Auwrxrw. TXXAS 76711 

October 6, 1975 

Overruled By JM-399 

The Honorable Jackie W. St. Clair 

Commissioner, Texas Department of 

Labor and Standards 

Box 12 157, Capitol Station 

Austin, Texas 78711 

Opinion No. H- 708 

Re: Who is required to be 

licensed as an auctioneer. 

Dear Commissioner St. Clair: 

You have requested our opinion concerning several questions which pertain 

to the recently enacted Auctioneer Regulatory Act. Acts 1975, 64th Leg., ch. 

320, p. 827 (codified as V. T. C.S. art. 8700). Specifically you ask whether an 

auctioneering corporation must be licensed under the Act, and if so, whether 

employees, directors, officers, and owners of such corporations must also be 

licensed. In addition, you ask whether the license fee may be prorated. 

The Act provides in part: 

Sec. 1. B. ‘Person’ means an individual, partnership, 

company, corporation, association, or other group, 

however organized. 

. . . 

Sec. l.D. ‘Auctioneer’ means any person who, for 

another, with or without receiving or collecting a fee, 

commission, or other valuable consideration, sells 

or offers to sell property at auction. 

. . . 

Sec. 11. (a) Whoever acts as an auctioneer as defined 

in this Act without first obtaining a license commits a 

Class B misdemeanor. 

Thus, the Act includes corporations within the term auctioneer and requires a 

license of such organizations. In our opinion, a corporation which engages in the 

p. 3055 
The Honorable Jackie W. St. Clair - page two (H-708) 

business of auctioneering must obtain a license under the Act. 

However, we can discern no intention on the part of the Legislature to require licensing of employees, directors, officers, or owners of a licensee 

corporation. We note that article 4413 (29bb), V. T. C. S. , the Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies Act, would also permit the licensing of 

corporations and clearly would not require a formal license of its employees. 

See section 33 of:article 4413 (29bb), regarding registration of employees. In 

the absence of statutory language to the contrary in article 8700, we do not 

believe the Legislature intended to require duplicative licenses for a corporation 

and its employees. In our opinion the license of the corporation inures to the 

benefit of those actually engaged in auctioneering, just as their conduct as well as 

that of other employees may form the basis for a denial, suspension, or revocation 

of the corporation’s license. V. T. C.S. art. 8700, sec. 7. 

Your second question is whether license fees may be prorated if issued for less 

than a year. Section 4 of article 8700 provides in part: 

(a) The annual fee for each auctioneer’s license issued 

by the commissioner to a resident of this state is $100. The 

annual fee for each auctioneer’s license issued by the commissioner to a nonresident is $300. The commissioner 

shall issue the license upon receipt of payment of all license 

fees. All licenses expire annually on the last day of December of each year and shall be renewed upon the receipt of the 

written request of the licensee and the required license fee. . . . 

In Attorney General Opinions M-580 (1970) and M-1107 (1972) this Office 

ruled that thelack of any language providing for proration of license fees indicated that such fees could not be prorated. However, the statutes involved contained mandatory language as to the amount to be paid and did not use the term 

“annual fee. ” We believe the use of that term in section 4 requires proration in 

this instance. Unlike the provisions involved in these prior opinions, section 4 

does not require the payment of a certain sum with each application; rather, an 

annual rate is provided. Thus, where the license is issued for a duration of less 

than one year, proration would in our view be appropriate. 

p. 3056 
The Honorable Jackie W. St. Clair - page three (H-708) 

SUMMARY 

A corporation engaged in auctioneering must 

obtain a license under article 8700, V. T. C. S. 

Employees, owners, directors, and officers of a 

licensee corporation are not required to obtain a 

license so long as their auctioneering activities are 

on behalf of the corporation. Auctioneer license 

fees should be prorated. 

Very truly yours, 

DAVID M. KENDALL, First Assistant 

Opinion Committee 

jad: 

p. 3057