# The Attorney General of Texas November.30, 1981 MARK WHITE Attorney General

Supreme Court Building P. 0. Box 12546 Austin. TX. 76711 5121475-2501 Telex 9101674-1367 Telecopier 512/475-0266

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An Equal OpportunityI Aftirlnative Action Employer Reed Quilliam, Executive Director StateBar of Texas 14th Streetand Colorado Austin, Texas 78711 OpinionNo. Mh'-400 Ret Construction of amendments to article 3923,V.T.C.S.. enacted by Sixty-seventh Legislature Dear Mr. Hanna: You request our opinion as to the effect on article 3923, V.T.C.S., of two amendments enactedby the Sixty-seventhLegislature. You specificallyask whether Senate Bill No. 265 and Senate Bill No. 1165may be reconciledso that full effectmay be given toboth. SenateBill No. 1165,enactedby the legislatureon May 29, 1981, amended article 3923, V.T.C.S., by raising the fees, costs, and deposits to be received by the clerk of the supreme court. senate Bill No. 265, enacted on June 2, 1981, amended numerous statutes to implement the constitutional amendment granting criminal appellate jurisdiction to the former courts of civil appeals. See Tex. Const. art.V, 66. The majority of the amendmentsenactedby SenateBill No. 265, including the amendment to article 3923, merely struck the word "civil" from referencesto the court of civil appeals. This amendment to article 3923,V.T.C.S., reads in pertinentpart:

(A) The Clerk of the Supreme Court shall receive the followingfees and costs: 1. For the filing of records, applications, motions, briefs, and other necessary and proper papers; for the docketing and docket and minute book entries; for issuing notices, citations, processes, mandates; and for the performance of other proper and necessary clerical duties in cases before the court, he shall receive the fee set out opposite each class of the following cases: (a) Application forwrit of error.....$lO.OO

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(e) Certified questions from the Court of Appeals to the SupremeCourt................25.00 Acts 1981, 67th Leg., ch. 291, 958, at 787. The provisions setting fees, costs,and deposits for the clerk of the supreme courtwere left unchanged from the law as it existedprior to amendmentby SenateBill NO. 1165. Your question, then, is whether the enactment of Senate Bill No. 265 effectively leaves the article 3923 fees as they were, notwithstandingthe enactmentof SenateBill No. 1165. Amendments to the same statute, and in particular amendments enacted at the same session of the legislature,will be construed in harmony if at all possible. Wright v. Broeter, 196 S.W.2d 82 (Tex. 1946). In construinp, any statute, the courtswill seek to effectuate the intent of the iagislature and not to defeat it. Brazes River Conservation and Reclamation District v. Costello, 143 S.W.Zd 577 (Tex. 1940). The controlling intentexpressed in SenateBillNo. 1165 was to increase the fees, costs, and deposits to be received by the clerk of the supreme court, while the legislative intent underlying Senate Bill No. 265 was to change the designation of the courts of civil appeals to ltcourtof appeals." In amending article 3923, the legislature was required by article III, section 36 of the Texas Constitution to reenact and publish at length the section amended. See State Highway Department v. Gorham, 162 S.W.Zd 934 (Tex. 1942). We believe the legislaturerepublishedtheprior fee schedule in order to satisfy the requirements of article III, section 36, and not to nullify its enactment of Senate Bill No. 1165. The two amendments to article 3923, V.T.C.S., can be harmonized and given effect when the purpose of each is understood. In our opinion, the fees, depositsand costs establishedby SenateBillNo. 1165are now in effect. SUMMARY The costs and deposits set out in SenateBill NO. 1165 amending article 3923, V.T.C.S., are in effect and were not impliedly repealed by Senate BillNo. 265. Very trulyyours, f3

MARK WHITE Attorney General of Texas JOHN W. FAINTER,JR. FirstAssistantAttorneyGeneral RICHARD E. GRAY III ExecutiveAssistantAttorneyGeneral

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Preparedby SusanL. Garrison AssistantAttorney General APPROVED: OPINION COMMITTEE SusanL. Garrison, Chairman Jon Bible Rick Gilpin Jim Moellinger BruceYoungblood

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