The Honorable Henry Wade District Attorney Dallas County Sixth Floor, Records Building Dallas, Texas 75202 Opinion No. H- 730 Re:’ Whether article 5547-63, V. T. C.S., requires that testimony taken at commitment hearings be transcribed and forwarded to the mental hospital riceiving the patient. Dear Mr. Wade: You have requested our opinion regarding whether article 5547-63, V. T. C.S., requires that testimony taken at commitment hearings be transcribed and forwarded to the mental hospital receiving the patient. Article 5547-63 provides:

The clerk ofthe county court shall prepare one certified transcript ofthe proceedings inthe Temporary Hospitalization, or Indefinite Commitment Hearing. Such transcript shall accompany the patient to the designated mental hospital and shall be delivered to the hospital personnel in charge of admissions by the person authorized by the court to transport the patient. The clerk shall send with the transcript any available information concerning the medical, social, and economic status and history ofthe patient and his family. You ask whether the statute’s directive that’the clerk send “any available information concerning the medical,, social, and economic status and history ofthe patient and his family” requires that the court reporter in every case prepare a statement of facts for inclusion inthe transcript. The statement offacts is not itself apart ofthe transcript of ajudicial pro

### ceeding. Tex. R.Civ. P. 376, 377. Article 5547-63 does,not require that acopy

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ofthe statement offacts accompany the transcript;, it merely directs the clerk to forward therewith “any available information. ” In practice, the Department ofMental Health &Mental Retardation has developed for this purpose two lengthy and detailed forms which are in general use by county clerks throughout the state. The Commissioner ofthe Department advises that [i]t has been the long standing interpretation ofthis Department that the Clerk ofthe county court complies with article 5547-63 by forwarding these two completed forms in addition to a certified transcript which consists of copies of the instruments constituting apart ofthe proceedings inthe trial court in connection with the temporary or indefinite commitment ofany patient. It is well established that the construction placed upon a statute by the agency charged with its administration is entitled to substantial weight, particularly where that construction has been followed over along period oftime. Calvert v. Kadane, 427 S.W. 2d 605 (Tex. Sup. 1968); Heaton v. Bristol, 317S.W. 2d. 86 (Tex. Civ. App. --Waco 1958, writ ref ’d). In our opinion, the duty imposed upon the clerk by article 5547-63 is to forward to the hospital all relevant information contained inthe statement of facts. Ifthat information is substantially supplied by the clerk on the forms furnished by the Department, or can be extracted from the statement offacts, or is available from some other source, the clerk need not send to the hospital an actual copy ofthe statement offacts. In some cases, it may of course be necessary to do so. But that determination must be made by the clerk in each particular case. SUMMARY Article 5547-63, V.T. C.S., does not require that in every case acopy ofthe statement offacts of a commitment hearing be forwarded to the mental hospital receiving the patient, but only that any relevant information contained therein accompany the transcript ofthe proceedings.

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irst Assistant

C. ROBERT HE Opinion Committee jad:

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