Case Information
*1 August 10, 1939 Honorable F. E. Rightor, Secretary
Texas State Board of Registration for
Professional Engineers
P. 0. BOX 23
Austin, Texas
Dear Sir:
Opinion No. O-1019 Re: Construction of Reciprocity provision of Act Regulating the Practice of Professional Engineering.
This will acknowl.edge receipt of your letter of June 20, 1939, in which you submit for an opinion of this department, the que,stion therein contained. Thequestion submitted, based upon Senate Bill No. 74, Acts 1937, Regular Session of the 45th Legis- lature, page 816, Chapter 404, same being Article 327la, R. C. S.
of Texas, 1925, ie as follows:
'Would you kindly advise if, in your opinion, it is necessary that applicants for registration under Section 21, and particularly those who present a certi- ficate of qualification from the National Bureau of Engineering Registration, must comply also with the requirements of Section 13 that five references be
given, or, to ask the question in another way, Is the Board authorieed to pass to registration, under Sec- tion 21, applicants who present certificates of quall- fication from the National Bureau without other sup- ing." port
Section 13 of the Act reads as follows: "Applications for registration shall be on forms prescribed and furnished by the Board, shall contain statements made under oath, showing the applicant's education and a detailed summary of his technical
work, and shall contain not less than five (5) ref- erences, of whom three (3) or more shall be engineers having personal knowledge of his engineering experience.
Honorable F. E. Rightor, Page 2 (o-1019)
"The registration fee for professional engineers shall be Twenty-five ($25.00) Dollars, Fifteen ($15.00) Dollars of which shall accompany the application, the remaining Ten ($10.00) Dollars to be paid upon issuance of certificate. When a certificate of qualification issued by the National Bureau of Engineering Registra- tion is accepted as evidence of qualification, the total fee for registration as professional engineer shall be Ten ($10.00) Dollars." Section 21, known as the Reciprocity provision of the Act, provides that:
"The Board may, upon application therefor, and the payment of a fee of Ten ($10.00) Dollars, issue a certificate of registration as a professional en- gineer to any person who holds a certificate of quali- fication or registration issued to him by proper au- thority of the National Council of State Boards of Engineering Examiners, or of the National Bureau of Engineering Registration, or of any state or terri- tory or possession of the United States, or any country provided that the requirement6 for the reg- istration of professional engineers under which said certificate of qualification or registration was is- sued do not conflict with the provisions of this Act and are of a standard not lower than that specified in Section 12 of this Act."
The courts have had no occasion to pass upon your ques- tion. To answer it, therefore, we must read the whole Act, in the light of familiar rules of statutory construction, and de- termine therefrom whether the legislature intended to except per- sons making application under the Reciprocity provision of the Act,,Section 21, from filing an application meeting the require- ments of Section 13 of the Act.
There are other parts of the Act which aid in this re- spect. Section 10 of the Act reads as follows:
'The Board shall keep a record of its proceedings and register of all applications for registration, which register shall show (a) the name, age and resi- dence of each applicant; (b) the date of the applica- tion; (c) the place of business of such applicant; (d) his educational and other qualifications; (e) whether.or not an examination was required; (f) wheth- er the applicant was.~rejected; (g)'whether a certifi- cate of registration was ,granted; (h) the date of the *3 action of the'Board; and (I) such other information as may be deemed necessary,by the~Board.
"The records of the Board shall be available to the public at all times and shall be prima facie evi- dence of the proceedings of the Board set forth there- in;and a t&script thereof, duly certified by the Secretary of the Board under seal, shall be admissible 'In evidence with the same force and effect as if the original was produced."
Since the Act requires that the record be one of "all applications" received and that it contain ,certain specified-- formation, ,the logical conclusion is that the. legislature intended that every applicant, without exception,,~ffle an application con- taining that information. No tintion is made of application6 filed under Section 21. Had the legislature intended to make an excep- tion of the latter class, we think it would have .so stated.
'The legislature must have had some purpose in requiring that the record be "available to the public at all times." If an applicant under Section:21 were not required to furnish such information, then that purpose, whatever it was, would be defeated.
Under the general.requirements for registration, to which there Is no exception made in the Act, is included Section 12(o) which reads ,in part:
"Provided, that no person shall be eligible for registration as a professional engineer who is not of good character and reputation; . . ."
'The obvious'purpose~of the legislature in requiring letters of reference (see Section 13) was to enable the board to satisfy it- self as to the character and reputation of an applicant. The law contemplates that the applicant be of good moral character at the time he 16 registered. If an applicant under Section 21'were not required to submit references, as set out in Section 13, the board would have .no basis upon which to judge the character of the ap- plicant, as of the time of his registration.
The provisions of Section 13 itself, indicate that the legislature intended that all applications should contain the same information. The last sentence of Section 13 refers to the amount of the fee to be paid by an applicant under Section 21, whose certificate Issued by the National Bureau of Engineering, is ac- cepted as evidence of his qualification. It is to be observed that this sentence is a part of the very section which also pro- vides What shall be contained in an application. If the legislature
. . -. had intended that there be.a difference between the applications in the two instances, we must presume it would have said so. In- stead, It started Section 13 off with the word "applications", thus showing its intention that it be read "all applications".
For:the foregoing reasons, it is .our conclusion that an applicant for a certificate of registration 8s a,professional engineer in Texas, seeking registration under Section 21 of the Act,,nust fully comply with the.provisions of Section 13 of the Act.
It follows .that, in the opinion of this department, ap-
plicants for registration under Section 21 of the Act under dis- cussion must gives five references as required by Section 13, or to answer your question phrased in the alternative, the Board ia not authorized to pass .to registration such applicants without requiring complete fulfillment of the minimum requirements set out for applications in Section 13 of the Act.
Yours very truly ATIORREY GENEXULOFTFXAS By fsf James Noel James Noel Assistant JN:FL:I.M
, This opinion ha6 been considered in conference, approved
and ordered recorded.
/s/.Gerald C, Mann Gerald C,. Manu A’!3ORN?IX GENE3ALOFTEXAS