The Attorney General of Texas 

September 20, 1978 

JOHN L. HILL 

Attorney General 

Honorable Henry Wade 

District Attorney 

6th Floor, Records Building 

Dallas, Texas 75202 

Opinion No. H-1246 

Re: County law library branches. 

Dear Mr. Wade: 

You have asked if the DaJlas County Commissioners Court may 

establish a branch of the Dallas County Law Library at a location within the 

City of Dallas other than the courthouse complex where the main library 

collection is housed. You also wish to know. if such branches may be 

established withii the county at looations outside Dallas, the county seat; and 

if county law library books might be loaned to other public libraries within 

the county. 

Article 1702h authorizes counties to provide for county law libraries 

“which shall be established, maintained and operated at the county seat” 

sec. 2. 

In ordii usage %nmty seat” refers not to the courthouse, but to the 

town where the courthouse is required to be established, public records are 

kept, courts hold their sessions, and public officers are required to reside 

and/or keep their offices. Pitts v. Camp County, 39 S.W.2d 608, 615 (Tex. 

1930; Turner v. Tucker, 258 S.W. 149,151 (Tex. 1924); m 149 S.W. 

810, 8R (Tex. Civ. App. - Amarillo 1912, no writ); Attorney General Gpmion 

WW-254 (1957). The Dallas County Law Library, in our opinion, may be 

established, operated and maintained anywhere within the City of Dallas so 

long as it is “in a place convenient and accessible to the Judges and litigants 

of such county.” V.T.C.S. art. 1702h, S 7. 

We think the statute permits the commissioners court to establish 

branches of the law library elsewhere in the county so long as such branches 

are not in lieu of the county law library in the county seat. 

In Attorney General Opinion G-3055 (1941) Attorney General Gerald 

Mann considered the application of a statute that required the county free 

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Honorable Henry Wade - Page 2 (H-1246) 

library, established pursuant to article 1677, V.T.C.S., to be located at suitable 

quarters within the county seat. In relating the statutory requirement to a proposal 

that a county bookmobile be operated for use in a part of the county other than the 

town serving as the county seat, the opinion concluded: 

We do not think that the Commissioners’ Court of any 

county has the authority to expend funds for establishing, 

maintaining and operating a ‘bookmobile library’ in lieu of 

the regular county library which is to be established at the 

county seat. However, if the county has established, and is 

maintaining and operating a county free library at the 

county seat of such county, then we think the. 

Commissioners’ Court is authorized to expend funds for 

establishing, maintaining and operating a ‘bookmobile 

library’ as a branch or subdivision thereof. 

See also Dancv v. Davidson, 183 S.W.2d 195 (Tex. Civ. App. - San Antonio 1944, writ 

-Attorney General Opinion O-6441 (1945). Cf. Attorney General Opinion O3890 (1941) (“bookmobile” not a permanent improvement). 

In our opinion, this statute empowers the commissioners court to establish a 

county law library for the benefit of judges and litigants of the county. When read 

with other statutes, it is broad enough to embrace the maintenance of branches in 

other locations within the county convenient and accessible to litigants, and to 

allow the loan of its materials to other libraries servicing such litigants, so long as 

a complete collection is maintained in a place at the county seat convenient and 

accessible to the judges of the county as well as to litigants. 

SUMMARY 

A county may maintain branches of its law library in various 

locations within the county for the convenience of litigants, 

and may loan law library materials to other libraries 

servicing such litigants, so long as a complete law library is 

. operated m a place at the county seat convenient and 

accessible to the judges of the county as well as to litigants. 

Attorney General of Texas 

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Honorable Henry Wade - Page 3 (~-1246) 

APPROVED: 

DAVID M. KENDALL. First Assistant 

Opinion Committee 

p. 4957