Missouri AG Opinions — 1968

Opinion letter to the Honorable W. T. Bollinger

Female employee of bank covered by maximum hours of female employment law.

The accounts of the county treasurer of a second class county upon his retirement cannot be singled out for audit under either Section 29.230, RSMo Supp. 1967, or Section 50.055, RSMo 1959. Such audit can be made only under Section 55.160, RSMo 1959. An independent certified public accountant cannot be hired to audit only the accounts of the county treasurer, but can be hired to audit all the accounts of the county at a maximum cost of five thousand dollars under Section 50.055.

An insurance agency originally licensed after January 1, 1968 is required to pay an annual license fee of $25 on or before July 1, 1968.

Banking institutions and savings and loan associations which charge fees for making loans or charge discount points for making loans from their own funds are not required to obtain a real estate license under the Missouri Real Estate License Law.

An instrument conveying or affecting real estate with photostatic land description taped or stapled thereto meeting requirements of Section 59.330 RSMo. Cum. Supp. 1967 and Section 442.380 RSMo. 1959 as to recordability shall be recorded.

The Superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol may issue private official inspection station permits to automobile dealers, municipalities and other governmental entities having one or more vehicles and/or trailers with a gross weight in excess of 6,000 . They meet the requirement of having the vehicles to be inspected registered in their names by virtue of qualifying for the registration exemption set out in Section 301.250, RSMo 1959.

Under Section 120.820, RSMo Supp. 1967, pertaining to political parties, Congressional District Committees must meet on "the last Tuesday in August after the primary election."

It is the opinion of this office that the intangible tax on Savings and Loan accounts is to be returned, less two per cent for collection, to the county treasury of the county in which the home office of the association is located. The taxes are to be distributed to the county and other political subdivisions in which the home office of the association is located in proportion to their respective local rates of levy.

Opinion letter to Honorable T. Jones, Jr.

Opinion letter to the Honorable James E. Spain

The question of establishment of a county health center may be submitted to the electorate on the day of the August primary election because such election is a “general election” within the meaning of Section 205.010, RSMo 1959.

Opinion letter to Mr. James Flanagan

Incidental differences such as differences in size, shape or color of labels, or differences in trade names or advertising emblems on labels, does not preclude registration of two or more economic poisons as a single product under Section 263.300, RSMo 1959, of the Economic Poisons Law when the writing on such labels is identical with respect to showing that the products have the same formula, are manufactured by the same person, the labeling of which contains the same claims and identifies the products as the same agricultural chemical.

1. The requirements of Section 178.810, RSMo Supp. 1967, relating to organization elections of junior college districts are met by giving notice by publication in any newspaper of general circulation in each county at the time and in the manner required by law. 2. The publisher’s affidavit of publication of notice of the election is sufficient if it conforms to the requirements of Section 493.060 RSMo. There is no requirement that this affidavit be produced except as may be necessary under the circumstances to provide “sufficient evidence of the publication.” 3. The recording by the State Board of Education of the copy of the order declaring the junior college district organized pursuant to Section 178.800, RSMo Supp. 1967, is sufficient to constitute notice to the county clerk and other county officials of the legal existence of the district.

It is not necessary for county clerks or boards of election commissioners to print a separate ballot when there is only one candidate filed on a nonpartisan or independent ticket in a primary election.

Employee who retires under union contract not eligible for unemployment compensation.

A tractor used for pulling a trailer or semi-trailer is not when being driven without the trailer or semi-trailer a truck and, therefore, does not come within the purview of Section 304.265, Mo. Supp., 1967, and is not required to have mud flaps for its rear wheels.

Opinion letter to the Honorable John P.

A declaration of candidacy which contains a misstatement of the office being sought may not be corrected or amended subsequent to the filing deadline of five p.m. on the last Tuesday in April preceding the primary election.

The approval of the county auditor is necessary before the county court of a second class county can order payment of a claim against the county out of the county treasury and issue a warrant for such payment, and the county court has the further power to determine whether such a claim shall be paid.

Property owned by a corporate unit of the Girl Scouts of America which is used regularly, completely and exclusively for charitable purposes, is exempt from taxation under the constitution and laws of the state.

A city of the fourth class may not charge an occupational tax on driver's license fees collected by agents of the Department of Revenue who are acting under the authority of Section 136.055, RSMo Cum. Supp. 1967.

An individual employed full time as a deputy sheriff of Buchanan County may serve as a member of the Municipal Excise Board for the City of St. Joseph.

An employee of a manufacturing company who regularly drives a company owned pick-up truck, with tools and instruments, with tool chests mounted in the bed of the pick-up truck for performance of his various tasks, and who also carries replacement parts in the back of the pick-up, who makes the rounds of the various machines which he must inspect and service at least once a week regularly drives a commercial motor vehicle of another, that he is acting as a chauffeur as defined in the third definition of Section 302.010 (1), RSMo Supp. 1967, and may be prosecuted for a misdemeanor if he so operates such vehicle without having a proper chauffeur's license.

The county court has the duty of paying the statutory fees as set out in Section 65.240, RSMo Supp. 1967, Section 65.245, RSMo 1959, and Section 261.070, RSMo 1959, to the township assessors and that the State Tax Commission has no authority to order the county court to withhold payments of such fees because the Tax Commission believes the property valuations of such assessors are too low.

In county of class three the county court may, on recommendation of the county clerk, transfer funds from the emergency fund to the road and bridge fund, but only for unforeseen emergencies and only on a unanimous vote of the county court.

Privately owned pickup truck used in responding to calls for emergency service by motorists of stalled or disabled vehicles, which truck has only standard equipment put on at factory, without equipment for hoisting or towing vehicles at roadside, is not a "wrecker" or "tow truck" within meaning of Section 304.022, Paragraph 3, Subparagraph 3, RSMo. 1959.

It is therefore the opinion of this office that: (a) After an operator of a freight-carrying motor vehicle claiming the exemption from Public Service Commission regulation provided by Section 390.030 (8), RSMo, is apprehended with a gross weight in excess of six thousand pounds, he may remove the excess weight and proceed without being in violation of Section 301.070, RSMo, for such continued travel. Although he is liable to prosecution for having operated an improperly licensed vehicle, the exemption of the vehicle under Section 390.030 is not lost by reason of an isolated instance of operating a freight-carrying motor vehicle with a gross weight of more than six thousand pounds. (b) The licensing and registration of a commercial motor vehicle may be changed from time to time to coincide with the use to which it is intended to be put. An owner having no further use for a license authorizing a gross weight of twelve thousand pounds may relinquish it and secure a license authorizing a gross weight not in excess of six thousand pounds.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Joe J. Taylor

Opinion letter to the Honorable Bob F. Griffin

The Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis may not lawfully transfer the jurisdiction, custody and operation of the jury assembly room in the Civil Courts Building in the City of St. Louis from the sheriff to the jury commissioner of said City.

The phrase and letters, “(Mr. Econ CDOSA )” cannot appear on the ballot because they are purely descriptive.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Bernard W. Gorman

Opinion letter to the Honorable Charles H. Dickey, Jr.

The prosecuting attorney of a third class county is required to represent a county board of education created under Section 162.111, RSMo Cum. Supp. 1967.

The City Charter of Kansas City, Missouri, cannot be amended by a vote of the people so as to authorize the imposition of a one per cent earnings tax by Kansas City without enabling legislation by the Missouri General Assembly.

The total amount of the monthly water bills paid by patrons of Public Water Supply District No. 2, of Barton County, are subject to the State Sales Tax.

"True name" as used in Section 375.012, subsection (2), RSMo Cum. Supp. 1967, means a person's actual and not fictitious name and includes a surname, a first name, and a middle name or initial.

General county revenue funds may be budgeted and expended for the purchase of road machinery, repair and upkeep of bridges other than on state highways and not in special road districts, and for the construction and maintenance of roads.

(1) The county is not obligated to pay the medical bills of an indigent defendant who sustains injury during the commission of a crime and is hospitalized for said injury; (2) The county court does have authority to make payment of hospital bills of indigent defendants, but the payment may not be taxed as costs in the criminal case; and (3) Hospital bills incurred by an indigent defendant during the commission of the crime may not be taxed as costs in the criminal case.

Opinion letter to Mr. Hubert Wheeler

1. The sections of the Revised Statutes of Missouri which govern the procedure to be used in the handling of nomination petitions of persons who seek election to the Board of Education of the City of St. Louis as independent candidates are Sections 120.180 through 120.220, RSMo 1959, as amended. 2. The petitions are to be filed with the Board of Education for the St. Louis City School District.

Oleomargarine made and manufactured from the ingredients, commodities or combinations thereof, named and set forth in Section 561.770, RSMo 1959, may be sold or offered for sale only when the containers or cartons thereof have printed thereon the word “oleomargarine.”

Fire protection districts may pension firemen on vote of people. Section 67.200, RSMo Supp. 1967, has no application to Section 321.220, RSMo Supp. 1967.

Opinion letter to Mr. Donald J. Gralike

Counties may expend funds to provide quarters for community action agencies operating under the federal Economic Opportunity Act.

The “one percent a month on unpaid balances” interest rate limitation as expressed in Section 370.300, RSMo 1959, is an exception to the general usury statute. The interest rate limitations of Section 408.030, RSMo 1959, and Section 408.100, RSMo 1959, do not apply to credit union loans and credit unions may legally charge up to “* * * one percent a month on unpaid balances; provided, however, that a minimum interest charge not exceeding twenty-five cents per month shall be allowable in all cases.”

The same individual cannot serve in the dual capacity of coroner and deputy sheriff because the two offices are incompatible.

The names of candidates in an election “in any six-director school district located wholly within a city having a population of more than two hundred thousand and less than seven hundred thousand” shall be listed on voting machines in the order that is prescribed by the appropriate board of election commissioners and that said board may use its discretion in determining what that order shall be.