No. V-0046 (1947).

• Court: Texas

Texas Attorney General Opinions 1947. No. V-0046 (1947). 1Jan. 30, 1947Hon. Arthur B. KnickerbockerAdjutant General of TexasAustin, TexasOpinion No. V-46Re: Appropriate agency to accept title to site for Texas National Guard Armories.Dear Sir:Reference is to your letter of January 2, 1947, concerning the following questions:

(a). "Is the Texas National Guard Armory Board the appropriate State agency to accept the fee simple of property destined to be the site of the armory of the National Guard Unit stationed at Kerens?"

(b). "If the answer to "(a)" above is in the negative, what agency of the State of Texas has the authority to accept title for the purposes described above."

The facts recited in your letter above referred to indicate that several public spirited citizens of the City of Kerens desire to donate a certain tract of land described therein as "20 acres of land out of the M. Autry Survey, Navarro County, Texas, as sold by W. E. Towle, et ux to E. H. Gray, G. M. Shatman and H. W. Hoffer, Trustees, on November 6, 1946" to be used as a site for a National Guard Armory for the Unit stationed at Kerens. While it is recognized by our courts that the State of Texas has the right and power to acquire and use property, in the absence of constitutional restriction, (Langdon v. State, Ct. of Cr. App., 117 S.W. (2d) 780; King v. Sheppard, 157 S. W. (2d) 682, writ of error ref.), it is our opinion that Article 5890b, Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes, is controlling of your question. This Act created the National Guard Armory Board, having been passed by the Forty-fourth Legislature, as Chapter 184, p. 462, Acts 1935; was amended by the Forty-fifth Legislature, Chapter 366, Acts of 1937, and later amended by Acts, 1939, 46th Legislature, page 487, Section 1. The provisions of this article applicable to your question No. 1 are quoted as follows: 2

"Sec. 2. The Board hereby created shall be and it is hereby constituted a body politic and corporate. It shall succeed to the ownership of all property of, and all lease and rental contracts entered into by, the Texas National Guard Armory Board that was created by prior statutes and all of the obligations contracted or assumed by the last mentioned Board with respect to any such property and contracts shall be the obligations of the Board created by this Act. With this exception, no

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