Link to case contained in post above:
https://casetext.com/case/reeves-v-state-of-texas-ex-rel-masonLast few paragraphs: "The Court of Civil Appeals correctly held that the defendant Reeves, plaintiff in error here, could not be removed from office during his second term for offences committed during his first term. In support of this holding we advance the following reasons, in addition to those given by the Court of Civil Appeals which we approve:
Article 6030, R.S., provides for removal from office for certain acts of official misconduct while in office.
Article 6055, R.S., provides that "no officer shall be prosecuted or removed from office for any act he may have committed prior to his election to office."
As said by the Court of Civil Appeals, "the phrase `prior to his election to office' would, and is intended to, apply to a re-election as well as election in the first instance, since the re-election of the same officer is in legal effect the same as an original election. As the Constitution does not provide for continuity of terms of office, each `term of office' legally becomes an entity, separate and distinct from all other terms of the same office. This being so, the Legislature doubtless intended in the enactment of the statute to provide that an officer should not be removed for official misconduct except for acts committed after his election to the term of office he is then holding and from which it is attempted to oust him." Thurston v. Clark, 107 Cal. 285, 40 P. 435; Speed v. Common Council of Detroit, 98 Mich. 360, 39 Amer. St. Repts., 555; Smith v. Ling, 68 Cal. 324, 9 P. 171.
In Texas we have frequent elections; for county officers every two years. The main, if not the only, justification for such frequent elections is that thereby the elections are kept in the hands of and close to the people, and ample opportunity is afforded to retire incompetent or corrupt officers. We construe Article 6055 to mean that an officer cannot be removed for acts committed prior to his election to the term of office he is holding. An election to a second term is as much an "election to office" as to a first term. This doubtless is more consistent with the legislative intent, and is to give it a more practical value and application in connection with the purpose of the Act and our system of elections. To construe it differently would be to agree to the argument of defendant in error wherein it says: "Article 6055 Rev. Stat. by providing that no officer shall be removed from office for any act he may have committed prior to his election to office, in our opinion carries no more force than if such Article had not been enacted, as he could not be guilty of official misconduct until he was inducted into office by taking the oath of office and executing official bond." But we think the Legislature did not idly enact the Article, and that it should be given "force". To do so we must apply it only to acts committed subsequent to an election to the term the officer is holding, and from which it is sought to oust him.
We think, however, the Court of Civil Appeals erred in holding that the admission in evidence of acts of official misconduct during the plaintiff in error's first term of office should not work a reversal of the judgment against him. The jury, under the direction of the court, as provided in Article 6043, there being more than one distinct cause of removal alleged, did, by separate findings in their verdict, say which cause they found to be sustained by the evidence and which were not sustained, and they found acts of official misconduct in both terms of office. We think, however, that the admission in evidence of other and separate acts charged and found by the jury to have been committed during the first term in office could not help but be prejudicial to plaintiff in error and to have influenced the jury in their findings upon the issues submitted to them of acts committed during the second term, and should not have been admitted for any purpose.
For the reasons stated herein, the judgments of the Court of Civil Appeals and of the District Court are reversed and the cause is remanded.
Reversed and remanded."
