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### ~~~~E,*TDTOIRNEY GENERAL
OFTEXAS

ApFll 18, 1939

Mrs. Willie O'Neal County Auditor Carson County Panhandle, Texas

Dear Mrs. O'Neal: Opinion

### NooO-606 Re: Computation on yards as basis ,forfees under Artlcle~~3930, Revised Civil~Statuteaof]1925

Your request ,foran opinion ascontalni+~ln.'goUr letter of April 

### 5, under the above,,opinlon~ number',esslgned, has received the attention of this,Department. Permit us to set forth the last portion of your letteras cont,ainlng such request:

"Is, there any rul~e

by uhlch the.~county'cac be guided as to how to compute,thewprda where~ there Isa mlxture of words, numbers and~symbols? How many nor&s are in the first line above? Row :" many in the second' line? Should each number be' counted as a word.? Should each symbol be counted as a word?"
The relevant provisions of the statute to which you no doubt reefer

reads as follows:
"Article 3930 - Clerks of the county court shall receive the following fees: -----Recording all papers required or permitted by law to be recorded, not otherwis'e prOVld8d for, includLng C8rtlfiCat8 and seal, for each 100 Words'-

- - - $.lO,-- -1'

It will b8,noted that throughout Cbapter 2 of Tltle 

### 61 of the Revised Clvll.Statutes,X925& styled Pe8$ 'Of,,~GffiC8, such expressionas "for ,each100 words is used, underfees enumerated to certain'state,district, county, prgoinct Officers and notaries public. Not only forrec6rding but likewise we find .suchenumerationwhere the officers 'furnish coples of instruments on record or in th8ir'offlce; in.making translated copies and for transcribing,.,comparMgor verifyit-&'Vecoid

books of Office. At the earllest tfm8S SUChenumeratlon of feeswas made bYthe Legislature, thework ofMrs. Willie OfNeal, April 1.8,1939,page 2

recording no doubt had to be done in longhand far more difficult to transcribe, compare and

_ - .._ O-606

and which was verify from the records. From this,we surmise that our present day methods,whether more practical, convenient or otherwise, considering the new words and symbolswhich have flowed in from the fountain of popular usage and extended fields of science, should no doubt have leveled the work Involved, justifying the maintenance of the rate in most instances still unchanged.

We have been unable to find any constructionplaced on the fee statutesby the courts which defines "words"or the field same woul&coqer-in computingwords for charging such.iees enumerated ,t,hereln.It is necessary, therefore, that we resort to our dictionary and seek out and define this field of printed or written characters representing a thing spoken, and through conventional associationwith a fixedmeaning, symbolizesana communicatesan ideawithout .belngiiiv&slbleinto,~smaller units capable of independent use,. Such.languagewe find inWebster's New International Qlctionery,. unabridged, or,that Is to say, "the smal~lest Unit of speech that has meaning when taken bg itself; a, vocable." 'Word(' is synonymouswith "term"and "expression". It has been frequently-said,thatusage determineswbrds; science f.Lxes

terms and sentimentprovides expressions. N" Las been deflnea ati~a"finure"and "a letter or chiracterwhich.is -significant." iiovl&r defines figures as numerals, and numerals are letters or charactersrepresenting numbers.

In the light of the above definition, It Is our view that numbers and symbols are well included in the field of written expressionswithin the meaning of 1(Words11 and c'ontemplated

by the Legislature to be counted. This Departmerit has heretofore~ruledthat numbers should be COLUIt8d as words. Any rule that can be 1aM down in countingwords shouldbe one of reason, applglng usage, science, and sentl-- ment as these terms are expreSSed in present day written or printed common parlance.

You request our computation of the following expressions: "S..W. 1/4~Sec. 164;~N. E. l/4 Sec. .186"and "Sections 145,'146; 196, 200.” Bearing In mind that the service for which words are counted include, noteonly recording'but also transcribing, comparing, verifying and translating,we count S..W. one word and the character l/&,one word as the entire conventional, fixed and determinedmeaning expresi3ed signifiesmore or less one unit commonly known and expressed as."Southwest one-quarter or one-fourth or l/4", or "S/W"or ."Swl/4."

. /Numbers shouldbe given as limited interpretation
_.~ .:Mrs. Willie O'N8a1,April 

### 18, 1939, page 

### 3 0-606

In counting as~posslble,or In Other words, this would be the numerlcal~quantlty they represent If briefly spoken. The figures 

### 164 convey the idea or fixed unit of one, sixty, four, thereby counted as threewords. Following this interpretatlon,we count twelve (12)words in each of the above group or twelvewords per line as in your letter.

Though it b8 hardly possfble to clearly lay down a well defined rule'to follow, In view of what has been said in response to your request, it is the opinion of thisDepartment that In countingwords, symbols an&numbers for computing fees to be collected for recording; for translating, transiiriblng and verifying Instruments,documents, records ati papers, a rule of.reason shouldbe invoked wherein usage, science and sentiment as these terms are expressed In present day wrltten or printed common parlance would be applied.

Yours very truly
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS

By s/Wm.JR King Wm. J.‘~R.

King Assistant

WJRK:LM:wc

APPROVED: s/Gerald C. Mann ATTORNEYGENERALOF TEXAS