Case Information
*1 GERALD C. MANN AURTXN XX. T&XAS Jr. Opinion No. O-2651 Rer Application
County Attorney Shackelford County law in Albany, Texas connect ion with Railroad Commission driver's license. Dear Sir:
We are in receipt of your letters of recent date requesting our opinion whether the owner of a cattle truck, registered far loads of 7,000 pounds, who has had a Railroad Commission permit which has expired, should now be prose- cuted for operating a motor vehicle without having obtained license.
Reference is herein made to several statutory en- actments passed by the Legislature and effective since last codification of our laws. Therefore, for the sake of brevity and clarity, the various statutes from wtiich we quote are numbered as shown in Vernon’s Annotated Texas Statutes.
Article 6687a, Civil Statutes~, in paragraph (.g) ae- fines a chauffeur:
” (g) Chauffeur. Any person who operates a motor vehicle for any purpose, whole or part time, agent, or independent &on- tractor, whether paid in salary or commission; every person who operates a motor vehicle while is in use for hire or lease.”
Section 2 of said Article 6687a provides that no person shall drive any motor vehicle upon a highway in this state unless such person has been licensed either as an oper-~ “except those expressly exempt ,under this ator or chauffeur, act .I’
Section 3. of the same article provides a number of exceptions, and paragraph (c) reads as follows:
l’(c) Drivers under, the of the Railroad Commission of Texas who are required to have a driver’s issued by that department, shall *2 (O-2651) not be required to secure a chauffeur’s or oper- ator’s under the terms of this Act for of such vehicles, but such persons shall be amenable to the other provisions of this law Incident to the cancellation of chauf- feur’s or operator’s licenses.”
The Texas Motor Carrier Act, Article 911b, requires certain motor carriers operated for compensation or hire and the motor carrier must procure comply with its provisions, either a certificate of convenience and necessity, if a ccmmon or a permit, if a contract carrier, from the Raflroad carrier Commiss I on of Texas. The term “‘motor carrfer” is defined paragraph (g) of Section 1 of Article 911b, as follcws:
“(g) The term ‘motor carrier means any person, firm, corporation, company, co-partnership, associa- tion or joint stock association, and their lessees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatso- ever, owning, controlling, managing, operating or causing to be operated any motor propelled vehicle used in transporting property for compensation hire over any public highway in this state, where the course of such transportation a highway between two or more incorporated cities, towns or villages is traversed; provided that the term ‘motor earrierl as used in this Act shall not include, and this act shall not apply to motor vehicles operated exclusively the incorporated limits of cities or towns.”
Paragraph (b), Section 4 of Article 911b, requires the driver’s referred to in paragraph (c) of Sectfon 3 of Article 6687a, supra. We quoter
l’(b) The Commission is hereby vested with power and authority and it is hereby made its duty to re- quire that each driver of a motor propelled own- ed or operated by a motor carrier under the provisions of this Act shall have a driver’s license, cense shall be issued by the Commission pursuant to an examination testing the ability and fitness applicant and under such rules and regulations as the commission may prescribe; that every drLver aforesaid shall acquire a driver’s license within thirty (30) days after this Act takes effect and shall annually thereafter on or before the anniversary of the date of the original acquire a renewal Such license issued shall be for a term of The commission Is empowered further to issue one year. *3 _ .- -
Hon. Thomas L. Blanton, Jr., page 3 (C-2651)
temporary licenses, in case of emergency, for such term as the commission may deem ex edient; such term shall not exceed ten (10 P days and there shall be no right or privilege of renewal The Commission is hereby authorized to collect a fee of One Dollar ($l*OO) for each annual license fee or renewal. The Commission may suspend or revoke any such license for cause after notice and public hear- It shall be unlawful for any motor carrier to Qx* operate a motor propelled in this state un- less is operated by a driver holding an unrevoked and uncanceled issued by the Com- mission.11 In order to answer your question is necessary that (c) of Section 3 of Arti-
we construe the meaning of paragraph cle 6687a, supra, in the light of the other statutes involved and which we have set out herein. It will be noted the exemp- :ion applies to drdvers operating
ylder .lurlsdiction of tb Railroad Commission” etc.
Obviously, the fact that a vehicle had been operated under a Railroad Commission permit would not justify, itself, the conclusion that it should continue to be used as a motor carrier. Before the driver% of the commission could be required, the vehicle must be owned or operated by a motor carrier. (Paragraph (b) of Section 4, Article 911b, su- If we assume, as Intimated in your letters that the ve- pra. > hicle is being operated, in violation of the Motor Carrier Act, although it should, under the facts, be operated in compliance therewith, and the driver thereof fails and refuses to obtain a Railroad Commission driver’s should he be entitled (c) of Section 3, claim the exemption provided by paragraph Article 6687a? Unless the driver Is operating the vehicle as a motor carrier, clearly he would not be entitled to the exemp- tion; and if on the contrary he is operating the motor vehicle agent or independent contractor, if the vehicle is In use for hire or lease,
cense is required. n of th e
We think the phrase QDder the iurisdicti II in the statute under consideration ad- Railroad CB mlts of the construction that includes only those peGsons commercial motor vehicles in conformity with the laws The phrase authorizing the commission to assume jurisdiction. “under and by virtue of” has been held to mean “by or through of. I’ The word %nder’ has the same signification. is also defined ‘Iin subordination to,“’ and “in accordance or conformity with.” See Cent.Dict., Webster’s New Int. Diet., v. Wills, 89 Tex. 162, 34 S.W. 93* Bassett *4 (0-2651)
As to the meaning of “jurisdiction” we quote from Corpus Juris (35 C.J. 426)s
“Jurisdiction, derived from ‘Jus dicere’ ljus aiO0,' is a term in general use9 of compre- hensive and large import. The term has differ- ent meanings, dependent upon the connection it Is found and the subject matter to which is directed. But it is often used without any determinate signification. It is generally defined as the authority or power which a man has to do justice in causes of complaint brought before him; the power and authority to declare the law. As applied to a sovereign, either state or nation, jurisdiction signifies
to make, declare, and execute laws; the right to apply the law to acts of persons. Jurisdic- tion always emanates directly and immediately from the law; is a Power which nobody uponwbom law has not conferred it can exercise0 I
See also Withers v. Patterson, 27 Tex. 491, 86 Am. D. 643; Commonwealth v. Breakwater Co., 214 Mass. 10, 100 N&i. 1034.
Under the foregoing authorities, question is not “under the of the Railroad Commis- sion” :although same may be “subject to” its jurisdiction.
is, therefore, our opinion that the exemption set up in para- graph (4 9 Section 3 of Article 6687a is not applicable prosecution will lie under the facts submitted by you, for fail- ure to comply with the chauffeur’s law.
Your first letter gave us the impression that your question was whether a person should be required to obtain a license where he used his own truck to haul prop- erty owned by him, Such question was fully answered in the opinion heretofore sent to you.
Yours very truly APPROVED AUG 30, 1940 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS /s/ Grover Sellers By /s/ Benjamin Woodal. FIRST ASSISTANT ATTORNEY Benjamin Woodall, Assistant GENERAL
APPROVED: OPINION COMMITTEE
BY: BWB, CHAIRMAN
BWr ob sub