Honorable Homer Garrison, Jr.,
Director
Department of Public Safety
Camp Mabry
Austin, Texas
Dear Sir: Opinion No. O-3560
Re: Will a farmer raising
his farm produce and hauling
the produce to market be
classified as a commercial
operator or an operator under
House Bill 20, Acts 47th
Legislature, 1941?
We are in receipt of your letter of July 9, 1941, in which you
request the opinion of this department on the question set out
therein as follows:
“Under House Bill 20, Article I, Section 1, Paragraph (n) the
definition of a Commercial Operator is:
“IEvery person who is the driver of a motor vehicle designed or
used for the transportation of property, including all vehicles
used for deli,very purposes, while said ,vehicle ia being used
for commercial or delivery purposes.’
“I would appreciate an opinion as to whether or not a person who
is a farmer raising his farm produce and hauling the produce
to market will be classified as a commercial operator or an
operator. For example: A farmer raising watermelons who hauls
his truck load of watermelons to the market.”
House Bill No. 20, Acts of the Forty-seventh Legislature, 1941,
is the new Driver’s License Law anl the definition you quote of
a commercial operator is set out in paragraph (n) of Section 1
of Article I.
We call your attention to the marked similarity between the
definition of a commercial operator as defined above and the
definition of a commercial motor vehicle as defined in the Motor
Vehicle Registration Law, namely, Article 6675a-l(i) of Vernon’s
Honorable Homer Garrison, Jr., Director, page 2, O-3560
Annotated Civil Statutes. The latter definition reads as
follows:
“1 Commercial motor vehicle 1 means any motor vehicle other
than a motor cycle designed or used for the transportation of
property, including every vehicle ,used for delivery purposes.”
Apparently the Forty-third Legislature considered a farmer who
hauls his own produce to market as an operator of a commercial
motor vehicle because said Legislature passed Section 6a of
Article 6675a of Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, which pro-
vides in part as follows:
“When a commercial motor vehicle sought to be registered and
used by the owner thereof only in the transportation of his
own poultry, dairy, livestock, and farm products to market, or
to other points for sale or processing, or the transportation
ty the owner thereof of laborers from their place of residence,
and materials, tools, equipment and supplies, without charge,
from the place of purchase or storage, to his own farm or ranch,
exclusively for his own use or use on such farm the registra-
tion license fee, for the weight classifications herein mentioned,
shall be fifty per cent (50%) of the registration fee prescribed
for weight classifications in Section b(art. 667f;a-6), of the
Act hereby amended; . . .’ (Underlining ours)
Apparently the Legislature in defining a commercial operator,
which would of course be an individual operating a commercial
motor ,vehicle, had in mind a definition similar to that used
in the Motor Vehicle Registration Law. The definition of the
term “commercial operator ” in House Bill No. 20 contains no
specific exemption of a farmer who is hauling his own produce
to market. It is the opinion of this department therefore that
such farmer would be included within the legislative definition
of a commercial operator set out in said House Bill 20, Article
I, Section 1, paragraph (n).
Very truly yours
ATTORNEYGENERALOF TEXAS
s/ Billy Goldberg
APPROVED JULY 22, 1941 BY
s/ Grover Sellers Billy Goldberg
FIRST ASSISTANT Assistant
ATTORNEYGENERAL
BG: lh/cge
APPROVEDOPINION COMMITTEE
By BWB, Chairman