THE L%Tl?ORNEY GENERAL 

0~ TEXAS 

GROVER SELLERS 

-lu 

Honorable John D. Reed, Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statiatlca 

Austin, Texas 

Dear Sir: Opinion No. 0-5960 

Re: p;i;l,e 1302, Section83, ~,~ 

0 . . .; extent of Labor Commissioners's Investigation; 

reaponaibllitg of Labor Commissioneras to inltfation of 

investigation. 

Your opinion request dated May 3;1944 ,and filed in 

lieu of your opinion request 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 statutory quallfications, have the authority to look beyond the application as submltted to determine whether or not 

any organlzatlon applying for a charter to represent working people is a bona fide labor organization 

and actually representing wage earners before aubmlttlng our recommendations to the Secretary of State?" 

It la our opinion that you have authority to look beyond the application itself so long as your investlgatlon Is 

concerned with 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, or wage earners, or amendment granted 

to a charter of a~corporation previously created to 

organize laborers, working men, or wage earners, or 

that mag.be hereafter created hereunder to organize 

laborers, working men, or wage earners, by the 

Secretary of State to any person, association or 

corporation, for such purposes without an lnvestlgatlon first having been made by the Commissioner 

of Labor Statistics concerning such application, 

and a favorable recommendation made thereon by said 

Coimnissloner to the Secretary of State. It la expressly provided that no investigation or recommendation by the Commissioner of Labor Statistics 

shall be required or made of applications from 

farmers for a charter.' (emphasis added) 

"Sec. 2. The fact that there Is no adequate 

law In the State of Texas which authorizes an lnvestlgation .on the merits of an application fora 

charter, or amendment to a charter, by laborers, 

working men, or wage earners, and the further 

fact that injustices are being perpetrated upon 

unsuspecting working men and wage earners in many 

instances where charters or amendments to charters~ 

are granted as herein enumerated, creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 

Constitutional Rule requiring bills to be read on 

three several daya~be, and the same is hereby suapended, and~this Act shall take effect and be in 

force from and after its passage, and it IS 30 enacted." (emphasis added) 

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 sought by this Act and, at the same time, 

states that the Legislature intended this investigation to go 

to the merits of the application itself. 

Section 1 of this Act provides that,,no such charter 

shall be issued by the Secretary of State O . . without an 

Investigation first having been made by the Commissioner of 

Labor Statistics concerning such application . . ." The ordlnary Interpretation of the word "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 

"2 o 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 

investigation wlthout 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 investigations until you are 

called upon to do 30 by the Secretary of State. 

To take the contrary view and say that you should lnitlate such investigations on your own motlon would produce a 

manifestly undesirable result that the Legislature would not 

likely have intended. It would necessitate your checking peach 

one of the ,thousanda of charter applications that are flled 

with the Secretary of State to determine whether you thought 

each of them required your investigation. It would conceivably 

result in cases where you would initiate lnveatlgationa, incur delay, trouble and expense in making them, and then find 

that your recommendation would be unnecessary because the Secretary of State would reject the application on other grounds, 

or would Issue the charter under provisions of another section 

of Article 1302, under which he considered the application to 

be filed and which required no investigation by your department. 

Article 1302, Section 83, which is quoted above, designates a particular purpose for which a charter may be granted 

by the Secretary of State. It also sets up an essential prerequisite which must be complied with before the Secretary of 

State has authority to Issue a charter under that subaectlon; 

that pre-requisite is that he, the Secretary of State, havebefore him gcur favorable recommendation on the application, 

based upon the investigation which has been discussed above. 

Article 1302, Section 83 clearly authorizes you to make 

these investigations when proper cases arlse. However, we are 

unable to find any authority whatsoever which authorizes or 

makes it yourdutg to undertake to determine which pending applications for charters require your investigation and to 

undertake investigations accordingly. 
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 Committee By s/OS Chairman