Judicial Profile - Chief Justice Frank Massey

Judicial

Profile

By Perry Cockerell, Perry Cockerell, P.C.

Chief Justice Frank Massey

Frank Aubrey Massey served as the sixth Chief Justice of the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth for thirty years, from 1953 to 1983. He secured the high position by unseating the incumbent Chief Justice Ed Hall in the Democrat Primary in 1952. Massey was born on November 28, 1911, in Britton, Texas in Ellis County. At age five his parents, Marion Lawrence Massey and Sarah Iza Shackelford, moved to Fort Worth where he grew up. He graduated from Central High School in 1928 and attended Texas Christian University in 1929 but did not graduate. He left school to work as a claims adjuster in the insurance industry. After working with attorneys handling the claims, he became interested in the law. In 1931 he began his legal studies through correspondence courses. In 1934 Massey moved to Abilene, Texas and set up the firm of F. Massey & Company where he built a chain of insurance adjusting firms across West and South Texas. By 1937 he became eligible to take the Texas Bar exam. Massey passed the exam and was sworn into the practice of law by Joe Childress, an attorney in Abilene. Massey set up a law firm known as Massey and Mobley and later Massey, Mobley, Turner & Hudspeth.

In 1940, Massey moved to Fort Worth to practice law. However, in 1943, during World War II, Massey enlisted in the Army and served in the Air Service Command at McClellan Field, in Sacramento, California as a legal assistant in the judge advocate’s section.

“He lost all his business after he got drafted,” said his son Dan Massey.

In November 1945 Massey was discharged as a sergeant and resumed his law practice in Fort Worth. In 1946 the Fort Worth Bar Association posted a notice that over 70 attorneys who had returned to private practice after serving in the war.

Race for 67th District Court in 1948

In 1948 Massey decided to challenge District Judge Walter L. Morris for the 67th District Court. Morris had held the seat for sixteen years. Massey’s ads ran “Courtesy – Fairness.” One ad read “31 years in Public Office, 16 years as Judge – IS SUFFICIENT ** Hence** Frank Massey Respectfully Requests Your Vote for Judge, 67th District Court. (This ad paid for by friends.). The ad would prove to be ironic for Massey.

The Fort Worth Bar Association endorsed Judge Morris with 237 votes to Massey’s 95 votes. Morris won the Democrat primary with 15,311 votes to Massey’s 7,561 votes. Massey took out an ad “THANK YOU. We lost, 5 to 3, but it was a splendid campaign. Surely the result should encourage other attorneys ambitious in Judicial capacity in offering their services to the people as District Judge. Again – THANK YOU. FRANK MASSEY.”

1950 Race for the 67th District Court

In 1950 Judge Walter Morris passed away after the Democratic primary election leaving an opening for the race before the November general election. Thus, began a five-way race for the 67th District Court between Kenneth Jones, Jack Langdon, Harris Brewster, and County Court at Law Judge Drew Clifton. Jones and Langdon withdrew from the race. After Brewster won a straw vote conducted by the Fort Worth Bar Association and Tarrant County Bar Association, Governor Shivers appointed Brewster to the court. Undeterred, Massey decided to run as an independent candidate against Brewster.

On September 12, 1950, in Mineral Wells, the State Convention nominated Brewster as the Democrat candidate to the court. On September 14, 1950, Massey filed suit in the 126th District Court in Travis County to enjoin the Tarrant County Clerk Faulk from placing Brewster’s name on the ballot as the Democratic Nominee. District Judge Jack Roberts granted a temporary restraining order to enjoining Faulk from acting on the ballot.

“As independent candidates, Brewster and I will meet on equal footing and I shall definitely oppose and fight any move by the Sept. 12 state convention to name any candidate,” Massey said. Massey contended that the Democrat State Committee was without power to name a candidate and that the November election should be made on “equal footing. It’s a matter for the courts to decide.”

Brewster filed a motion in the Second Court of Appeals for leave to file a petition for writ of mandamus naming Massy, Faulk and Judge Jack Roberts of the 126th District Court from proceeding with the suit Travis County. The court granted the motion and permitted the mandamus action. In Brewster v. Massey, 232 S.W.2d 678, 684 (Tex. Civ. App.— Fort Worth 1950, no writ), the court in a per curiam opinion held that the nomination of Brewster was valid and that he was the Democratic nominee of the 67th District Court. The court found that a political party had a right to nominate a candidate. The court enjoined the 126th Judicial District Court from taking any further action other than to dismiss

Massey’s case, enjoined Massey from taking any action, dissolved the restraining order issued by the district court and issued a writ of mandamus to Faulk as the county clerk to place Brewster’s name on the general election ballot. The court assessed costs against Massey. Massey filed a motion for leave to file a writ of mandamus, proscendo and prohibition with the Texas Supreme Court contending that only the Third Court of Appeals had authority to hear his case. The Texas Supreme Court denied permission to file the writ.

1952 Criminal Trial

In 1952, Massey was appointed to represent Robert Hugh Barber, Jr. who was charged with robbery and the murder in the fatal shooting of Detective H.E. Cleveland on February 7, 1952. Barber had three attorneys in his defense, Robert Clinton Green, Richard Earl Johnson and Massey. During the trial Massey’s name was often in the newspaper and he was becoming well known. Barber pled guilty to armed robbery of a Dallas café and the jury found him guilty of the murder charge. “I certainly did not expect any finding of murder with malice,” Massey said after the trial. “I never invade the province of the jury,” he said. “Quote me as saying that I’m grateful to the jury for all their services to the county and the people of the county and for the personal sacrifices they have made.”

Race for Chief Justice in 1952

In 1952 Massey decided to challenge Chief Justice Ed Hall for the top seat on the court of appeals. He saw Hall as an outsider and vulnerable. On July 28, 1952, the Fort Worth Star Telegram reported that “Attorney Frank Massey, riding on a wave of heavy backing in Tarrant County, surged ahead of incumbent Judge Earl P. Hall Sunday in the race for Second Court of Civil Appeals.” While Hall won eight of the twelve counties in the judicial district, Massey won the larger counties of Denton, Tarrant, Parker and Wichita and held the edge with 57,145 votes against 46,717 votes for Hall. In Tarrant county Massey had 34,492 votes to Hall’s 19,796.

Democrat Primary 1982

In November 1981 the Fort Worth Star Telegram reported that “Massey, who will turn 70 later this month, said he plans to run as a Democrat in the May 1982 primary.” It would be his sixth term in office if he could be reelected.

In January 1982, Criminal District Judge Howard Fender filed for the chief justice position against Massey setting the stage for a tough primary race. Fender had a good sense of timing and was politically astute. With two years remaining on his term as district judge, Fender’s race against Massey came without much political consequence. By 1982 the courts of civil appeals jurisdiction expanded to include criminal appellate jurisdiction. Fender was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and claimed a career of legal experience in criminal law as former district attorney, assistant state attorney general and criminal district judge.

“I feel there is an urgent need to have a judge with expertise in criminal law serving on this court,” Fender said. Fender pointed to Massey running for a term that he could not complete since he would reach age 74 within four years into the term.

During the race, controversy brewed when an attorney moved to recuse Massey during a divorce case on the grounds that he discussed the case with her opposing attorney. Massey responded and said that the attorney only asked him how to file a motion for writ of habeas corpus and that “I didn’t have any preconceived opinion about it whether it was lawful for the sheriff to hold that fellow (Balazik) in jail. If I had, I’d have recused myself.”

Massey lost the election. It was the third time in the court’s history that an incumbent chief justice position was denied reelection.

Chief Justice Frank Massey died on April 17, 1986, in Fort Worth at the age of 74 at his home after a brief illness. He “parlayed a correspondence school law degree into a 30- year tenure on the Court of Civil Appeals” as reported in an article in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. His funeral was at the United Methodist Church in Mansfield. He was buried in the Britton Cemetery in Ellis County.

During his years on the court, Massey wrote over 800 judicial opinions that he composed on his own typewriter. “When we started having briefing attorneys, the first thing he wanted to know was could they formulate their thoughts on a typewriter,” said retired Associate Justice W.A. Hughes who served on the court for six years with Massey.

Hughes recalled that Massey “was one who did his best to come out for what he saw as justice. A judge can’t always do that. He’s circumscribed by rules of law. Judge Massey was a diligent seeker for justice. He was a kindly man, always polite and possessed of an even, judicial temperament. He was frank – that was his name and it fit him.”

Massey was married to Peggy Maudell King from Salesville in Palo Pinto County. He had five children: Lauren, Rickey, Nona, Dan and David.

Genealogist

During his career Massey spent years of examining his family genealogy. He compiled a three-volume genealogy book tracing his family line back to England to King William the Conqueror. Massey offered the book at $30 and could be ordered from him in care of the Civil Court’s Building in Fort Worth. His book My Massey Family in England became available on Amazon in 2014. g