### E ATT~EWEY GENERAL OF TEXAS

December 13, 1949

Honorable L. D. Ransom Executive Secretary Texas Real Estate Commission Austin, Texas Opimon No. V-964 Re: The authority ofthe Texas Real Estate Commission to require that applicants for licenses pass an examination to determine their Dear Sir: competence.

Your request for an opinion states in part:

“The Texas Real Estate Commission has been presented with the question ofwhether or not it is authorized or permitted under the Real Estate Dealers License Act - Article 6573a, revised civil statutes, as amended by Senate Bill No. 28. 51stLegislature - to require that each and every applicant for a license as a real estate dealer or salesman pass an examination in order to determine the rompetency of such applicant,

“Opinion No. O-6252 ofyour department, October 10, 1944,discusses this question and concluded that under the statute as written at that time no authority to require an applicant to take either an oral or written examination exists. The question had arisen under Sections 8and 9 oftheAct,

“Section 8 required that: ‘Application for a real estate dealer”s or real estate salesman’s license shall contain such other information as to the applicant, in addition to the above described as the Administrator ofthe Securities Division ofthe office ofthe Secretary of State shall require. The Administrator ofthe Securities Division ofthe office ofthe Secretary of State **may** require such other proof through the applicationHon. L. D. Ransom, Page 2 (Opinion V-964)

or otherwise as its officers shall deem desirable with due regard to the paramount interest ofthe public as to the honesty, truthfulness, integrity, and compe,tency of the applicant.’

“Section 9provided that: ‘If the Administrator ofthe Securities Division ofthe office ofthe Secretary of State is satisfied that the applicant for real estate dealer”s or real estate salesman’s license is of good business, repute andthat the business will be conducted in an honest, fair, just, and equitable manner, andupon complying with all other provisions of law and conditions ofthis Act, a license shall thereupon be granted by the Administrator ofthe Secmrities Division ofthe office of the Secr,etary ofState to the successful applicant therefor as a real estate dealer or real estate salesman, andthe applicant, upon receiving possession of license, is authorized t,oconduct the business of a real estate dealer or real estate salesman inthis State.* ” The exact question presented is whether the Texas Real Estate Commission is authorized or permitted to require an applicant for license to pass an examination in order to determine his competency.

We are ofthe opinion that the Texas Real Estate Commission is not authorized or permitted under Article 6573a, V.C. S., as amended by Acts 51stLeg., R,S. 1949, Ch. 149,p^304, to require that an applicant for a license as a real estate dealer or salesman pass an examination in order to determine the competency of such applicant.

inion O-6252, with which you are familiar, states in part thatOp.

““Ifthe Legislature had intended that applicants for a dealer”s or salesman’s license under “The Real Estate Dealers License Act’ were required to take an oral or written examination before receiving alicense, the Legislature could have said so in plain language; this it has not done, with reference to applicants for a dealer”s or a salesman”s license under said Act.”Hon. L. D. Ransom, Page 3 (Opinion V-964)

The 1949amendment, like the prior act, does not provide for the examination of applicants. Sections 8and 9(a) have been re-enacted in the identical words used in the,prior statute andwhich was in force at the time the above opinion was written, except that the name ofthe administrator has been changed.

Our conclusion that noauthority to give examinations to applicants exists is based onthe rule of statutory construction stated in 7.Sutherland Statutory Construction (3rd Edition) 523, 525. It is there stated that

“Where a statute has received a contemporaneous andpractical interpretation and the statute as interpreted is re-enacted, the practical interpretation is awarded greaterI,- weight than it ordinarily receives, **and** is regarded as presumptively the correct interpretation ofthe law. The rule here is based upon the theory that the legislature is acquainted with the contemporaneous interpretation of a statute, especiaIly when made by an administrUive body or executive officers charged with the duty of administering or enforcing the law, andtherefore impliedly adopts the interpretation upnnre-enactment

. . . 0Likewise, legislative action by amendment or appropriations with respect to a law which has received a contemporaneous andgraclLical construction may indicate approval of interpretations given the unchanged parts ofthe law.”

The Texas Real Estate Commission has no authority under exilting statutes to require applicants for licmses to pass an examination to determine their com- ~petence, Art. 6573a, V.C.S. Yours very truly, ATTORNEY GENERAL :OF TEXAS

FIRST AssISTANT lcihazc if* W& 

### ATTORNEY GENE~RAL By Walter F. Woodul, Jr., Assistant


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