*-l-roEINE’Y aziENERr%L 

Honorable Bradley Miles 

.County,Attorney 

-Taylor County 

Abilene , Texas 

Dear Mr. Miles: 

July 11, 1962 

Opinion No. WW- 1373 

Re: Group Life Insurance for 

County .Officials and Employees. 

Your predecessor in office has requested an opinion of this 

office relating to group life insurance for County officials and employees, 

and we quote the following excerpt,from that request: 

“Taylor County, in March of 1959, entered into a 

Group ~Life Insurance Policy with a Company ~by and 

through its Commissioners’ Court. All the necessary 

requisites as to the provisions of the policy, the beneficiaries, etc., were met. My~question was whether 

or not Taylor County could enter into a contract ~for a 

group of its Officials and Employees.? ‘I 

The pertinent provisions of the Texas Insurance Code are the 

following portions of Articles 3.50 (Group Life Insurance) and 3.51 

(Group Insurance ,for Employees of State and Its Subdivisions and College 

and SchooLEmployees). 

Article 3. 50: 

“Sec. 1. Definitions. - No policy of group life insurance shall be delivered in this State unless it conforms 

to one of the following descriptions: 

“(,a) a policy,issued to an employer, . , . which employer . . . shall be deemed the policyholder, ,to ~insure 

employees of the employer for the benefit of persons other 

than the employer, . . . 

‘1. . . 

“(3) A policy~issued to any association of employees 

of the UnitedStates Government nor’. . . any association of 

. . . county employees, and any association of any 
Hon. Bradley Miles, page 2, (WW- 1373) 

combination of state, county~or city, town or village 

employees. . . to insure the . . . members of any 

ass,ociation of . . . county . . . employees . . . I1 

Article 3.51: 

“Sec. 1. (a) The State of Texas and each of its 

political, governmental and administrative subdivisions . . , are authorized to procure contracts insuring their respective employees . . . under a policy 

or policies of group health, accident, accidental 

death~and dismemberment, and hospital, surgical, 

and/or medical expense insurance . . . 

“Sec. 2. ,All group insurance contracts effected 

pursuant hereto shall conform and be subject to all the 

provisions of any,existing or ~future laws concerning 

group insurance. ‘I 

Although a county is an ‘employer’ with respect to its ‘employees’ 

it is not so with respect to its ‘officials~‘;‘in any event the. general language 

of Article ~3.50 is limited by the specific language in Article 3. 51, limiting 

~the types of group insurance for which a county is authorized to contract. 

Article 3.51 does not, it should be noted, include life insurance. 

In addition to this apparent prohibition in Articles 3.50 and 3.51 

against a county!s entering into such a contract for life insurance, there 

is no specific affirmative grant of the power to make such a contract in 

either the Constitution or the statutes of Texas, and the powers of a county 

are, of course, limited to those specifically granted or necessarily implied 

from other powers specifically granted. 

Finally, aside from its, status as a municipal corporation it is 

unlikely that there exists in the absence of statute an insurable interest 

in its officials and employees on the part of the County. See, e,. g. , 

‘Cheeves v. Anders, 07 Tex. 207, 28 S. W. 274 (1894). 
Hon. Bradley Miles, page 3 (WW-1373) 

SUMMARY 

A County is not authorized to contract for group life insurance on the 

lives of its officials and employees. 

Yours very truly, 

WILL WILSON 

Attorney General of Texas 

CG:lmc 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE: 

W. V. Geppert, Chairman 

Dhdley D. McCalla 

Howard Mays 

Winston Crowder 

J. C. Davis 

REVIEWED FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 

BY: Leonard Passmore