It is suggested in an accompanying brief that in enacting this rule, the commission 'added a dimension' to section 3.28 which was not intended by the legislature, in that the statute requires the commission to look only to where products are produced in order to determine whether the preference applies in a given situation. We will not depart from the plain meaning of the statute absent any indication that such department is necessary to give effect to the legislature's intent. Under its proposed rule, the commission interprets the term 'Texas citizens' to include partnerships, corporations, and other recognized forms of business entities with a business presence in the state. It has been said that 'citizen' ordinarily means only a natural person and will not be construed to include a corporation unless the general purpose and import of the statute in which the term is found seems to require it. A citizen is one who, as a member of a nation or a body politic of the sovereign state, owes allegiance to and may claim reciprocal protection from its government.
Citizenship is a status or condition and is the result of both act and intent.
Corporations and other artificial legal entities have no power to freely form the requisite intent that together with necessary acts results in citizenship. Although a domestic corporation may nevertheless be considered a 'citizen' of its state of origin for special purposes, such as federal diversity jurisdiction, other business entities have been denied even that claim. H. Rouw Co. v. Railway Exp. And although a corporation is generally a 'person' within the meaning of the law, 'state citizenship' in Texas is normally a status occupied only by natural, not artificial, persons. See also Bus.