May 21, 1971 

Honorable Clyde Slavin Opinion No. M-867 

County Attorney 

Donley County Courthouse Re: Qualifications of annlicants 

Clarendon, Texas 79226 for incorporation of a 

new town pursuant io Art. 

Dear Mr. Slavin: 1134, etc., V.C.S. 

Your request for an opinion from this office presents 

the following questions: 

1. Do the applicants referred to 

in Article'1134 V.A.T.S. have to reside 

within the boundaries of the,proposed 

town for 6 months prior to their becoming 

eligible to sign the petition seeking 

incorporation? 

2. Does the term "inhabitants" as 

used in Article 1136, V.A.T.S. refer to 

the populace in general or does it make 

reference only to the resident, qualified 

electors resid,ing within the territory 

sought to be incorporated? 

This opinion will deal with these questions in the 

order in which they are presented. 

Article 1134 states that if,,the inhabitants of a 

town desire to be incorporated, . . . at least 20 

residents ,thereof, who would be qualified voters under 

the provisions of this chapter, . . ." may file an 

application with the County Judge setting forth their 

desire to be so incorporated. The statute states that 

the application must be signed by 20 residents who 

would be qualified to vote under Article 1137, Vernon's 

Civil Statutes, which specifically states that an elector 

is one who has attained the age of twenty-one (21) years 

and "who has resided within the limits of the proposed 

town for 6 months" next proceeding any;such election 

and who is otherwise qualified utider.Article 5.02 of 

the Election Code, Vernon's Civil Statutes. It is 

quite clear that at the time the application is signed 

-4213- 
Honorable Clyde Slavin, page 2, (M-867) 

the applicants must be qualified electors, meaning among 

other things that they must have resided within the territory sought to be incorporated for at least 6 months. 

Article 1136 sets forth the duties of the County 

Judge in calling an election when presented with a statutory petition and satisfactory proof that the town or 

village contains the requisite number of inhabitants. 

The word "inhabitants" as used in Chapter 11, Title 28, 

of the Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, 1925, would 

appear to'have but a single meaning. 

Article 1133: 

"Where a town or village contains 

more than two hundred (200) 

habitants, it may be incorporated ,'ia town or village . . .' 

Article 1134: 

"If the inhabitants of such town 

or village desire to be so incorporated, 

at least twenty residents thereof, who 

would be qualified voters under the 

provisions of this chapter, shall file 

an application . . .' 

Article 1136: 

"If satisfactory proof is made 

that the town or village contains the 

requisite number of inhabitants, the 

county judge shall make an order for 

holding an election . . .' 

The "inhabitants" of a town or village would appear 

to be those persons who have established permanent residencies or domiciles in that oarticular communitv. Houston 

Printing Co. v. Tennant, Texas, 120 Tex.~539, 39 S.W.2d 

3.089 (1931) and would not refer merely to the "resident 

qualified electors" of the town or village who would of 

course be included within the term "inhabitants". 

To hold that the judge must be satisfied that there 

are more than 200 inhabitants who are also resident qualified electors within a town or village before he can order 

-4214- 
Honorable Clyde Slavin page 3, (M-867)' 

an election for its incorporation would be to add an 

additional requirement to those set out in the statutes. 

The only time the statutes call for one to be a 

qualified elector is in the case of the parties petitioning 

the court for such incorporation as specifically set out 

in Article 1134. It would therefore seem reasonable to 

assume that the legislature would have with equal clarity 

included this requirement if it intended to be a part of 

the requisites of Articles 1133 and 1136. 

In considering the case of Dallas G. Perkins V. Reed 

Ingalshe, 162 Tex. 456, 347 S.W.2d pb (1961) we must be 

Careful not to infer from the court's language that an 

area cannot be incorporated unless it conzai& 200 resident 

qualified electors. 

When the county judge is 

presented with a statutory petition, 

and proof satisfactory to him has been 

made that the territory sought to be 

incorporated contains the requisite 

number of resident qualified electors, 

then the county judge has no discretion 

as to whether or not he will call the 

election, but he must do so . . . ." 

(at P. 930). 

A careful reading of the case shows that the Court 

used the words "resident qualified electors" to mean 

"inhabitants" when it wrote the above quote. 

If the area does contain 200 resident voters, then 

surely the requirements of the statutes have been met, 

as they would be if it were shown to the court that the 

area to be incorporated contained 200 inhabitants, 20 

of which are the resident qualified electors who signed 

the petition for incorporation. 

SUMMARY 

In order to incorporate a new 

town pursuant to Artic.le 1134, et seq, 

Vernon's Civil Statutes, the.applicants 

signing the petition for incorporation 

must be qualified electors and must 

have resided within the area sought 

-4215- 
Honorable Clyde Slavin, page 4, (M-867) 

to be incorporated for at least 

6 months and satisfactory proof 

must be shown the County Judge 

that the area contains more than 

200 inhabitants. In this connection, 

the term "inhabitants" as used 

in the statutes does not mean 

"resident qualified electors", 

though an "inhabitant" might also 

be a qualified elector 

i/3 

Prepared by Robert 

Assistant Attorney 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

B. Davis 

General 

Kerns Taylor, Chairman 

W. E. Allen, Co-Chairman 

Austin Bray 

Scott Garrison 

Bill Corbusier 

Fred E. Davis 

MEADE F. GRIFFIN 

Staff Legal Assistant 

ALFRED WALKER 

Executive Assistant 

NOLA WRITE 

First Assistant 

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