Dr. T. 0. waltoll, President Opinion No. o-1376 

Agricultural & Mechanical Re: Power to exchange equipCollege of Texas ment between the A. & M. ColCollege Station, Texas lege and the Prison Commission. 

Dear Sir: 

This will acknowledge receipt of your letter of 

December 11, 1939 requesting an opinion from this department upon the fol&wing case statement, to-wit: 

"In making changes In the Textile Engineering Department of the College there is certain 

equipment that the College has no further use 

for and the Prison Commission has proposed to 

give us in exchange for this equipment motors 

that we need aud cafl use in our laboratories 

at the College. 

"The Statutes confer authority upon the Board 

of Directors of the College to sell equipment that 

belongs to the College, but when this question was 

presented to the Board, of making an exchange, some 

members of the Board felt that perhaps the Board 

does not have legal authority to authorize the exchange. 

llWill you please advise me whether it is wlthIn the legal powers of the Board of Directors of 

this College to make the exchange proposed by the 

Prison Commission authorities?" 

The equipment belonging to our various State institutions is, of course, State property, and may not be disposed of by any one except by legislative authority. 

We find no statutory authority for the exchange of 

equipment suggested by you. The policy of the State with respect to supplies, equipment and the like to our State institutions is evidenced by Article 634 of the Revised Civil 

Statutes, which provides: 
Dr. T. 0. Walton - page 2 

“The Board of Control shall purchase all the 

supplies used by each department of the States 

government, Including the State Prison System,and 

each eleemosynary institution normal school, 

Agricultural & Mechanical College, University of 

Texas and each and all other State schools or 

depa.&ents of the State government heretofore or 

.hereafter create&w 

.: ,. Article 634 l/2 specially authorize6 the Board of 

,.Coptrol to .bontract with the State Prison Board for the purchase of certain supplies, equipment .and materials for use by 

other State Institutions. k%.cle 660 authorizes an emergency 

contract for necessary supplies or equipment. 

.Obv1ously, these Articles declare the general policy, 

but do not furnish any rule for guidance in respect to. the 

present inquiry. 

Article 665 declaresi 

“The State Board of Control shall have charge 

protect any public buildings against any existing 

or threatened fire hazards.” 

It is the ‘opinion of this department that this ArtZcle would authorize the Board of Control to accept from any 

State. department or Institution under Its control supplies .end 

equipment no longer usable or needed for use by such department 

or institution and to place the same in the hands of any other 

-department or i nstitution having need of the same (at least 

temporarily if not permanently) where such exchange is mutually 

satisfactory to the two departments or institutions concerned, 

as auact of conservation under the general power above conferred on the. Board. Such surrender or mutual surrender of equlpment, and the further disposition thereof by the Board, would, 

of course, by this method be made a matter of public record 
Dr. T. 0. Walton - page 3 

and the State proprietary rights would be adequately preserved within the spirit, If not the latter, of Article 

665. 

Very truly yours 

JU!TORNFXGE%ERALOFTEXAS 

By /s/ Ocle Speer 

Ocle Speer, Assistant 

APPROVED DIG& 1939 

/s/ Gerald c. Mann 

ATTORREYGHVERALOFTJZXAS 

APPROVED: OPINION COMMITTEE 

BY: Rw, CHAIRMAN 

OS:m:wb