Court Opinion

ID: 9668304
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:09:10.107473+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:44.512632
License: Public Domain

WOMACK, J.,
concurring.
I join the judgment of the Court and, except for the paragraphs that contain footnotes 3 and 4, its opinion. Those paragraphs are unnecessary to the resolution of this case since, as the Court holds {ante at 279-280), the maxim of expressio unius est exclusio alterius does not apply to this case. And some of the language which those two paragraphs contain is at variance with the statement we recently made in Williams v. State, 965 S.W.2d 506, 507 (Tex.Cr.App.1998):
The expressio unius maxim has had widespread legal application, although it is not a rule of law and there is nothing peculiarly legal about it. Sutherland on Statutory Construction § 47.24 (5th ed.1992). It is a product of logic and common sense, expressing the learning of common experience that when people say one thing they do not mean something else. Ibid. The maxim acts merely as an aid to determine intent in statutes, contracts, wills, trusts, and other documents. Ibid. The maxim has been held to be inapplicable if there is some special reason for mentioning one thing and none for mentioning another. Id., § 47.23. En banc.