Missouri Attorney General Opinions

Opinion letter to Mr. Robert L. James

A member of a school board of an urban district, who is elected secretary or treasurer of the board, is prohibited from receiving compensation for services as secretary or treasurer.

Opinion letter to Mr. Charles M. Kiefner

Opinion letter to Dr. Arthur L. Mallory

The Wainwright Building architectural design contest does not violate Section 38(a) of Article of the Missouri Constitution because the payment of prize money to the architects who submitted the winning designs for renovation and reconstruction of the Wainwright Building constituted a payment for services of the architects and not a gratuitous grant prohibited by the provisions of Section 38(a) of Article .

1. Juvenile officers who are paid in whole or in part out of state appropriations are entitled to membership and prior membership credit in the Missouri State Employees' Retirement System. Deputy juvenile officers are not entitled to membership or prior membership credit in the Missouri State Employees' Retirement System. 2. Such juvenile officers are entitled to membership in the Missouri State Employees' Retirement System on the full amount of their salaries.

Opinion letter to the Honorable A. J. Seier

The requirements of notice, publication and public hearing contained in Section 251.430, RSMo, do not apply to the withdrawal at the end of a fiscal year of a regional planning commission by a local unit of such regional planning commission when the commission has been in existence more than ninety days.

Opinion letter to Dr. Arthur L. Mallory

Opinion letter to Dr. Arthur L. Mallory

Opinion letter to the Honorable Garnett A. Kelly

Opinion letter to the Honorable Hardin C.

County assessors may receive additional compensation for the duties imposed on them under Sections 53.073 and 53.074 (Senate Bill No. 373, General Assembly, Second Regular Session) for the year 1974 but that such additional compensation is annual compensation payable only on a prorated basis from the effective date of the act, August 13, 1974, to the end of the year.

Ballot cards used in an electronic voting machine should be initialed by two judges of opposite politics. However, if ballots are cast which are not initialed by the election judges, such ballots are to be counted if otherwise in compliance with legal requirements.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Robert O. Snyder

(1) A person may be designated to serve as an election judge or clerk in a precinct in which he does not reside if the election authority cannot find sufficient qualified persons within the precinct to act as election officials, and (2) persons so selected can vote an absentee ballot if the precinct in which they serve as election judges or clerks is located outside the county where they are registered to vote but not otherwise.

With respect to petitions for the audits of political subdivisions by the state auditor under subsection 2 of Section 29.230, RSMo, that: (a) “qualified voter” as used in such subsection means registered voter; (b) petitioners must be registered as of the time of signing the petitions although the auditor may use the notarization date as the date to verify whether such signers are registered in the absence of any date on the petitions indicating the precise date of the signatures; (c) insufficient petitions may be supplemented by permission of the state auditor if the auditor believes that there is a reasonable expectation that sufficient signatures may be obtained within a reasonable time.

Opinion letter to the Honorable White

Opinion letter to the Honorable Vernon E. Bruckerhoff

Opinion letter to the Honorable Ed

Under the provisions of Senate Bill No. 348, Second Regular Session, General Assembly, which amends Section 311.095, RSMo, the Supervisor of Liquor Control cannot issue a retail by the drink liquor license to the lessee of the restaurant premises of a motel-restaurant combination and a separate retail by the drink license to the owner of the motel premises of a motel-restaurant combination.

Opinion letter to Mr. Robert L. James

Opinion letter to the Honorable Kenneth J. Rothman

Opinion letter to Mr. J. E. Riney

Children may not be excused from the compulsory school attendance requirements of Section 167.031 unless they are “mentally or physically incapacitated,” and Section 162.685(5), RSMo Supp. 1973, does not authorize the State Board of Education to adopt regulations permitting handicapped children to attend a public school special education program for less than a full school day and attend a nonpublic school for the remainder of the day, when the children in question are between the ages of seven and sixteen. However, handicapped children between the ages of seven and sixteen who have been excused from full-time attendance at public school because they are “mentally or physically incapacitated” may attend a nonpublic school for the remainder of the day if they wish. Children who are not between the ages of seven and sixteen may attend a public school special education program for less than a full school day because those children are not subject to the compulsory attendance law. Such children may attend a nonpublic school for the remainder of the day if they wish. State aid shall be paid on a pro rata basis for all special education students attending special education classes part-time regardless of age.

A city or county library district has authority to lease land for a library building. The leases may be for a term of years provided the current income and revenue and surplus from previous years on hand at the time the lease is executed are sufficient to provide for the payments called for by the lease.

A magistrate judge over the age of sixty-five who has served as a magistrate judge or as a justice of the peace in the state of Missouri for a period of time totaling an aggregate of twelve years and who after September 28, 1971 ceases to hold his office as magistrate judge by voluntary resignation is entitled to retirement pay equal to fifty percent of the compensation provided by law at the time of his retirement for the judges of the highest court the retired judge served as a full-time judge, to be paid monthly during the remainder of his life, said compensation to begin from the date of his resignation as magistrate judge.

Neither the Missouri Constitution nor the United States Constitution forbids the two-thirds majority needed for tax and bond elections under Article X, Section 11 (c) and Article VI, Section 26 (b) of the Missouri Constitution.

(1) Dentists are not authorized to conduct a complete physical evaluation of a patient and (2) dentists are not physicians within the meaning of Section 193.140 authorizing physicians to certify cause of death on a death certificate.

Opinion letter to Mr. William R. Kostman

Opinion letter to the Honorable Larry R. Marshall

Opinion letter to the Honorable William B. Waters

Opinion letter to the Honorable Donald L. Manford

Transactions characterized by the following are governed by the Retail Credit Sales Act: (1) the seller is a retail seller; (2) the buyer is a retail buyer; (3) the subject matter of the transaction consists of goods or services having a cash sale price of less than $7,500; and (4) payment therefor, whether lump sum or periodic, is deferred. If the transaction is effected pursuant to a retail charge agreement, no separate charge may be assessed by the merchant for the buyer’s failure to pay the amount due within the time stated; in that event, the delinquent amount becomes part of the unpaid balance subject to the permissible statutory monthly time charge. If the transaction is effected under a retail time contract and if the contract so provides, the merchant can assess a separate charge for the buyer’s default on an installment due within the permissible statutory limits. Finally, the Missouri usury law does not prohibit merchants from assessing a reasonable charge for handling dishonored checks tendered for payment of goods purchased, provided the purchaser has prior notice of the merchant’s policy. If, however, the check was tendered as payment of an amount due under a retail charge agreement or retail time contract, the amount or rate of such charge would be governed by the Retail Credit Sales Act.

Opinion letter to the Honorable James C. Kirkpatrick

Opinion letter to Mr. Edwin Pruitt , Jr.

Opinion letter to Harold P. , M.D.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Frank

Opinion letter to Mr. James L. Wilson

Opinion letter to Mr. James Wilson

Opinion letter to the Honorable James A. Noland , Jr.

Opinion letter to Mr. Jack K. Smith

Opinion letter to the Honorable James F. Conway

The positions of member of the Coordinating Board for Higher Education and board member of a Missouri Junior college district or trustee or regent of a state university are incompatible and one person may not hold both positions at the same time.

Opinion letter to the Honorable William Fickle

The judicial district committee of the Judicial Circuit of each political party shall be composed of the chairman and vice chairman of the county committees of Washington and Jefferson Counties and the chairman and vice chairman of the 122nd , 123rd and 124th legislative districts. The nominations may be made by the committee members holding such offices between August 13, 1974 and the third Tuesday in August 1974, and if not made by such committee members, may be made by the committee members elected the third Tuesday in August 1974.

The judicial district committees of the twentieth judicial circuit are composed of the chairman and vice chairman of the county committees of Franklin, Gasconade and Osage Counties and if there are parts of cities included in the twentieth judicial circuit, the ward committeemen and committeewomen from the wards in whole or in part in such parts of such cities are also included as members of the judicial district committee of the twentieth circuit.