Dr. T. 0. waltoll, President Opinion No. o-1376
Agricultural & Mechanical Re: Power to exchange equip-
College of Texas ment between the A. & M. Col-
College Station, Texas lege and the Prison Commission.
Dear Sir:
This will acknowledge receipt of your letter of
December 11, 1939 requesting an opinion from this depart-
ment upon the fol&wing case statement, to-wit:
"In making changes In the Textile Engineer-
ing Department of the College there is certain
equipment that the College has no further use
for and the Prison Commission has proposed to
give us in exchange for this equipment motors
that we need aud cafl use in our laboratories
at the College.
"The Statutes confer authority upon the Board
of Directors of the College to sell equipment that
belongs to the College, but when this question was
presented to the Board, of making an exchange, some
members of the Board felt that perhaps the Board
does not have legal authority to authorize the ex-
change.
llWill you please advise me whether it is wlth-
In the legal powers of the Board of Directors of
this College to make the exchange proposed by the
Prison Commission authorities?"
The equipment belonging to our various State insti-
tutions is, of course, State property, and may not be dis-
posed of by any one except by legislative authority.
We find no statutory authority for the exchange of
equipment suggested by you. The policy of the State with re-
spect to supplies, equipment and the like to our State insti-
tutions is evidenced by Article 634 of the Revised Civil
Statutes, which provides:
Dr. T. 0. Walton - page 2
“The Board of Control shall purchase all the
supplies used by each department of the States
government, Including the State Prison System,and
each eleemosynary institution normal school,
Agricultural & Mechanical College, University of
Texas and each and all other State schools or
depa.&ents of the State government heretofore or
.hereafter create&w
.: ,. Article 634 l/2 specially authorize6 the Board of
,.Coptrol to .bontract with the State Prison Board for the pur-
chase of certain supplies, equipment .and materials for use by
other State Institutions. k%.cle 660 authorizes an emergency
contract for necessary supplies or equipment.
.Obv1ously, these Articles declare the general policy,
but do not furnish any rule for guidance in respect to. the
present inquiry.
Article 665 declaresi
“The State Board of Control shall have charge
protect any public buildings against any existing
or threatened fire hazards.”
It is the ‘opinion of this department that this ArtZ-
cle would authorize the Board of Control to accept from any
State. department or Institution under Its control supplies .end
equipment no longer usable or needed for use by such department
or institution and to place the same in the hands of any other
-department or i nstitution having need of the same (at least
temporarily if not permanently) where such exchange is mutually
satisfactory to the two departments or institutions concerned,
as auact of conservation under the general power above confer-
red on the. Board. Such surrender or mutual surrender of equlp-
ment, and the further disposition thereof by the Board, would,
of course, by this method be made a matter of public record
Dr. T. 0. Walton - page 3
and the State proprietary rights would be adequately pre-
served within the spirit, If not the latter, of Article
665.
Very truly yours
JU!TORNFXGE%ERALOFTEXAS
By /s/ Ocle Speer
Ocle Speer, Assistant
APPROVED
DIG& 1939
/s/ Gerald c. Mann
ATTORREYGHVERALOFTJZXAS
APPROVED:OPINIONCOMMITTEE
BY: Rw, CHAIRMAN
OS:m:wb