OpinionNo. O-791 Re: Whether the employmentas a teacher in a public school of a daughter of &half'-sister oft a,trustee Is ;;filaaenby Article 432, Penal

. Honorable E. B. Lewis CountyAttornBy Rusk, Texas

Dear Sir:

We are In receipt of your letter of May 8 1939,Yhereln you request our opinion as to whether Article 432, Penal Code,would be violatedby the employmentas a teacher -Inan independent schooldistrlct~of the daughter of a half-sister of one of the trustees of s&M district.

. .~ SAia Article 432 reads as follows:

"No officer of this State or any officer of any district, county, city, precinct, schooldistrict, or othermunicipal subalvision of this State, or any.officer or member of any State, district, county, city, schooldistrict or other municipal board, or judge of any court, created by or under authority of any general or special law of this State, or any member of the Leglslature, shall appoint, or vote for, or confirm the appointment to any office,position, clerkship, employment or duty, of any person related within the second degree by affinity or within the third degree by consanguinity to the person so appointing or so voting, or to any othermember of any suchboard, the Legislature, or court of which suchperson so appointing or votMg may be a member, when,the salary, fees or compensationof such appointee is to be paid for, directly or indirectly, out of or from public funas or fees of offfce of any kind or characterwhatsoever. p. 85, Acts 1915, P. 149." Acts 1909,

The statuteplainly applying to the employment ofschool teachersby boards of trustees of schoolalstrlcts, the questionwhich you present to us is the effectproducedHonorable E. B. Lewis, May 12, 1939, page 2 o-791

upon the degree of relationshipby the fact that the proposed teacher'smother is only a half-alater of the school trustee Instead of being a full sister. Collateralconsanguinity is the relation subsistingam&g personswho aeticendfrom the s&e common ancestor biit~notfrom e&oh other. ‘Llnealconsanguinity is that relationshipwhich existsamong persons where one is aecended from the other. In'~computing 'theaegree of lin&al consanguinity exlstlngbetween two persons everygeneration in the direct 5oui5seof relationshipbetween the two partiesmakes a d&@tie. Thus,-brothersare related in the first degree. The mode of computingdegrees of collateral consanguinity Is to beginwith the common ahcestor and reckon dOWnWard and the degree the two perso or the more remote of them Isdistant from the aricesteris the degree of kinship between them. Thus, an uncle and a nephew are related Fn the seconddegree. First cousins are related by consanguinltg in the seconddegree. T. T. R. R. Co. v. Overton, 1 App. C. C., Section 533.

In the causewhich you subidt to u8, efther the mother
or father of the trustee is the grandparent of the proposed teacher. Thus, one person iS the odmmon ancestbr of both the trustee and the proposed teacher, satisfying the above recognlzed test. ReckonFng downwards from that common ancestor to the teacher,we find that the teacher is related to the trustee in the senonddegree by consanguinfty. We have~~founa no case prescribing as a test that the reckoning aovnwarasmust begin with the point where~the parties have two common ancestors and we believe that none will be found..

The trustee is related to his half-nieceby'consanguinity in the seconddegree an8 the employment is forbidden by the above statute.

Yours very truly

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS

GRL:FL:wc

APPROVXD s/Gerald C. Mann ATTORNEYGENERAL OF TEXAS By s/GlennR. Lewis Glenn R. Lewis

APPROVHI OPINION COMMITTEE BY G. R. L. CHAIRNAN