THE L%Tl?ORNEY GENERAL 0~ TEXAS
GROVER SELLERS -lu

Honorable John D. Reed, Commissioner Bureau of Labor Statiatlca Austin, Texas
Dear Sir: OpinionNo. 0-5960 Re: p;i;l,e 1302, Section83, ~,~ 0

. . .; extent of Labor Commissioners's Investigation; reaponaibllitg of Labor Commissioneras to inltfationof investigation.
Your opinionrequest dated May 3;1944 ,and filed in lieu of your opinionrequest of April 12, 1944, has been received in this office and is hereby acknowledged.
Your first question is: "1* Under Article 1302, Section 83, does this office, in the absence of statutoryquallfications, have the authority to look beyond the application as submltted to determinewhether or not any organlzatlonapplying for a charter to representworking people is a bona fide labor organization and actually representingwage earnersbefore aubmlttlng our recommendations to the Secretary of State?"
It la our opinion that you have authority to lookbeyond the application itself so long as your investlgatlon Is concernedwith the "merits" of the application.
House Bill 16, Acts 1941, 47th Legislature,page 350, chapter 190 reads:

"Section 1. That subdivision 83 of Article 1302, Title 32, Chapter 1 of the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas, 1925, be, and the same is hereby amended so as to read hereafter as follows:

“‘83. To organize laborers,working men, wage earners, and farmers to protect themselves In their varloua pursuits;provided however,no charter shall be issued hereafter to laborers,Hon. John D. Reed, page 2 o-5960

working men, orwage earners, or amendment granted to a charter of a~corporationpreviously created to organize laborers,working men, orwage earners, or that mag.be hereafter created hereunder to organize laborers,working men, orwage earners,by the Secretary of State to any person, association or corporation, for such purposeswithout an lnvestlgatlon first having been made by the Commissioner of Labor Statistics concerning such application, and a favorablerecommendationmade thereon by said Coimnissloner

to the Secretary of State. It la expressly provided that no investigation or recommendationby the Commissioner of Labor Statistics shallbe required or made of applications from farmers for a charter.' (emphasisadded) "Sec. 2. The fact that there Is no adequate law In the State of Texas which authorizes an lnvestlgation .onthe merits of an application fora charter, or amendment to a charter, by laborers, working men, orwage earners,and the further fact that injusticesare being perpetratedupon unsuspectingworking men and wage earners inmany instanceswhere charters or amendments to charters~ are granted as herein enumerated, creates an emergency and an imperativepublic necessity that the ConstitutionalRule requiring bills to be read on three severaldaya~be, and the same is hereby suapended, and~thisAct shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and it IS 30 enacted." (emphasisadded)
You will observe that Section 2 of this Act states: "The fact that there is no adequate law in the State of Texas which authorizes an invettigation on the merits of an application for a charter

. . . , and declares an emergency in connectlon with the ends soughtby this Act and, at the same time, states that the Legislature intended this investigationto go to the merits of the application itself.

Section 1 of this Act provides that,,nosuch charter shall be issuedby the Secretary of State O
. .without an Investigation first having been made by the Commissioner of Labor Statistics concerning such application

. . ." The ordlnary Interpretationof theword "concerning"suggests that the Act shall.

be more broad than a mere "inspection or "examination" of the application. The word "inveatlgatlon"also su$- gests a broader meaning.

Your second question is:- --

Ron, John D. Reed, page 3 o-5960

"2o Is It the duty of the office of the Secretary of State to refer applications for charters,under Section 83, to this office for approval, or is it the duty of this office to initiate such an investigationwlthout having same referred to us by the Secretary of State?"
It is our opinion that, under Article 1302, Section 83, you are not to initiate such investigationsuntil you are calledupon to do 30 by the Secretary of State.

To take the contrary view and say that you should lnitlate such investigationson your ownmotlon would produce a manifestlyundesirable result that the Legislaturewould not likely have intended. Itwould necessitate your checkingpeach one of the ,thousanda of charter applications that are flled with the Secretary of State to determinewhether you thought each of them required your investigation. It would conceivably result in caseswhere you would initiate lnveatlgationa, incur delay, trouble and expense in making them, and then find that your recommendationwould be unnecessary because the Secretary of State would reject the application on other grounds, or would Issue the charterunder provisions of another section of Article 1302,under which he considered the application to be filed and which required no investigationby your department.

Article 1302, Section 83, which is quoted above, designates a particularpurpose forwhich a chartermay be granted by the Secretary of State. It also setsup an essentialprerequisitewhich must be compliedwith before the Secretary of State has authority to Issue a charterunder that subaectlon; that pre-requisite is that he, the Secretary of State, havebefore him gcur favorablerecommendation on the application, based upon the investigationwhich has been discussed above.

Article 1302, Section 83 clearly authorizesyou to make these investigationswhen proper cases arlse. However, we are unable to find any authoritywhatsoever which authorizes or makes it yourdutg to undertake to determine which pending applications for charters require your investigationand to undertake investigationsaccordingly.Hon. John D. Reed, page 4 o-5960

Yours very truly ATTORNEY GEhQRAL OF TEXAS
By s/W. T. Curry Ii.T. Curry Assistant
WTC:FO:wc

APPROVE0 MAY 8, 1944 s/Grover Sellers ATTORNEYGENERAL OF TEXAS Approved Opinion CommitteeBy s/OS Chairman