Honorable Jesse James 

State Treasurer 

Austin, Texas 

Opinion NO. c-388 

Re: Whether the Treasury 

Department may expend for 

salaries for personal 

services and other miscellaneous operating 

expenses any of the funds 

received pursuant to the 

z 

rovisions of Article 

.08, Texas Insurance Code, 

and placed in the Special 

Trust Fund provided for 

Dear Mr. James: by Section 9 of said Article. 

You have requested an opinion of this office involving 

the following question: 

,I 

. . . whether this department may expend for 

salaries for personal services and other miscellaneous operating expenses any of the funds received 

pursuant to the provision of Article 4.08, Texas 

Insurance Code, and placed in the Special Trust 

Fund provided for by Section 9, of said Article." 

Section 9 of Article 4.08 provides: 

"Upon receipt of any unclaimed funds from such 

life insurance companies by the State Treasurer, 

he shall pay forthwith three-fourths of the amount 

thereof into the general funds of the state for 

the use of the state. The remaining one-fourth 

shall be administered by him as a special trust 

fund for the purposes of this Article, . . *' 

(Emphasis added.) 

In a previous opinion No. C-297 (1964), this office held 

that there was an appropriation of funds made by the Legislature 

in Section 9 of Article 4,08, Texas Insurance Code. The 

opinion stated: 

- 1a36- 
. - 

Hon. Jesse James, page 2 (c-388) 

II Article 4.08 Section 9 designates onefourth'of all the uncl:imed funds from life insurance 

companies which, as collected, are deposited with 

the State Treasurer to the credit of a special trust 

fund to administer the purposes of the Act. A 

valid appropriation of money within the meaning 

of Article VIII, Section 6 of the Constitution of 

Texas was made by the Legislature in Article 4.08, 

Section 9 for the purposes stated in the Act." 

In order to answer your question, we must determine whether 

the exoendlture of funds for the indicated purposes comes 

within'the scope of the appropriation; i.e., "for the purposes 

of this Article". The State Treasurer is specifically required 

to erform the following duties under Section 12 of Article 

4.06. 

"The State Treasurer shall keep in his office 

a public record of each payment of unclaimed funds 

received by him from any life insurance company. 

Except as to amounts reported in the aggregate 

such record shall show in alphabetical order the 

name and last known address of each insured or 

annuitant, and of each beneficiary or other person 

who according to the company's reports may have 

an interest in such unclaimed funds, an& with 

respect to each policy or contract, its number, 

the name of the company, and the amount due." 

Section 5 of Article 4.08 requires the State Treasurer to cause 

to be published a notice in a newspaper "published or having 

a general circulation in each county of this State in which is 

located the last known address of a person appearing to be 

entitled to such funds." Such notice is to contain an 

alphabetical list of the names reported by the life insurance 

companies to have a last known address within such county, 

together with the amount due each person, the date it became 

payable, the last known address of the owner, the name and 

address of the reporting insurance company and a statement 

that all such funds which are not claimed by the following 

December 20th are to be placed in the custody of the State 

Treasurer. 

In our opinion, the duties imposed upon the State Treasurer 

by,Article 4.08 are of such a nature as to necessarily require 

in the performance thereof the employment of personnel, 
. _ 

Hon. Jesse James, page 3 (C-388) 

purchase of needed supplies, and the expenditure of funds for 

miscellaneous operating expenses In connection therewith. The 

performance of such duties being one of the purposes of the 

Article, it necessarily follows that the Legislature intended 

that the funds appropriated by Section $4 "for the purposes of 

this Article" be expended for salaries of necessary personnel 

and other expenses in conjunction with performance of such 

duties. We are supported in this inter 

State, 132 Tex. 575, 126 S.W.2d 4 (1939 B 

retation by Wood v. 

, page 7: 

"It is the settled law that statutes should be 

construed so as to carry out the legislative intent, 

and when such intent is once ascertained, it should 

be given effect, even though the literal meaning 

of the words used therein is not followed. Also, 

statutes should never be given a construction that 

leads to uncertainty, injustice, or confusion, if 

it is possible to construe them otherwise. . . .'I 

In a previous opinion No. v-1288 (lqsl), a similar question 

arose over the authority of the Teacher Retirement System to 

pay the cost of actuarial services. 

(13), Article 2922-1, V.C.S., 

Under Section 6, Subsection 

the State Board was required to 

designate an actuary. No provision was expressly made within 

the Subsection for compensation of this employee. The general 

appropriation to the agency did not specifically provide for 

the payment for the services of the actuary. The General 

Appropriation did contain the following provision: 

"For the purposes of carrying out the provisions 

of the Act establishing the Teacher Retirement 

System, there is hereby appropriated to the Teachers 

Retirement System of Texas for each of the fiscal 

years ending August 31, 1952, and August 31, 1953, 

all moneys collected and received by said System 

under the provisions of Senate Bill No. 47, . . .' 

(Emphasis added.) 

Subsection 7 of Section 8 of Article 2922-1, V.A.S. set 

up an expense fund and contained the following language: 

"The Expense Fund shall be the fund from which 

the expenses of administration and maintenance of 

the Retirement System shall be paid. . . .'I 

In Opinion No. v-1288 it was held that the appropriation 11 

. . . for the purposes of carrying out the provisions of the 

-ia38- 
Ron. Jesse James, page 4 (c-388) 

Act establishing the Teacher Retirement System" was 'I. . . 

clearly sufficient to authorize the Board of Trustees of the 

System to use the moneys thus appropriated to pay for the services of the actuary required by Section 6, Subsection (13), 

Article 2922-1, V.C.S. . . ." 

Therefore in our opinion the funds appropriated for the 

purposes of Article 4.08 may be expended for the salaries of 

employees necessary to carry out the duties imposed upon the 

State Treasurer's office by the provisions of Article 4.08 and 

for other miscellaneous expenses incident thereto. This 

appropriation extends for a period of two years from the 

effective date of Article 4.08 on August 22, 1963. 

SUMMARY 

Section 9 of Article 4.08 is a valid appropriation 

by the Legislature; and all expenses, both salaries 

for personal service and miscellaneous operating 

expenses, are to be defrayed from the special trust 

fund; and the appropriation extends for a period of 

two years from the effective date of Article 4.08, 

August 22, 1963. 

Very truly yours, 

WAGGONER CARR 

Attorney General 

2 L&-J"--- 

BY 

Wade Anderson 

Assistant 

WA:ml 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

W. V. Gep,pert, Chairman 

Pat Bailey 

Linward Shivers 

Roy Johnson 

APPROVED FOR THE ATPORNEY GENERAL 

BY: Stanton Stone