TEEA~TORNEYGENERAL 

OF TEXAS 

August 28, 1953 

Hon. Robert S. Calvert 

Comptroller of Public Accounts 

Capitol Station 

Austin, Texas Opinion No. S-90 

Dear Mr. Calvert: 

Re: Effective date of House 

Bill No. 11, Chapter 289, 

Acts 53rd Legislature, 

1953. 

You have requested our opinion as to when House 

Bill No. 11, 53rd Legislature, becomes effective. 

Such bill, enacted as Chapter 289, Acts of the 53rd 

Legislature, 1953, contains an emergency clause in Section 6 

thereof as follows: 

“‘Sec. 6. The fact that motor fuel dealers 

,operating bulk plants and service stations are now 

suffering losses caused by evaporation and other 

handling losses, and incur expenses in collecting 

and acc~ounting for the tax levied by the motor fuel 

tax law, creates an emergency and an imperative 

public necessity that the Constitutional Rule requiring bills to be read on three several days in 

each House, and the Constitutional Rule providing 

that bills shall not become effective until the expiration of ninety (90) days after the adjournment 

of the Legislature, be suspended, and said Rules 

are hereby suspended, and this Act shall take effect and be in force from and after the first day of 

the first month which commences more than sixty 

(60) days after its passage, and it is so enacted.” 
. ’ 

Hon. Robert S. Calvert, page 2 (S-90) 

Section 39 of Article 3 of the Constitution of 

Texas, provides that: 

“No law 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 all the members 

elected to each House, otherwise direct; said 

vote to be taken by yeas and nays, and entered 

upon the journals.” 

Such House Bill No. 11 did not receive a twothirds vote of all members elected to each House of the Legislature. Consequently, under the above quoted constitutional 

prohibition, the provisions of the emergency clause attempting to fix an effective date prior to the expiration of ninety 

days after adjournment are of no force or effect. Copus v. 

Chorn, 136 Tex. 209, 150 S.W.2d 70 (1941). 

While the courts have recognized that even when 

an emergency clause is ineffective because lacking the necessary two-thirds vote, it may be looked to as an aid in determining Legislative intent, as in Popham v. Patterson, 121 Tex. 

615, 51 S.W.2d 680 (1932), it is believed that it should be looked 

to as an aid only, and only to determine intent where provisions 

are ambiguous, and not to create or read into the act effective 

terms or provisions not found elsewhere therein. See MissouriKansas-Texas R. Co. of Texas v. Thomason, 280 S.W. m 

App. 1926, error ref.), in which the Court said: 

“Emergency clauses on bills . . . are not 

added for the purpose of clarifying or declaring 

the intention of the LJgislature, nor to explain 

the express language of the act; but only for the 

purpose of setting forth the reasons for the SUSpension of the constitutional rule requiring the 
. 

Hon. Robert S. Calvert, page 3 (S-90) 

bill to be read on three s,eparate days, and for 

putting into immediate effect such act, whatever be its scope and terms.” 

There are no other provisions in House Bill No. 

11 providing for any effective date. 

In construing the phrase “until ninety days after 

the adjournment”, the Supreme Court in Halbert v. San Saba 

Springs Land & Live Stock Association, 89 Tex. 231, 34 S.W. 

639 (1896), held that “90 full days must expire between the 

adjournmentof the legislature and the taking effect of the law.” 

Although the Supreme Court has since, in Copus 

v. Chorn, supra, computed the effective date of an act lacking 

an emergency clause as being the 90th day after adjournment, 

such computation was not necessary to the decision reached, 

and the rule laid down in the Halbert case,, supra, was not expressly overruled. 

Therefore, it is our opinion that the effective date 

of House Bill No. 11, enacted as Chapter 289, Acts of the 53rd 

Legislature, 1953, is August 26, 1953, under the authority of 

Halbert v. San Saba Springs Land & Live StockAssociation, supra. 

SUMMARY 

The effective date of House Bill 11, Chapter 289, Acts 53rd Legislature,‘1953, relating to 

motor fuel taxes, is August 26, 1953. 

APPROVED: Yours very truly, 

C. K. Richards 

Reviewer 

JOHN BEN SHEPPERD 

Attorney General 

John Ben Shepperd 

Attorney General 

JA:PR:da 

Phillip’Rbbinson 

Assistants