Nov8nlbs* 7, @a
. .
Honorable Jesse James, page 2 (WW-1169)
irom oil, gas and other mineral estates . . .
whether held within this State, or without
the State ‘for a person or beneficiary whose
last known realdence’wae In thlrr State.1 Our
specific questions relative to t,hie section
are aa follows: “..
a; In view of 6he fact that we hold all
mds attributable to suspense Items in either
Tulra, Oklahoma, or’Loa Angeles, California,
we 8aaume that the words ‘whether held in thle
State’ have no applloatlon to UI and that the
worda ‘without ths State for a perlron or bene-
ficiary whose last known resldenc~e was in thie
State’ ‘are the pertinent words of the rrtatute
which would extend coverage to this company.
Are we correct?
b. ,We further areume that we will be
concerned only with surrpenee ltema where the
last known rerrldence of an owner 18 shown on
our records to be In the State of Texas and
tha&we will not be concerned with suapenae l-
temb’whdre the last known residence of an owner
la shown on our reoorde to be in a,State other
than Texaae. Are we correct?
c. As to this company, doe8 thlrr act ap-
ply to,proceedB from production OS 011 and gas
propertlea located both within and outside of
khe State of Texas or does the act apply eolely
to proceeds from production of 011 and gas pro-
perties located within the State of Texas?”
&r conrrtruction of Article 3272a In Attorney General’e
Opinion Noi WW-1180 (1961) Is determinative of the foregoing
queetions. lhere It was held, ln part, that under Article 3272a
keporta by holders of personal property to the State Treasurer
are to Include: (1) certain pereonal property held within this
State, regardless of the last known addreas of the person or be-
neficiary for whom the property 18 held, and that held without
the St&t8 for 8 person or beneficiary uhoee lant known address
wae In thle State; (2) mineral proceeds from counties o;utside
of Texas aa well as counties within this State;
Acaordlngly, queetions 1.a and 1.b are answered In the
afflrmatlvti ‘ind the’~atiLweF to queetlbn 1.c is that the situe
of the property from which mineral pi%ceeda are produced Is not
.
Honorable Je6se James, pege 3 (WW-1189)
a ia4tor upon which the appllcatlon of th4 act la made to de-
pend.
prom y4ur request we extract egaln:
*
“2. Section l(c) of Article 3272# pro-
. ._ i, vides 88 follows:
l(c) The term ‘subject to escheat’ shall
. include personal property presumed to be aub-
ject to eacheat by the prima faole conclusions
aontalned In Artlale 3272; Including all per-
eonal property (1) of which the existence and
where8bouts of the owner are unknown and have
3een unknown to the holder for more than seven
(7) years and (2) On which, from the knowledge
and records of the holder it appear8 that no
claim or act of ownership has been asserted OF
. exercised during the past seven (7) yeare and
(3) on which no will of the last known owner-
haa been recorded or probated In th4 county
where the property In situated within the past
seven (7) years.
Our questions relative to this section are as follows:
k k As t4 thla company, doee this section
cover suspense Items for which we do not know
‘the name of the owner or for which we have no
laat address or last place of,resldence of the
owner?
Does this section impose upon the hol-
id4r o~‘peraona1 property subject to errcheat
an affirmative duty to check the records oilthe,.
aounty where the propsrty la loorted In order
to determine whether any taxes have’been paid
on the property during th4 put seven (7) yeam?
c. Does this seation Mpoa4 upon the hol-
der of pereonal property subject to eschwt, an
afflrmatlve duty to check tha reaorda of the coun-
ty where the property Is located in order to de-
termine whether a will has been recorded or pro-
bated Within th4 lart leven (7) yeora?
.
d. If thlr aaction i4posss an affirmative
. .:,’ :
.
Honore+le ~Jeese James, page 4 (Ww-1189)
duty to check the county records either as
to payment of taxes or probating of a will,
Is this duty to,check the records in the
county where the personal property ( in
this case, money or proceeds from 011 and
gas runs) Is located (In this Instance,,
the location being either Tulsa, Oklahoma,
or,Los Angeles, Callfornla) or la the duty
to check the records fn the county where
the real estate from which the oil and gas
was produced 1s located?”
We turn our attention to question 2.8 above, conalder-
lng first the portion of the question relating to the sltua-
tlon where the out-of-state holder does hot know the last place
of residence of the owner of the property. Clearly, Article
3272a does not apply to the out-of-state holder who does not
rdw the state in which the owner of the property last resl-
Thle Is not because of Section l(c), but due to Section
l(bj, defining “personal property”. In our aforesaid Attor-
ney General’s Opinion, It was demonstrated that the obligation
on the out-of-state holder to make the reDort reaulred bv Ar-
ticle 3272a arises only where the property is heid “for i per-
son or beneficiary Whose last known residence was In this State”
Obviously, if the holder doe6 not have any Information as to
the reslhince OS the owner and la thereby~precluded from know-
ing whether the ownerts residence was In Texas, he Is under
no duty to report the property.
In answering the part of question 2.a which deals with
the situation where the holder doer not know the name of-the
owner, we look to Section l(c), defining the term “twbject to
escheat”, and more particularly, to the,,re lrement thereof
that the property be personal propert+ on which no will
of the last brown owner haa been reaordei In the
county where the property in situated within the past seven
(7) ye8ra.. ”
The lr8ue here is whether the Legislature intended In
Article 3272a to provide tor the ercheat of personal property
where the name 6S the owner Is ~un@om to the holder. It might
be argued from the portion of Section l(c) quoted above that
the Legislature centemplated only the escheat of personal pro-
* perty where there’18 a. “last known .ouner”. But, the quoted
language is but a part of the statute and it 1s cardinal rule
of rtatutory construction that a statute must be construed as
Honorable Je888 JBme8, page 5 (IN-1189)
,’
a whole, all .of Its parts being harmonized, if pos~sible, 80
as to glve effect to the evident Intention of the Legisla-
ture. 39 Tex.Jur. 209, Statutes, Sec. 113.
Therefore, we take note of the emergency clause of
Xouae Bill No. 5, which state8 In part:
. “The fact that the present laws pr~vldlng
for thi..protectlon of abandoned property, the
locat+m of unknown owners and missing heirs
. * l creates an emergency. .
. l
We obrerve 8160 that Section 2 of the etatute pro-
video In part:
'Vorm or Report"
“Sec. 2, The report ahall . . . lnolude
the PollowIng:
(a) The name, If known, anti last
known addreaa, If any, of each per-
#on appearing from the records of the
holder to be the owner of the propetity
reported; or the name and address, if
known, OS any person who may be entlt-
ed to euch ProPerty . . . ” (Bnpha8,ls
~auwli@d 1
Section 4(b) of the statute, relating to the judicial
detemPination of eacheat after reporte have been made and ad-
mlnlrtratlve~notlcee given, provides In part:
“The Attorney General 8hall Immediately
Institute an action , . . to judicially de-
termine that $uch property haa escheated to
the State. ” the 8worn petition shall
&ate , . . thi &es of the pernon or per-
bona clalmlng or last known to have claimed,
q& property, If any such names are known ..'
7 g&thaai* 6UPPl’ ied)
From the foregoing it seema clear to us that the Legls-
lature intended in Article 3272s to provide a method for the
escheat of certain abandoned personal property, regardless of
. .
Honorable Jesse James, page 6 (W-1189)
whether tha name of a person who has owned the property Is
imown to the holder. The one ClaSS Of property 18 as subject
to the “10s~ and dleslpatlon” referred to In the emergency
claure of the act as the other. The one Is ala0 as subject
to 8b8ndoment as the other. And, In any event, the plain
;L+nguale of the act ln the sections quoted above expressly re-
oognleee that the statute deals with property for which there
may be no known owner.
Therefore, construing the subject portion of Section
l(a) so aa to be In harmony with the manlfeet
the et8tute,it is to be viewed as reading:
rrfll of the &a& known owner, If an has been recorded or
pmbated Xn the oounty, where t Fi-9 e property,ls situated within
the put seven (7) yea%.” In other words, this portion of
. Section l(c) me@ne that if there is a last known owner of the
prope~ty,~acoording to the InformatIon of the holder, the pro-
subject to ercheat, be personal
of such owner has been recorded or
where the property is situ&ted within
If otherwise, there is no such re-
Qebtion PLb,ie uuweredln the negative. The eub-
joet etrtute~neither~ exprearly nor by lm9lioation
duty on the holdar. The plain language of Section
Artiolb 30728 raw-6 the holder to look to Its own knowledge
8nd reoordm in determining whether any claim or act of owner-
ship has been hrrerted or ex@rcired during the aeven year pe-
riod . The well-known rQlb!,ot expmseio unlur applies. That
18, the expreellon of one thing in a etrtuta Is exolueive of
another. 39 Tex.Jur. 188, Statutes, Sec. 100.
Question 2.c Is answered in the negative. Standing
,8lone, the third condition stated In Section l(c) of’the eta-
tute might’be suaceptable to the construction that It confers
on the holder the 8ftlrmatlve duty of a8certalnlng from the
relevant oounty records whether the property is 9araonal pro-
perty “on which no will 01 the.last known owner ha+been re-.
corded or prob8ted in the county where the proparty is altua-
ted within the 9art reven (7) Yeara.” Howler, w muat again
o the rea$nder of the statute to dotermina i$ 8uoh a
con
““r” truotion U oonel~tent with the legirlatlve purpose In
light of all of the language emgloped In the rtatute.
.Y
..
r !
Honorable,Jeeee Junee, Pas@ 7 (wyL1189)
geotion 2(t) o? the statute requirea the holder tb
verify hle report to the State Treasurer in the follow$ng
1angUge:
.
. “The foregoing report contains a full
ned for which
koym for more then seven (7) ye&r6 and on
which no olalm or act of owner%hip has been
eerted .or exercleed during the paet eeven
. t”7) +arr and on which no will of the last
known owner hae beti recorded or probatwl
la the Munty where the roparty ie situated
&thin the paet %even (7 P y%are. ” (IQephaeIe
ouwllad )
Thue, It Is seen that, In eneenoe, all the holder~has
to ewe&r to at the OOnOlu6iOn of the report 18 that he has
reported &l.l of the property held by the holder which appears
from hU knowledge and r%OOrdS to met the three rq&lrement%
of Seotlon l(0). Would It be re onable to &mm% that ,the
La i%latiare It&tended In Section “1t a) to plaoe an ~Slmatlve
du&y on the holder to search county reoorde to see if i cer-
tain cronditlon edete when the Lefiielature har in the eaem
statute requfmd the holder to verify only ,that he h&e report-
ed propert which lp p eerfrom
e his knowledge and records to
Let the~,_e&ed condltlon? We think not.
. It 1% a well .ee,ttled rule oi e@tutory $.nt%rpretation
that a oormtruotion whi%h ulll rrLe a etatute Unreasonable,
&bmuU er rid&aloue ii11 not be @lopted if the lMi#uage of
the enaOt~j%entI% oapable of any oth%r Manlng. 39 T%x.Jur.
a@, SktlUter, Sec. 118.
.
Alsoi the AmpositIon on the holder of ths duty to
eeamzh ootanty records to aeoerta$n if a will of the last
hlo*h mne+ hae been recorded or probated plaoee a oonelderable
~bumlen on the holder; and eepeoially eo In the oaae wh%re my
mqwate items are Involved. Unless requlrsd by unrmblguo~s
language, e conet~ctlon that will render 8n wt erbltrary or
.
gfreaeive Is to be avoided. 39 Tex.Jur. 221, Btatuter, Sec.
.
.
.
1
.:. ,
?
1 ‘,
Honor&ble Jesse, Jaaee, page 8 (W-1189)
It is, accordingly, our conclusion that the under-
:llneduords in the follo~lng quotation oi Section l(c) mo-
~ dlfy all that appears thereafter In such section.
“(c) The term Isub Ject to es&eat I
shall include personal property presumed
to be subject to eecheat by the prima
facie conclusions contained In Article
,. 3272, includl ng all personal property (1)
of which the existence and,whereabouto of
the owner a,re unknown and have been un-
knom to the holder for more than aeven
(7) years ,snd (2) on which, from the Jmow-
ledge and’ records, of the holder it apmara
%hat no claim or act of ownership”ha8 been
aanerted or exercised during the-past seven
and (3) On which no will of the
owner has been recoded or pm-
in the county where the pro erty Is
situated,urithin the Past seven (7 P yearn.”
,,
In view of our answer to queetlon 2.0 It become6
unneclaahP$ to consider question 2.4.
We.odvert again tb your regueclt;
“Seation 2(c) of Ax$lcle 32728 reada
8a follwa:
the case of mlaeral proceeds,
credits grouped as to, the
counties from which the credited’proaeeda
were derived, including credits which have
theretofore been charged off or disposed
of in any manner except by payment’to the
owner thereof; giving the name and tart
known address of the owner; the fractional
mineral interest of the owner; deroriptlon
and location of the land or leaky fro8 whhh
the oil, gas, or aineral ne produoed; the
name of,the perlon, firm or corpontlon nho
operated the 011 or gas well or mine; the
period of time during which such proasedl;
accumulated and the price for which such all,
gas, or tither mineral wee sold, e8ch euch
.
Honorable -Jesse Jamear page 9 (WW-1189)
~eeveral ownerahipe to be given an Identifying
number. The nature and Identifying number,
ii any, or derorlptlon of the property, and
the amount appearing from the records to be
due, exoe t that Items of value under Ten
DoUars ( 3 10) each may be reported In a&gre-
gate;.
The laat portion of this reotion begin-
nitq$ with the worde ‘the nature and identl-
l’ying number’ and alos~lng with the words Ire-
ported in aggregate’ doeknot 8eem to be oom-
plete and reasonably underetani%ble down to
that point. Can you alarlfy the meaning of
the last phrase for us?”
Taken in context, it ~appears that the,flnal phrase
in SieGtiOn 2 (a) 6pplies to the situation where the total
amount of mineral proceeds for any one owner Is leaa than
Ten Dollara ($10) In value. In such case the report may
group the &fWmatiOn relative to such property together
with other such items for other ownera under one identl-
Pylng number, statement of nature, and general description.
Youi? question number 4 follows:
“Section 2(d) of Article 3272a provides
that the report sha3.P show ‘the date when the
property became payable , . . t What does this
section mean as applied to ,prooeeds from 011
land $~a product?on where the accrued funds ao-
cumulate from month to month over a period of
aeven years?”
We have hitherto held that thir Seotion requirea a,
report a? the total amount ot’ money received for mlnerale
D6ld for each owner lleted in,the report... Attorney QeneIL
alra Opinion WW-1180 (1961).: ConDlDtent with that con-
struction, we are.of the opinion that the subject provision
ir satisfied by a statement aa to the date at which the’to-
$a1 amount of thq m$neral proceeds cqedited to, the owner be-
0-e pyable, although the sundry credits whlhichcompris6 the
total brcame payable at various times prior thereto.
Your request, ‘in conolurlon, detu.. forth numerous
faot rltuatlono to uhlch we are requested to apply ourabove
Honorable Jewe James, page 10 (WW-1169)
ruling6 . Xowever, these fact 6ltuatlons are no more’ than a
rertatement of what has already been considered In the fore-’
olng que0t10nm. Hence;lt becomes unnecessary to proceed
%arther in order~to anower your request.
SUMMARY
Under Article 3272a, V.C.S.: (1) It
Is the phrare “without the state for a
psruon or benef~lolarg whore laat knom
residenoe was in this State” ln Section
l.b whicrh oxtends cover-s of the statute
to out OS state holders of ersonal pro-
perty rubjeot to escheat; P 2) an out of
utato holder Im not required to report pro-
perty where the recordr of the holder show
that the lart known addrem ot the holder
In in. a atate other than l’eXaW (3) the
situr of the property from which mineral
proceeds are produced 1~ not a factor In
detemining the appllcabillty’of the rta-
tutej (4).the out of state holder who
doall not know of any residence of the own-
er of the property is not required to re-
port .ruah property; (5) Section 1.c does
not place an lfflrmatlve duty on the holder
to check the records where the property ia
lo,crted to determine whether any~ taxes
have beenpaid on the property during the
past Ieven yearr; (6) Section 1.c does not
place on the holder an affirmative duty to
cheek the records of the county where the
proeerty 18 loaated in order to determine
whether a will has been recorded or probated
within then past seven years; (7) the fact
that ths holder doer not know the name of
any ouner of the propert% does not prevent ,,
. the property from be# aubjeat to escheat
under Section 1.0; the final phrase or
eentence in Section 2.c lmlfee to the sltua-
tion uhere the total amount of mineral pro-
ceeds for any one owner Is lees than Ten
Dollar0 In value; and (9) the phrase “the
date when the property became payable” In
Seation 2.d means the date when the total
&mount reported .Por one ouniir beome Payi-
1Lls, although varioun componenta of the to-
w bee&me payable at YlrFiow t%awa pdos
thereto.
xours very tray,
Vim3on TeoZan
’.Oozdon Cus
uopgra WIsCfltt
3ahn Reqver
REVXWEDFORTHEAW!O~Q~
BY: Houfghtan Eiromlae, Jr.
\
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