Texas Attorney General Opinion: WW-1123 Page: 2 of 3
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Honorable Walter E. Wilson, Page 2 (WW-1123)
such notice of assignment recorded in
the office of the County Clerk may be
entered on the record book in such
office in which the notice of assign-
ment is entered, as in the case of chat-
te mortgages, and for each such entry
the County Clerk shall receive a fee of
Twenty-five (250) Cents." (Emphasis
added)
The two4 questions presented can be resolved by a
proper construction and interpretation of the foregoing
Article. We construe the wording of the statute as not re-
quiring notices of assignment of account to be filed or in-
dexed in or with the chattel mortgage records of the county.
The case of Texas and Pacific Ry. Co. v. Railroad Commission
of Texas, 105 Tex. 386, l50 S.W. d7 (i1912), held that words
in common use, when used by the Legislature in a statute,
are to be understood as intended to express the sense in
which they are ordinarily used. Also Railroad Commission of
Texas v. Texas and N.. O Ry. Co., 197 S.W.2d 176 (Civ.App.
1946), held that words in common use when used in a statute
will be given their natural, ordinary and popular meaning.
Finally, the opinion of the Court in Holloway v. Texas Indem-
nity Ins. Co., 40 S.W.2d 75 (Com.App. 1931), stated that
courts in interpreting legislative acts must give words not
specifically defined their ordinary meaning. In view of the
legal principles set forth in these cases, it is our opinion
that the literal or plain meaning of the phrase, "as in the
case of chattel mortgages," as it appears in Section 5 of
Article 260-1, requires only that notices of assignment of
account be registered by employing the same method or practice
as in the case of chattel mortgages.
Section 5 of Article 260-1 also states that the
County Clerk shall preserve such notices "among" the chattel
mortgages in his office. Black's Law Dictionary, Fourth
Edition, defines the word "among" as "mingled with or in the
same group or class" (Emphasis added). It is our opinion
that this definition would not require notices of assignment
of account to be kept in the same file as chattel mortgages,
but only that they be preserved in the place where notices of
assignments are kept.
SUMMARY
A County Clerk is not required to file
notices of assignment of account in the
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: WW-1123, text, August 28, 1961; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth267736/m1/2/: accessed April 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.