The opinion
Hon. Paul H. Brown
Fire Insurance Commissioner
Board of Insurance Commissioners
815 Brazos
Austin, Texas Opinion No. V-1425
Re: Number of persons for whom
travel expense funds have
been appropriated to attend
out-of-State meetings of
the National Association of
Dear Sir: Insurance Commissioners.
You have requested the opinion of this of-
fice on the question of the legality of paying the
expenses of more than three persons from current ap-
propriations to the Insurance Department incurred
while attending out-of-State meetings of the National
Association of Insurance Commissioners.
The Insurance Department has several travel
;;ppszhap roprlations (H.B. 426 Acts 52nd Leg., R.S.
h . [99$ p. 1228, at p. 1360 et seq.). The prob-
lem or decis on when personnel of the Insurance De-
partment are traveling out of the State is the appllcabib
ity of the following general limitation on oti+of-State
travel:
“d. No traveling expenses shall be
incurred by any employee of any of the
departments, or other agencies of the gov-
ernment, outside of the boundaries of the
State of Texas, except for State business
and no such expenses shall be paid from
State appropriations or out of any local
or auxiliary funds by the State Comptrol-
ler to an employee of any agency of the
government until and unless a written
statement, signed by the Attorney General,
advising that the purpose of the proposed
trip in his opinion, is for said Eiia;e
business purposes; . . . J.n no e n
shall more than three (31 oersons from any
.--
Hon. Paul H. Brown, page 2 (V-1425)
m (1) deoartment be aon o ed for
travel to anv one (1) conie&ion or
meeting of a similar nature.” Sec.
Art. III, H.B. 426, supra, at
;: ‘11"36. (Emphasis added.)
You state that the objects of the Associa-
tion, and of their meetings, are:
n n 0 e to promote uniformity in
legislation affecting insurance; to
encourage uniformity In departmental
rulings under the insurance laws of
the several states; to disseminate in-
formation of.value to insurance super-
visory officials in the performance of
their duties and to establish ways and
means of fully protecting the inter-
ests of insurance policyholders of the
various states, territories and insular
possessions of the United States.”
We assume, of course, that the proposed at-
tendance of meetings of the National Association of
Insurance Commissioners is in furtherance of State
business. Therefore, the problem is limited to &etk
this is a “convention or meeting of a similar nature.”
If it is, the Legislature has appropriated travel ex-
pense money for only three persons. Att’y Gen. Op.
v-1376 (192).
The meetings you propose to attend are not
“conventions” under the decisions of this office. It
has been repeatedly held that the word llconvention’l
as used by the Legislature in like appropriation bill
limitation provisions refers to “a meeting of members
or delegates of a private organization, party, club,
society, or the like, for the accomplishment of some
common object .‘I Attly Gen. Ops. O-1737 (1939) and O-
2664 (1940). Following the above decisions of this
office holding 19meetlngs called by agencies of govern-
ment for the purpose of accompli hing the functions
of government imposed upon them”9 not to be “conven-
tions,” attendance of a meeting of the National Asso-
ciation of Insurance Commissioners is not attendance
of a “converition.n
JJ Opinion O-1737 (1939)
Hon. Paul H. Brown, page 3 (V-1425)
Thus, the question is narrowed to a deter-
mination of whether the meeting in question is a
llmeetlng of a similar nature.”
These words standing alone are not free
from ambiguity, but it is obvious that the Legisla-
ture intended the words “meeting of a similar nature”
~to enlarge the restriction which would have been im-
posed if only the single word “convention” had been
used. It seems apparent that the Legislature sought
expressly to embrace at least those meetings which
might themselves have been considered to be “conven-
ition were it not for the prior decisions of this
office above cited. In other words, we believe the
legislative intent In adding this phrase was to em-
brace meetings of organizations, whether adjuncts of
governmental agencies or not, which are conducted in
the form, manner, and method ascribed to %onventions”
in common parlance.
Webster’s New International Dictionary (2nd
Ed. 1938) defines “similar” as follows:
“1 . Nearly corresponding; resembling
in many respects j somewhat like, having a
general likeness.”
In 39 Words and Phrases (Perm. Ed.) 302-306,
several cases are cited construing the word U1similar’8
appearing in contracts, wills, ordinances, and stat-
utes, the general tenor of which is to accord the com-
monly accepted meaning to the term as distinguished
from the term “identical.” These cases point out that
unless the context indicates a more restricted meaning
of the word “similar,” the generally accepted meaning
as commonly used is the one that should be adopted.
The context here requires, as has been pointed
out above, that ~~conventions” and “meetings of a similar
nature” be held not to be identical. Therefore, we are
of the opinion that this added phrase was intended at
least to cover formal meetings of organized groups that
meet only for discussion, exchange of ideas, and dissem-
ination of information. We cannot attempt to lay down
a categorical definition as to what are “meetings of a
similar nature ,‘I since we cannot foresee every character
of gathering which may be brought into question and we
cannot know what fact situation may be presented in the
future. We are of the opinion, however, that meetings
_ -
Hon. Paul H. Brown, page 4 (v-1425)
of the National Association of Insurance Commission-
ers are within the restriction, and travel expenses
are appropriated for the travel of a maximumof
three persons from the Insurance Department to any
one of such meetings.
SUMMARY
Meetings of the National Association
of Insurance Commissioners are not conven-
tions .within the restrictions limiting
out-of-State travel expense appropriations
to three persons from one department to a
"convention or meeting of a similar nature"
(Sec. 12(d), Art. III, H.B, 426 Acts 52nd
Leg e R-S. 1951 ch. 499, p. 1238, at pO
1436j, but they'are "meetings of a similar
nature'"j and there is a travel expense ap-
propriation for a maximum of three persons
from the Insurance Department to any of
such meetings.
APPROVED: Yours very truly,
C. K. Richards PRICE D,ANIEL
Trial GcAppellate Division Attorney General
E. Jacobson
Reviewing Assistant
Charles D. Mathews I- $eho~
By$k$+?‘
First Assistant A sistant
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