Your "Can the commlssioners'.court gives an in- surance agent a part of the county's

business when the mother of one. of the commis- sioners is the agent's sister?" has been received by this department. 432, Penal Code of Texas, reads as follows:

"Nepotism. No officer of this state or any officer of any district, county, city, precinct, school district or other municipal subdivision this ,state, or any officer ofmember ,any state, district, county, city, school district .or other 'or judge of any court, created municipal board, by or under authority of any general or special law of this state, or anymember of the Legislature, shall appoint, or vote for, or conf~irm the appoint- ment to any office, position,, clerkship,

or duty, of any person,relating within the second degree by affinity or within the third degree by consanguinity to the person so appointing or so voting, or to any other member of any such board, or court of which such person so the Legislature, appointing or voting may be a member, when the salary, fees, or compensation of such appointee is to be paid for, directly or indirectly, out of or from public funds or fees of office of any kind or character whatsoever."

On May 7, 1914, this department heid, in an opinion written by Hon. C. W. Taylor, Assistant Attorney General of Texas, it would not be a law for a sister judge, who is an insurance agent, to We quote from said the county. opinion as follows:

, P-3 Hon. E. A. Sutton, page 2 (O-961)

“The department is In receipt of your communl- cation of recent date, la which you propound the ‘question of whether or rr0.t ‘it would be a violation law, on the part of the county judge, for an agent of an insurance company, who is a sister of the county judge, renew a policy that was written before the said county judge was installed into off ice. Replying to your inquiry, we beg to advise in our opinion such a trans- action could not be held to be a violation of 381, known as the anti-nepotism statute for the reason that under this phase of the statute there must have been an appointment to some em- plogment or duty that the clerk so employed should ‘perform on the part of or on behalf of the ~county, to be paid therefor by funds of the county. An insurance agent, In the ordinary transaction the insurance business, does not become the agent of the Insured, but remains the agent of the corn- pang represented by him or her. Of course, there are fransactioas.between’ the insured and the agent of the company whereby the agent of the cqqang may become the agent of the -Insured, but this statute -azFfses, for illustration, where the com- pany represented by the agent for reason declines the risk offered when the agent agrees with the insured to procure insurance from a company not represented by the agent. Under such a state of facts, the insurance agent becomes the agent of the insured and a transaction of this kind, In our.

opinion, would be prohibited by the anti-nepotism law. In a case, however, where the

agent writes a policy the county in a company represented by the agent, then the agent is repre- senting the company and is in no sense the agent of the county nor is the agent .performing any duty or accepting from the county, but is simply representing the company as its agent. The fact that the. policy in quest ion Is a renewal, would. not, in our opinion, If the original transaction was a of the law, cause a different construc- tion, for the reason that a renewal of an Insurance policy Is a separate and distinct transaction, a new policy being written and a new premium paid; nor would the fact that the law fixes the premium cause the rule to be different.. . . . . . . . . You are, in our It would not therefore, be a violation law for a sister

judge, who is an agent of an Insurance company, to for the county.” *3 Hon. E. A. Sutton, page 3 (O-961)

You are therefore respectfully it Is the of this department it would not be a violation the nepotism law for the commissioners' give an lnsur- court ante agent a part of the county's Insurance business when the mother of one of the commissioners Is the agent's sister.

Trusting that the foregojng answers your inquiry, we are

Very truly yours, ATTORREY GENERAL OF TEXAS By /s/ Wm. J. Fanning Wm. J. Fanning Assistant WJF:AW:hp

APPROVED APPROVED Opinion

Committee By RWF /s/ Gerald C. Mann Chairman ATTORNEY GEEERAL OF TEXAS