Court Opinion

ID: 9770520
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:08:07.42012+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:18.016540
License: Public Domain

McCLOUD, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. Section 1 of Article 5536a clearly provides that the limitation statute applies to a “registered or licensed engineer or architect in this state.” The defendant, Forrest and Cotton, Inc., is a corporation and is not a “registered or licensed engineer.” When the Legislature enacted Article 5536a it was aware that under Article 3271a a corporation, under certain conditions, could engage in the practice of professional engineering, yet the Legislature did not include such corporations in Article 5536a. This court in Kemp v. Fidelity & Casualty Co. of New York, 504 S.W.2d 633 (Tex.Civ.App.—Eastland 1974, writ ref. n.r.e.) per curiam 512 S.W.2d 688 (Tex.1974) said:
“When interpreting legislative intent, we are bound by the clear language of the statute. Railroad Commission of Texas v. Miller, 434 S.W.2d 670 (Tex.Sup.1968). As stated in Simmons v. Arnim, 110 Tex. 309, 220 S.W. 66 (1920):
‘Courts must take statutes as they find them. More than that, they should be willing to take them as they find them. They should search out carefully the in-tendment of a statute, giving full effect to all of its terms. But they must find its intent in its language, and not elsewhere. They are not the lawmaking body. They are not responsible for omissions in legislation. They are responsible for a true and fair interpretation of the written law. It must be an interpretation which expresses only the will of the makers of the law, not forced nor strained, but simply such as the words of the law in their plain sense fairly sanction and will clearly sustain.’ ”
I would reverse and remand.