Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion ( 1961 )

December 4, 1961
Honorable Walter E. Wilson Opinion No. WW-1204
County Attorney
Ector County Re: Whether the three-day
Odessa, Texas period required in Sec-
tion (b) of Article 4605,
Vernon's Civil Statutes,
contemplates a period of
three calendar days or a
period of seventy-two
Dear Mr. Wilson: hours.
In your request for an opinion you ask the following
question:
"Does the three-day period required In
Article 4605, Section (b), Vernon's Annotated
Civil Statutes, contemplate a period of three
calendar days or a period of seventy-two hours?"
Section (b) of Article 4605, Vernon's Civil Statutes,
Is concerned with the procedure for the issuance of a marriage
license. That part of Section (b) most pertinent to our dls-
cussion is as follows:
I, . provided however, that in the event
the ms.1;party ,isunder the age of twenty-one
(21) years or the female party is under the
age of eighteen (18) years such application
shall have been on file in the County Clerk's
Office for a period of not less than three
(3) days."
One of the cardinal rules of statutory construction
is that words employed by the Legislature are to be taken in
their ordinary and popular acceptation, unless technical terms
are used, or unless It clearly appears from the context that
the words used were not intended to be understood in their
ord3nary and po ular signification. Engelking v. Van Wome1,26
Tex . 469 (18637; Clarey v. Hurst, 136 S.W. 840 (Clv. App.1911).
We have found no authority in regard to the definition of the
word "days" as it is used in Section (b) of Article 4605.
Honorable Walter E. Wilson, page 2 (WW-1204)
However, we have found ample authority for the proposition
that the use of the word '!day"in a statute shoult be con-
sidered in its ordinary sense as a "calendar da Booker v.
Chief Engineer of Fire Department of Woburn, 325'Mass. 264 85
N.E.2d 7b6 (1949); In re Opinion of the Justice, 252 Ala. 541,
42 So. 2d 27 (1949); Long v. City of Wichita Falls, 142 Tex. 202,
176 S.w.2d936 (1944).
Therefore, it is our opinion that the word "days" as
it appears in Section (b) of Article 4605, Vernon's Civil
Statutes, was not intended by the Legislature to be taken in
its restrictive or technical sense; that such word was intended
to denote a calendar day and a day as a unit of time, not an
aggregation of a certain number of hours, minutes or seconds.
SUMMARY
The three day period required in
Section (b) of Article 4605, Vernon's
Civil Statutes, contemplates a period
of three calendar days.
Yours very truly,
WILL WILSON
Attorney General of Texas
1RW:lgh:zt Assistant
APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE
W. V. Geppert, Chairman
Marvin Thomas
Robert Lewis
Morgan Nesbitt
Marvin Sentelle
REVIEWED FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
BY: Houghton Brownlee, Jr.