ATXWRNEYGENERAL 

OF ?llYExAs 

AUSTIN il. 'I%ELIS 

Honorable Bill S. Watkins 

County Attorney 

Llano county 

Llano, Texas 

Dear Sir: Opinion No. O-4548 

Re: Construction, of Article 6675a-10, 

Revised Civil Statutes. 

We acknowledge receipt of your request for an opinion of 

this department on the above captioned subject. .Yoy request is 

as follows: 

"The Commission of Appeals In Stovall vs. Shivers, 

103 S.W; ,(2d) 363, very clearly covered the method of 

distribution of-general road and bridge money of a 

county In ~construlng Article 6740; but In its last 

paragraph It stated (Aa to that portion'of automobile 

reglstratlon fees retained by Van Zandt County, Article 

6675a-10 expressly provides how same shall.be expended, 

and for that reason it Is obvious that.Atitlcle 6740 

has .no appllcatlon'to same.' 

"Article 6675a-10 provides that automobile reglstratlon fees r&ained by a county shall be placed In 

the Road and Bridge Fuxid of the county and shall be 

used 'for the construction and maintenance of lateral 

roads in such county under the superv$.slon of the County 

Engineer, If there be done, an@ If there Is no such 

Engineer, then the County CommIssIonerat Court shallhave authority to command the services of the Division 

Englnee~r of the estate Highway Department 'for the purpose 

'of supervising the construction and surveying of lateral 

roads in the~'r6spectlve counties.' 

"The Commissioners' Court has requested of me an 

opinion as to how this automobile registration moriey 

should be divided among the four precincts. 

"I have advlse,d the Court that In my opinion Article 

6675a-10 does not provide for the expenditure of this 

money In Lland County In view of the fact that we have 

no countyen&neer and do not desire to command the 

services of the District Engineer of the State Highway 
Honorable Bill S. Watkins, Page 2 o-4548 

Department. That being the case Jt seems to me'that 

the law Is silent, as to how this money should be 

divided among the four precincts. 

"Precinct No. 1 of Llano County pays approximately 

55% of the county taxes, has probably more lateral 

roads than any other precinct snd is claiming the same 

portion of automobile registration fees as its per cent 

of taxes it pays. .The three other smaller preclnc,ts are 

claiming this money should be divided equally among the 

four precincts. 

"In view of the Importance of this question to all 

the countles'of Texas, I shall appreciate very much . 

.youroplnlon as to what method of dlvlslon of this auto- 

,moblle registration money among the four precincts should 

.be made." 

It Is noted that you have advised your commlssloners8 court 

that Llano County,does not have authority:to.exp.e.nd the motor 

vehicle registration funds retained by such county for the reason 

that Llano'County has no County Engineerand It .does not desire,to 

command the services of the Division Engineer of the State Highway 

Department. It is apparent that youhave arrived ,at this concluslon because of the portion of Article 6675::10, supra, which reads 

as follows: 

'* * * alI.'sald monies shall be used forthe 

construction and maintenance of lateral ro,ads.ln 

such county under the supervlslon of the county 

engineer, lf~there be one,, and.lf,,there Is no such 

engineer, the'county commissioners'. court shall 

have authority to.command the services 'of the dlvlslon engineer of the State Highway Department for 

the purpdse~ of"supervlsing ,the construction .and. 

surveying of Iateral,roads ln the,lr respective 

counties:" 

We believe that. ln horder to fully answer your request, it 

is necessary ,thatwe dIscussArticle ~6675g-10 was It relates to the 

advice you have given your commlssloners'~ court. 

We do not donstrue the hereinabove quoted.portlon of Article 

6675a-IC,~supra, as authorizing the expenditure of such funds onlY~ 

under the supervision of the county engineer ora'divlslon engineer 

of the State Highway Department. We are of the opinion that the 

Legislature recognized the fact that as a general rule members of 

commlsslonersl' courts are not qualified to act as engineersfor 

road construction work; that Is, they'are not trained to survey 

roads, laYout grades, ascertaindrainage areas, establish adequate 

drainage structures and 'perform the many,other technical duties 

necessary for the~'proper' construction of roads. Sev.eral counties 

of the state halve been authorized by\ special laws to employ county 

\ ,.;., ; .~ 
Honorable Bill S..Watklns, Page 3 o-4548 

engineers aai ,the various acts authorizing such officers require 

that they be qu&lified.t'b act as such. However, the uiaji+ty~of 

the counties ln this state.do not have authority to employ a 

county engineer and.the Legislature, realizing the need for highly 

trained t+An+cal~exper~s for proper road .constructQn, merely 

'autjhorlzed the, +mnlsslon6rs1 'courts to call upon, the division 

engineer of the State Highway Department to supervise the con- 

'&ruction and surveying of lateral roads. 

You are, therefore, ~advised that in our opinion the 

commlsslonerst court Is not prohlblted from expending the motor 

vehlcle:reglsQ?ati~n funds retalned.by lt.because the courity does 

not have 'a coun$y~eriglneer nor, does the commissioners8 cotit de-- 

sire the assistapcii;of the cjlvlslon eng.lneer of the State Highway 

Departmen$:. Ifi the commIssionerat court feels that It does not 

rieed',thls assistance, then there la nothing In Article 6675a-10, 

aupr&to prevent the expenddture of,such funds 'as the needs of 

.the county for lateral roads may require. 

We have re-framed your question as follows: 

~"What division of the automobile registration 

funds r&abed by the county should be made to the, 

four commisslone~s~~ precincts?" 

Article 6675a-10, supra, provides that the reglstratidn 

funds retained by the county should be used to construct and malntaln the lateral roads of such county. In the cade of Stovall vs~. 

Shivers, 103 S.W.:(2d) 366, the CommPselon of Appeals said: 

"By Article 2342 of the Revised Statutes It is 

provided that,the several commissioners, together 

with the county judge, shall compose the ~~commlssloners a court.' Such court de manifestly a unit, and is 

the agency of the whole county. The respective members of the commissioners' court are therefore prlmarlly representatives of the whole county, and not 

merely representatives of their respective precSnct8. 

The duty of the commissioners1 court Is to transact 

the buSinSS8, protect the Interest and promote the 

welfare of the county as a whole. ~Among the.powers 

conferred upon such county bp Article 23514re the 

following: the power to lay out and establish, change 

and discontinue roads and highways, the power to build 

bridges and keep them In repair, and the pbner to exercise general control over all roads, highways, ferries 

and bridges In their county.' 

It .ls clearly apparent that the commissioners' courts ye 

empowered and the duty rests upon them to. constrUct and-maintain 

the roa~ds of the county,ae a whole wkthout regard to precinct lines. 

In view of the fact tiiat'io .1&~4&ty iePritOria1 limitatlon Is pIac&d upon the expenditure of the motor vehicle regls- 

. 
Honorable Bill S. Watkins, Pa& 4 o-4548 

tration funds retained by the ,county, by.Artlcle~ 66i’5a-lo, supra, 

you are advised that the.aoan&slonersl court tiay use those funds 

as the need of the county requires. 

Trusting that the ,foregoing fully answers your Inquiry, 

we are 

Yours very truly 

AT!l'ORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS 

RHC:ej:wc 

APPROVED MAY 12, 1942 

s/ Grover Sellers 

;FogS;STANT 

ENERAL " 

By s/ Richard H. Cocke 

Richard Ii. Cocke 

Assistant 

Approved Opinion, Committee v s,f RWF Chairman