Texas Attorney General Opinion: C-289 Page: 4 of 6
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Honorable Robert S. Calvert, Page 4 (Opinion No. C-289 )
Article 7134, Chapter 5, Title 122, Taxation, Vernon's Civil
Statutes. The provisions of Article 14.20 are identical
with the provisions of Article 7134.
We think that our conclusion that Articles 1.04 and
14.20 are clearly reconcilable is justified for the reasons
we have previously stated. However, if the two articles be
deemed ambiguous, there is further support for our conclusion
in that it is consistent with the well recognized rule of
statutory construction that statutes relating to the same
subject matter will be harmonized and reconciled whenever
possible to avoid irreconcilable conflict, 53 Tex.Jur.2d
243, Statutes, Section 164, and authorities cited therein.
Moreover, you have advised us that it has been the adminis-
trative practice of the Comptroller's Department that ever
since the original enactment of Article 14.20, which, we
reiterate, has remained in the identical form of its original
enactment in 1923, Acts 1923, 38th Leg. 2nd C.S. p. 63 ch. 29
Sec. 18, to advise the County Attorney or in the event there
is no County Attorney, the District Attorney, of inheritance
taxes which have not been paid within nine months from the
date of assessment, and that, throughout the years, the
County or District Attorneys, as the case may be, have filed
suits to foreclose the inheritance tax liens as other tax
liens are foreclosed. It is, of course, well settled that
the departmental construction of an ambiguous statute by the
official charged with the administration and enforcement
thereof is entitled to great weight and will not be departed
from unless clearly wrong. 53 Tex.Jur.2d 259, Statutes, 177.
Even if Articles 1.04 and 14.20 were viewed as being
in irreconcilable conflict, the provisions of Article 14.20
are still necessarily controlling. We quote the following
excerpt from 53 Tex.Jur.2d 233, Statutes, 1 161:
"In case of conflict between a
general provision and a special
provision dealing with the same
subject, the former is controlled
or limited by the latter, since a
specific statute more clearly evi-
dences the intention of the legis-
lature than a general one; and this
is so whether the provisions in
question are contained in the same
act or in different enactments."-1384-
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: C-289, text, July 31, 1964; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth268708/m1/4/: accessed July 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.