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THEATTORNEY GENERAL 

QFTEXAS 

January 19, 1970 

Texas Industrial Acccldent 

Board 

State Insurance Building 

Austin, Texas 78701 

Qentlemen: 

Opinion No. M- 558 

Ret Effective date of Senate 

Bill 21, Acts of the 61st 

Legislature, 2nd C.S., 

1969, Ch. 22, p. 87. 

Your request for an opinion reads as follows: 

?le do hereby request your opinion as to 

the effective date of Senate Bill 21, 6ka.t 

Legislature, Second Called Session, 1969, as 

signed by the Governor on September 19, 1969.” 

Section 39 of Article III of the Constitution of Texas 

provides: 

"No law passed by the.Leglslature, 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 emergency, which emergency must 

be expressed fn a preamble or In the body of the 

act, the Legislature shall, by a vote of twothirds of all the members elected to each House, 

otherwise direct; said vote to be taken by yeas 

and nays, and entered upon the journals." 

Under the above quoted constitutional provision, the 

Legislature in prescribing an effective date prior to the expiration of ninety days after adjournment must pass the act by 

a vote of two-thirds of all the members of each House, and that 

vote Is to be entered upon the journals. Copus v, Chorn, 16 Tex. 

209, 150 S.W.2d 70 (1941); Popham v. Patterson, 121 Tex. 615, 51 

S.W.W 680 (1932); Caples v. Cole, 129 T ex. 

(1937) D 

370, 102 S.W.2d 173 

Senate Bill 21, Acts of the 61st Legislature, 2nd C.S., 

1969, Ch. 22, pa 87, passed the Senate on September 6, 1969, by 

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Texas Industrial Accident Board, page 2 (M-558) 

a record vote of 29 yeas and no nays , and passed the House on 

September 8, 1969, by a record vote of 136 yeas and no nays. 

The above recorded votes constitute two-thirds of all the members 

of each House within the meaning of Section 39 of Article III of 

the Constitution of Texas. 

The provisions of the above quoted Se,ction 39 having 

been complied with, Senate Bill 21 became effective In accordance 

with the provisions of the emergency clause, which reads, in part, 

as follows: this Act shall take effect and be In force 

from~and after'lts'passage, and It Is so enacted." 

"Date of passage" has been construed by the judiciary 

of this State to mean the date the act becomesooeratlve as a 

law. Scales v. Marshall, 96 Tex. 140, 70 S.W. 945 (1902); 

Galveston, H. & S.A. RY. Co. v. State, 81 Tex. 572, 17 S.W. 67 

‘(l@l); Calvert v. General Asphalt Co., 409 S.W.2d 935 (Tex.Clv. 

App. 196b, no writ). 

In the Instant case the Governor, pursuant to the pro-~ 

visions of Section 14 of Article IV of the Constitution of Texas, 

signed Senate Bill 21 on September 19, 1969. Therefore, the effective date'when the Act became operative Is September 19, 1969. 

SUMMARY 

The effective date of Senate Bill 21, Acts of 

the 61st Legislature, 2nd C.S., 1969, Ch. 22, p* 

87, is September 19, 1969. 

eneral of Texas 

Prepared by John Reeves 

Assistant Attorney Qeneral 

APPROVED: 

OPIWIOR COMMITTEE 

Kerns Taylor, Chairman 

Alfred Walker, Co-Chafrman 

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Texas Industrial Accident Board, page 3 (M-558) 

Sam Jones 

James Quick 

Fielding Early 

Ronald Luna 

MEADE F. GRIFFIN 

Staff Legal Assistant 

NOLA WRITE 

First Assistant 

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