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 of the county court shall 

prepare one certified transcript of the 

proceedings in the 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 of the 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 of the 

patient and his family” requires that the court reporter in every case prepare a 

statement of facts for inclusion in the transcript. 

The statement of facts is not itself a part of the transcript of a judicial proceeding. Tex. R. Civ. P. 376, 377. Article 5547-63 does,not require that a copy 

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The Honorable Henry Wade - page two (H-730) 

of the statement of facts accompany the transcript;, it merely directs the clerk 

to forward therewith “any available information. ” 

In practice, the Department of Mental 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 of the Department 

advises that 

[ i]t has b een the long standing interpretation 

of this Department that the Clerk of the 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 a part of the proceedings in the trial court in connection with the 

temporary or indefinite commitment of any 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 a long period of time. Calvert 

v. Kadane, 427 S. W. 2d 605 (Tex. Sup. 1968); Heaton v. Bristol, 317 S. 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 in the statement of 

facts. If that information is substantially supplied by the clerk on the forms 

furnished by the Department, or can be extracted from the statement of facts, or 

is available from some other source, the clerk need not send to the hospital an 

actual copy of the statement of facts. 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 a copy of the statement of facts 

of a commitment hearing be forwarded to the mental 

hospital receiving the patient, but only that any relevant information contained therein accompany the 

transcript of the proceedings. 

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The Honorable Henry Wade - page three (H-730) 

irst Assistant 

C. ROBERT HE 

Opinion Committee 

jad: 

p. 3118