Honorable Ralph Brock

CountyAttorney Lubbock County Lubbock, Texas

Dear Sir: OpinionNo 

### O-4879 Re: Under the facts submitted is the State Farm Fire Insurance Company of Bloomington, Illinois, eligible' to write insuranceupon the properties of the Lubbock Independent SchoolDistrict?

Your letter of recent date requesting the opinion of this department on the above statedquestion reads in part
as follows:

"I have been requestedby ClaudeL. Hale, County School Superintendent of Lubbock County, Texas, to secure from your office an opinion as to whether or not the State Farm Fire Insurance Company of Bloomington, Illinois, is eligible to write insuranceupon the properties of the Lubbock IndependentSchoolDistrict.

"UnderArticle 

### 4860A-8ofVernon's Annotated Civil Statutes, it provides that a mutual company may write insuranceupon such corporationsas the Lubbock Independent SchoolDistrict, however, in the recent case of Lewis vs. IndependentSchool District of the city of Austin, et al, 

### 161 S.W. 2nd, 

### 450,the Supreme Court held that this Articlewas unconstitutionalby reason of Section 52 of Article 

### 3 of the Constitutionof the State of Texas.

"It ismy understanding that the State Farm Fire Insurance Company of Bloomington, Illinois, is not a mutual but a stock company and operates in Texas as an old line legal reserve stock compaw. The State Farm Fire InsuranceCompany of Bloomington, Illinois, is not to be confusedwith the State Farm MutualAutomobile Insurance Company and is an entirely separate company.Honorable Ralph Brock, page 2 o-4879

"Igive you the above factswhich is all the information I have regarding the State Farm Fire Insurance Company. It is my opinion that if the above State Farm Fire Insurance Company of Bloomington, Illinois, is not a mutual but an old line legal reserve stock company, it is eligible to write insuranceon the properties of the Lubbock IndependentSchoolDistrict, however, I have been requested to secure an opinion regarding same. 1, If

. . . .
A representative of the State InsuranceDepartment informsus that the State Farm Fire InsuranceCompany of Bloomington, Illinois, is an old line legal reserve stock company having a permit to do business in this State. As this company is notamutual company the opinion of the Supreme Court in the case of Lewis vs. Independent SchoolDistrict of the City of Austin et al, 

### 1.61 S.W. (2nd) 450, does not prohibit the company in question from writing insurance on the properties of the Lubbock IndependentSchoolDistrict.

After a careful search of the statutesand constitutionalprovisions of this State we fail to find any statutory or constitutionalprovision prohibiting companies of the kind and class of the State Farm Fire Insurance Company of Bloomington, Illinois, from writinginsurance on the kind of properties inquiredabout. As the above mentioned insurance company is a stock company and operates as an old line legal
reserve stock company it is the opinion of this department that said company is eligible to write insurance on the properties of the Lubbock IndependentSchoolDistrict.

Trusting that the foregoing fully answers your inquiry, we are

Yours very truly

AW:mp:wc ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS

APPROVED OCT 

### 5, 1942 By s/ArdellWilliams s/GeraldC. Mann ArdellWilliams ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS Assistant
Approved Opinion CommitteeBy s/ BWB Chairman