Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion ( 1957 )

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HE ,~TT~RR~EY GENERAL
OFTEXAS
Honorable Henry Wade Opinion No. W-173.
District Attorney
Dallas, Texas Re: Effective date of House Bill
No. 940, kcts of the 55th
Dear Mr. Wade: Legislature, Regular Session.
You have requested the Opinion of this office relative
to the effective date of H.B. 940, Acts of the 55th Legislature.
The foregoing bill creates a Juvenile Court and a Court of Do-
mestic Relations in Dallas, and provides generally for the organ-
ization and operation of said courts.
The official endorsements on the Bill itself reflect
that it was finally passed by both Houses of the Legislature by
the requisite two-thirds majority which is required for a Bill
to become immediately effective after its approval by the Gov-
ernor . The Bill was subsequently approved by the Governor on
June 12, 1957.
Section 22 of said Bill, same being the emergency clause,
reads as follows:
“The crowded condition of the dockets in the
District Courts of,Dallas County creates an emer-
gency and an imperative public necessity that the
constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on
three several davs in each House be susnended, and
said Rule is hereby suspended, and it is so enacted.”
Sect ion 39 of Article III of the Constitution of Texas,
reads as followsr
“No law passed by the Legislature, except the
general appropriation act, shall take effect or go
into force until ninety days after the adjournment
of the session at which it was enacted, unless in
case of an emergency, which emergency must be ex-
pressed in a preamble or in the body of the act the
Legislature shall, by a vote of two-thirds of ail the
members elected to each House, otherwise direct; said
vote to be taken by yeas and nays, and entered upon
the journals.”
Section 32 of titicle III of the Constitution of Texas,
reads as follows:
-. - . -
Honorable Henry Wade, page 2 (WW-173)
“No bill shall have the force of a law, until
it has been read on three several days in each
House, and free discussion allowed thereon; but in
cases of imperative public necessity (which neces-
sity shall be stated in a preamble or in the body
of the bill) four-fifths of the House, in which the
bill may be pending, may suspend this rule, the
yeas and nays being taken on the question of suspen-
sion, and entered upon the journals.”
It is noted that the emergency clause of H.B. 940 or
no section thereof contains the usual provision that “this Act
shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage,
and it is so enacted”, or words of similar import or meaning.
The primary question is what effect, if any, the absence of such
a clause, or words of similar import, in any section or portion
of the bill has upon the effective date of same.
The exact question was before the Court of Civil Ap-
peals in the case of s 70 S.W. 1001 (Civ.
APP., error dim. W.O.J. The emergency Alause of the bill be-
fore the Court read as follows:
“The fact that there is no law in force ade-
quately providing for the license of physicians,
surgeons and midwives creates an emergency and an
imperative public necessity that the constitutional
rule requiring bills to be read on thbrc several days
be suspended and this act placed on its final pass-
age and it is so enacted. It-
Speaking of the foregoing clause and the effect of
same upon the effective date of the bill, the court said:
“It will be observed that this section does not
‘direct’ when the act shall go . into . effect,
. i nor is
such direction to be found in tne preamole or any-
where in the body of the act. In the absence of such
direction, it could not, in view of the constitution,
go into effect until 90 days after adjournment. The
‘emergency and imperative public necessity’ recited
is that ‘the constitutional rule requiring-bills to
be read on three several days be suspended.’ The con-
stitutional rule referred to is that prescribed by
section 32, art. 3, of the constitution, which it au-
thorized suspended ‘in cases of imperative public
necessity,’ and evidently has no reference to section
35 of the same article.”
Honorable Henry Wade, page 3 (W-173)
The applicability of the foregoing decision to H.B.
940 is readily apparent. The emergency clause of said bill,
as in the above case, was effective only to suspend the con-
stitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
days in each House. The bill is completely silent as to the
time when same shall become effective. No language therein
used is reasonably indicative of a legislative intent that the
bill should become immediately effective after its passage.
You are accordingly advised that it is our opinion
that H.B. 940, pursuant to Section 39 of Article III of the
Constitution of Texas, will become effective 90 days after the
adjournment of the Regular Session of the 55th Legislature.
House Bill 940 passed by the 55th Legislature,
Regular Session, will become effective 90 days
following the adjournment date of said session of
the Legislature.
Very truly yours,
WILL WILSON
Attorney General of Texas
By"' /
Leonard Passmore
LP:jlrwb Assistant
APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE:
H. Grady Chandler, Chairman
Larry Jones
Milton Richardson
Joe G. Rollins
REVIEWEDFOR THE ATTORNEYGENERAL
BY: Geo. P. Blackburn