The Honorable Henry Wade 

Criminal District Attorney 

Dallas County Government Center 

Dallas, Texas 75202 

The Honorable Edna Cisneros 

County & District Attorney 

County of Willacy 

2nd Floor, Courthouse 

kaymondville, Texas 78580 

Opinion No. H-794 

Re: Whether a court may 

grant an occupational 

license toga person convicted of driving while 

intoxicated who is confined 

or imprisoned as a result 

of the conviction. 

Dear Mr. Wade and Ms. Cisneros: 

You have requested our opinion regarding a portion of 

section 25a of article 668733, V.T.C.S., recently amended by 

the 64th Legislature. The statute now provides in pertinent 

part: 

Whenever any person is convicted of any 

offense for which this Act makes automatic the suspension of the operator's, 

commercial operator's, or chauffeur's 

license of such person, the court in which 

such conviction is had shall require the 

surrender to it of all operators', commercial operators', and chauffeurs' licenses 

then held by the person so convicted and 

the clerk of said court shall thereupon 

forward the same together with a record of 

p. 3353 
The Honorable Henry Wade 

The Honorable Edna Cisneros - page 2(H-794) 

you inquire about the circumstances under which a court may 

enter an order permitting the convicted individual to obtain 

an occupational license, i.e., to retain his current driver's 

license with added restrictions limiting it to occupational 

use. 

It might be argued that, by limiting those circumstances 

to cases in which "the person convicted is not confined or 

imprisoned," the statute means merely that the court may not 

grant an occupational license for use while the defendant is 

in confinement. Under such a view?he court could permit 

any convicted defendant to obtain an occupational license, 

so long as its use was restricted to the period in which he 

was not confined. But such an interpretation would render 

the provision virtually meaningless, since a person could 

not normally make use of a driver's license during the 

period in which he was confined. It is well established 

that a statute should not be interpreted in such a manner as 

to attribute to the Legislature a useless act. State ex 

rel. Childress v. School Trustees of Shelby County, 23r 

m2d 777, 781(Tex.Sup. 1951); D‘ii;;on v 

89, 96 (Tex.Civ.App. -- Houston 1958,writ re 

: PoaFd Xz.z:J12d 

We therefore believe that the statute must be read in such a 

manner as to preclude the court from granting an occupational 

license to any defendant who is confined or imprisoned by 

order of the court. 

In our opinion, this interpretation would encompass 

those situations in which a defendant who has been sentenced 

to be confined has already served the entire amount of his 

jail time prior to the imposition of sentence. In such 

instances, the defendant is ordered "confined or imprisoned" 

9 order of the court, but is granted credit for time served 

g;;;e;tzz,:;w. gA;icfe 42.03, section 2, Code of 

it is our view that a court may 

grant an occupational lic&se under section 25(a) of article 

668713 only in cases where the court does not impose confinement or imprisonment. We note that, in addition to the 

remedy now provided by section 25(a), the much broader 

provisions of section 23A(a) remain in effect, so that w 

person whose license has been suspended for causes other 

than physical or mental disability or impairment" may petition 

the district court for an occupational license. 

p. 3354 
The Honorable Henry Wade 

The Honorable Edna Cisneros - page ,3 (H-794) 

SUMMARY 

A court may grant an occupational 

license under section 25(a) of article 

6687br V.T.C.S., only in cases where the 

court does not impose confinement or 

imprisonment. 

Very truly yours, 

APPROVED: 

Attorney General of Texas 

Opinion Committee 

jwb 

p. 3355