTY AT LAW.

CHAPTER LII.

An Act to create the "County Court of Dallas County at Law," to define the jurisdiction thereof, and to conform to such change the jurisdiction of the County Court of Dallas County.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That there is hereby created a court to be held in Dallas County, to be called the "County Court of Dallas County, at Law."

SEC. 2. The County Court of Dallas County, at Law, shall have jurisdiction in all matters and causes, civil and criminal, original and appellate, over which, by the general laws of the State, the County Court of said county would have jurisdiction, except as provided in Section three of this act; and all cases other than probate matters, and such as are provided in Section three of this act, be, and the same are hereby, transferred to the County Court of Dallas County, at Law; and all writs and process, civil and criminal, heretofore issued by or out of said County Court, other than pertaining to matters over which by section three of this Act jurisdiction remains in the County Court of Dallas County, be, and the same are hereby, made returnable to the County Court of Dallas County, at Law. The jurisdiction of the County Court of Dallas County, at Law, and of the judge thereof shall extend to all matters of eminent domain, of which jurisdiction has been heretofore vested in the County Court or in the county judge; but this provision shall not affect the jurisdiction of the Commissioners' Court, or of the County Judge of Dallas County as the presiding officer of such Commissioners' Court, as to roads, bridges, and public highways, and matters of eminent domain which are now within the jurisdiction of the Commissioners' Court or the judge thereof.

SEC. 3. The County Court of Dallas County shall retain, as heretofore, the general jurisdiction of a Probate Court; it shall probate wills, appoint guardians of minors, idiots, lunatics, persons non compos mentis, and common drunkards, grant letters testamentary and of administration, settle accounts of executors, administrators and guardians; transact all business appertaining to deceased persons, minors, idiots, lunatics, persons non compos mentis, and common drunkards, including the settlement, partition and distribution of estates of deceased persons; and to apprentice minors as provided by law; and the said Court, or the judge thereof, shall have the power to issue writs of injunction, mandamus, and all writs necessary to the enforcement of the jurisdiction of said court; and also to punish contempts under such provisions as are or may be provided by general law governing county courts throughout the State; but said County Court of Dallas County, shall have no

other jurisdiction, civil or criminal. The county judge of Dallas County shall be the judge of the County Court of Dallas County. All ex-officio duties of the county judge shall be exercised by the said judge of the County Court of Dallas County, except in so far as the same shall, by this act, be committed to the judge of the County Court of Dallas County, at Law.

SEC. 4. The terms of the County Court of Dallas County, at Law, and the practice therein, and appeals and writs of error therefrom, shall be as prescribed by laws relating to county courts. The terms of the County Court of Dallas County, at Law shall be held as now established for the terms of the County Court of Dallas County, until the same may be changed in accordance with the law.

SEC. 5. There shall be elected in said county, by the qualified voters thereof, at each general election, a judge of the County Court of Dallas County, at Law, who shall be well informed in the laws of the State, who shall hold his office for two years, and until his successor shall have duly qualified.

SEC. 6. The judge of the County Court of Dallas County, at Law, shall execute a bond and take the oath of office as required by the law. relating to county judges.

SEC. 7. A special judge of the County Court of Dallas County, at Law, may be appointed or elected as provided by laws relating to county courts and to the judges thereof.

SEC. 8. The County Court of Dallas County, at Law, or the judges thereof shall have power to issue writs of injunction, mandamus, sequestration, attachment, garnishment, certiorari and supersedeas, and all writs necessary to the enforcement of the jurisdiction of said court, and to issue writs of habeas corpus in cases where the offense charged is within the jurisdiction of said court or of any other court or tribunal inferior to said court.

SEC. 9. The County Clerk of Dallas County shall be the clerk of the County Court of Dallas County, at Law. The seal of the said Court shall be the same as that provided by law for county courts, except that the seal shall contain the words "County Court of Dallas County, at Law;" the Sheriff of Dallas County shall, in person or by deputy, attend the said court when required by the judge thereof.

SEC. 10. The jurisdiction and authority now vested by law in the County Court for the appointment of jury commissioners and the selection and service of jurors, shall be exercised by the County Court of Dallas County. at Law.

SEC. 11. Any vacancy in the office of the judge of the court created by this Act, may be filled by the Commissioners' Court of Dallas County until the next general election. The Commissioners' Court shall as soon as may be, after this Act shall take effect, appoint a judge of the County Court of Dallas County, at Law, who shall serve until the next general election and until his successor shall be duly elected and qualified. SEC. 12. The judge of the County Court of Dallas County, at Law, shall collect the same fees as are now established by law relating to county judges, all of which shall be by him paid monthly into the county. treasury, and he shall receive an annual salary of Three Thousand Dollars per annum, payable monthly, to be paid out of the County Treasury by the Commissioners Court.

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