. 

HE ,~TT~RR~EY GENERAL 

OFTEXAS 

Honorable Henry Wade 

District Attorney 

Dallas, Texas 

Dear Mr. Wade: 

Opinion No. W-173. 

Re: Effective date of House Bill 

No. 940, kcts of the 55th 

Legislature, Regular Session. 

You have requested the Opinion of this office relative 

to the effective date of H.B. 940, Acts of the 55th Legislature. 

The foregoing bill creates a Juvenile Court and a Court of Domestic Relations in Dallas, and provides generally for the organization and operation of said courts. 

The official endorsements on the Bill itself reflect 

that it was finally passed by both Houses of the Legislature by 

the requisite two-thirds majority which is required for a Bill 

to become immediately effective after its approval by the Governor . The Bill was subsequently approved by the Governor on 

June 12, 1957. 

Section 22 of said Bill, same being the emergency clause, 

reads as follows: 

“The crowded condition of the dockets in the 

District Courts of,Dallas County creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 

constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on 

three several davs in each House be susnended, and 

said Rule is 

Sect ion 

reads as followsr 

“No law 

hereby suspended, and it is so enacted.” 

39 of Article III of the Constitution of Texas, 

passed by the Legislature, 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 an emergency, which emergency must be expressed in a preamble or in the body of the act the 

Legislature shall, by a vote of two-thirds of ail the 

members elected to each House, otherwise direct; said 

vote to be taken by yeas and nays, and entered upon 

the journals.” 

Section 32 of titicle III of the Constitution of Texas, 

reads as follows: 
-. - 

. - 

Honorable Henry Wade, page 2 (WW-173) 

“No bill shall have the force of a law, until 

it has been read on three several days in each 

House, and free discussion allowed thereon; but in 

cases of imperative public necessity (which necessity shall be stated in a preamble or in the body 

of the bill) four-fifths of the House, in which the 

bill may be pending, may suspend this rule, the 

yeas and nays being taken on the question of suspension, and entered upon the journals.” 

It is noted that the emergency clause of H.B. 940 or 

no section thereof contains the usual provision that “this Act 

shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage, 

and it is so enacted”, or words of similar import or meaning. 

The primary question is what effect, 

a clause, 

if any, the absence of such 

or words of similar import, in any section or portion 

of the bill has upon the effective date of same. 

The exact question was before the Court of Civil Appeals in the case of 

APP., 

s 70 S.W. 1001 (Civ. 

error dim. W.O.J. The emergency Alause of the bill before the Court read as follows: 

“The fact that there is no law in force adequately providing for the license of physicians, 

surgeons and midwives creates an emergency and an 

imperative public necessity that the constitutional 

rule requiring bills to be read on thbrc several days 

be suspended and this act placed on its final passage and it is so enacted. ItSpeaking of the foregoing clause and the effect of 

same upon the effective date of the bill, the court said: 

“It will be observed that 

‘direct’ when the act shall go 

this section does not 

into effect, nor is 

. . . i such direction to be found in tne preamole or anywhere in the body of the act. In the absence of such 

direction, it could not, in view of the constitution, 

go into effect until 90 days after adjournment. The 

‘emergency and imperative public necessity’ recited 

is that ‘the constitutional rule requiring-bills to 

be read on three several days be suspended.’ The constitutional rule referred to is that prescribed by 

section 32, art. 3, of the constitution, which it authorized suspended ‘in cases of imperative public 

necessity,’ and evidently has no reference to section 

35 of the same article.” 
Honorable Henry Wade, page 3 (W-173) 

The applicability of the foregoing decision to H.B. 

940 is readily apparent. The emergency clause of said bill, 

as in the above case, was effective only to suspend the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 

days in each House. The bill is completely silent as to the 

time when same shall become effective. No language therein 

used is reasonably indicative of a legislative intent that the 

bill should become immediately effective after its passage. 

You are accordingly advised that it is our opinion 

that H.B. 940, pursuant to Section 39 of Article III of the 

Constitution of Texas, will become effective 90 days after the 

adjournment of the Regular Session of the 55th Legislature. 

House Bill 940 passed by the 55th Legislature, 

Regular Session, will become effective 90 days 

following the adjournment date of said session of 

the Legislature. 

Very truly yours, 

WILL WILSON 

Attorney General of Texas 

LP:jlrwb 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE: 

H. Grady Chandler, Chairman 

Larry Jones 

Milton Richardson 

Joe G. Rollins 

By"' / 

Leonard Passmore 

Assistant 

REVIEWED FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 

BY: Geo. P. Blackburn