Opinion ID: 1759068
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: General Control Over Roads

Text: The Legislature gave commissioners courts general control over the roads in 1876. See Act approved July 22, 1876, 15th Leg., R.S., ch. 55, § 4, 1876 Gen. Laws, reprinted in 8 H.P.N. Gammel, Laws of Texas 1882-1897, 887-88 (1898). At the time the parties' dispute arose, the relevant provision specifying a commissioners court's power provided: Each commissioners court may: (1) establish public ferries whenever the public interest may require; (2) lay out and establish, change, discontinue, close, abandon, or vacate public roads and highways; (3) build bridges and keep them in repair; (4) appoint road overseers and apportion hands; (5) exercise general control over all roads, highways, ferries, and bridges in the counties.... Tex. Loc. Gov't Code § 81.028 (emphasis added). Because the Legislature did not define general control, we will use tools of statutory construction to determine its meaning. Cf. Cail v. Serv. Motors, Inc., 660 S.W.2d 814, 815 (Tex.1983) (If the disputed statute is clear and unambiguous extrinsic aids and rules of statutory construction are inappropriate.) (citation omitted). A fundamental rule of statutory construction is to ascertain and give effect to the Legislature's intent. State v. Terrell, 588 S.W.2d 784, 786 (Tex.1979); Imperial Irrigation Co. v. Jayne, 104 Tex. 395, 138 S.W. 575, 581 (1911). When general words (like general control) follow specific and particularized enumerations of powers (like establish public ferries and lay out and establish ... public roads), we treat the general words as limited and apply them only to the same kind or class of powers as those expressly mentioned. Stanford v. Butler, 142 Tex. 692, 181 S.W.2d 269, 272 (1944). We employ this rule to construe specific terms no more broadly than the Legislature intended. See id. Moreover, the meaning of particular words in a statute may be ascertained by reference to other words associated with them in the same statute. County of Harris v. Eaton, 573 S.W.2d 177, 179 (Tex.1978). Applying these canons of construction, we conclude that the Legislature's grant of general control over the roads does not include the power to petition a city to annex certain portions of a given county road. If, as Boerne contends, general control is read to include the power to petition for annexation, then there would have been no need for the Legislature to illustrate in subsections one through four the types of specific power a commissioners court may utilize pursuant to section 81.028. See Spence v. Fenchler, 107 Tex. 443, 180 S.W. 597, 601 (1915) (It is an elementary rule of construction that, when possible to do so, effect must be given to every sentence, clause, and word of a statute so that no part thereof be rendered superfluous or inoperative.). Because a commissioners court's power is limited to that which is expressly delegated to it by the Texas Constitution or Legislature, or necessarily implied to perform its duties, we will not read the Legislature's grant of general control to be more expansive than the type of powers set forth in section 81.028. State ex rel. City of Jasper v. Gulf States Utils. Co., 144 Tex. 184, 189 S.W.2d 693, 698 (1945) (limiting commissioners courts' powers to those expressly conferred or necessarily implied); Mo.-Kan.-Tex. Ry. Co. of Tex. v. Thomason, 280 S.W. 325, 327 (Tex.Civ.App.-Austin 1926, writ ref'd) (It has long been the rule of the courts to construe [exceptions to general rules] strictly.). Section 81.028, when construed as a whole, clearly contemplate[s] that the commissioners court of each county shall regard [public transportation] as a system, to be laid out, changed, repaired, improved, and maintained, as far as practical, as a whole to the best interest and welfare of all the people of the county. Canales, 214 S.W.2d at 454-55. Therefore, when we construe a commissioners court's express power under section 81.028, we focus on the statute's transportation and safety aspects. In so doing, we hold that the Legislature intended to limit a commissioners court's authority under section 81.028 to matters relating to public travel. See Tex. Loc. Gov't Code § 81.028. A commissioners court's actions are thus sanctioned under section 81.028 only if related to its duty to protect the public's interest in transportation. See Canales, 214 S.W.2d at 456-57. Unless the power to petition for annexation is necessary for a commissioners court to carry out that function, we will not imply that it has such power. See Gulf States Utils. Co., 189 S.W.2d at 698; Terrell v. Sparks, 104 Tex. 191, 135 S.W. 519, 521 (1911). Here, the power to petition for inclusion in a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction is neither expressly conferred nor necessarily implied to enable a commissioners court to perform its delegated duty to provide safe roads for public travel. Accordingly, we reject Boerne's broad construction of the phrase general control, and hold that a county's commissioners court is without authority to petition for annexation of its county roads under section 81.028.