Back to Main Page / Back to List of Rules
Rule 176. Witnesses Subpoenaed
TEXT
The clerk of the district or county court, or justice of the peace, as the case may be, at the request of any party to a suit pending in his court, or of any agent or attorney, shall issue a subpoena for any witness or witnesses, male or female, who may be represented to reside within the county or be found therein at the time of trial.
Source: Acts 1939, 46th Leg., p. 323, Sec. 1, amending Art. 3704, unchanged.
Oct. 29, 1940, eff. Sept. 1, 1941.
Note: This act took effect prior to the Rule Making Act.
AMENDMENTS
March 19, 1957, eff. Sept. 1, 1957
Oct. 3, 1972, eff. Feb. 1, 1973
repealed eff. Jan. 1, 1999.
ADVISORY OPINIONS
(No. 129) Question: Under Rules 186 to 215 in regard to the taking of depositions, can a married woman be compelled to appear and testify by deposition? Can a married woman be required to attend as a witness and testify at the trial of a cause?
Answer: In our opinion both of the questions should be answered in the affirmative.
Rule 186 in regard to depositions of witnesses shows by its terms that it contemplates that the testimony may be taken by deposition "of any witness, male or female." Rule 176 expressly provides for the subpoenaing of "any witness or witnesses, male or female" who reside in the county to enforce their attendance in person at the trial. Both of these rules were taken without change from the Acts of the 46th Legislature (1939) page 323, and the purpose of said legislative enactment, as shown by the caption and the emergency clause, was to authorize the compulsory attendance of females to give testimony both in person and by deposition. The emergency clause of the Act states that "the fact that females may not now be compelled to appear as witnesses, even though duly summoned, creates an emergency ... "
Under said legislative act of 1939, and also under the rules which carried forward said enactment, it is our opinion that any female, whether married or unmarried, can be compelled to attend court and testify in person or can be compelled to testify by deposition in the same manner and under the same circumstances that a male witness can be compelled to testify in person or by deposition.
7 Tex. B.J. 282 (1944) reprinted in 8 Tex. B.J. 49 (1945).