The Attorney General of Texas
September 20, 1978
JOHN L. HILL
Attorney General
Honorable Henry Wade Opinion No. H-1246
District Attorney
6th Floor, Records Building Re: County law library branches.
Dallas, Texas 75202
Dear Mr. Wade:
You have asked if the DaJlas County Commissioners Court may
establish a branch of the Dallas County Law Library at a location within the
City of Dallas other than the courthouse complex where the main library
collection is housed. You also wish to know. if such branches may be
established withii the county at looations outside Dallas, the county seat; and
if county law library books might be loaned to other public libraries within
the county.
Article 1702h authorizes counties to provide for county law libraries
“which shall be established, maintained and operated at the county seat”
sec. 2.
In ordii usage %nmty seat” refers not to the courthouse, but to the
town where the courthouse is required to be established, public records are
kept, courts hold their sessions, and public officers are required to reside
and/or keep their offices. Pitts v. Camp County, 39 S.W.2d 608, 615 (Tex.
1930; Turner v. Tucker, 258 S.W. 149,151 (Tex. 1924); m 149 S.W.
810, 8R (Tex. Civ. App. - Amarillo 1912, no writ); Attorney General Gpmion
WW-254 (1957). The Dallas County Law Library, in our opinion, may be
established, operated and maintained anywhere within the City of Dallas so
long as it is “in a place convenient and accessible to the Judges and litigants
of such county.” V.T.C.S. art. 1702h, S 7.
We think the statute permits the commissioners court to establish
branches of the law library elsewhere in the county so long as such branches
are not in lieu of the county law library in the county seat.
In Attorney General Opinion G-3055 (1941) Attorney General Gerald
Mann considered the application of a statute that required the county free
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Honorable Henry Wade - Page 2 (H-1246)
library, established pursuant to article 1677, V.T.C.S., to be located at suitable
quarters within the county seat. In relating the statutory requirement to a proposal
that a county bookmobile be operated for use in a part of the county other than the
town serving as the county seat, the opinion concluded:
We do not think that the Commissioners’ Court of any
county has the authority to expend funds for establishing,
maintaining and operating a ‘bookmobile library’ in lieu of
the regular county library which is to be established at the
county seat. However, if the county has established, and is
maintaining and operating a county free library at the
county seat of such county, then we think the.
Commissioners’ Court is authorized to expend funds for
establishing, maintaining and operating a ‘bookmobile
library’ as a branch or subdivision thereof.
See also Dancv v. Davidson, 183 S.W.2d 195 (Tex. Civ. App. - San Antonio 1944, writ
-Attorney General Opinion O-6441 (1945). Cf. Attorney General Opinion O-
3890 (1941)(“bookmobile” not a permanent improvement).
In our opinion, this statute empowers the commissioners court to establish a
county law library for the benefit of judges and litigants of the county. When read
with other statutes, it is broad enough to embrace the maintenance of branches in
other locations within the county convenient and accessible to litigants, and to
allow the loan of its materials to other libraries servicing such litigants, so long as
a complete collection is maintained in a place at the county seat convenient and
accessible to the judges of the county as well as to litigants.
SUMMARY
A county may maintain branches of its law library in various
locations within the county for the convenience of litigants,
and may loan law library materials to other libraries
servicing such
. litigants, so long as a complete law library is
operated m a place at the county seat convenient and
accessible to the judges of the county as well as to litigants.
Attorney General of Texas
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Honorable Henry Wade - Page 3 (~-1246)
APPROVED:
DAVID M. KENDALL. First Assistant
Opinion Committee
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