Missouri Attorney General Opinions

The Division of Mental Health has no authority to return license fees which accompany applications for the licensing of homes for the mentally retarded under H.C.S.H.B. No. 204, General Assembly, Second Regular Session, even though a license is denied. However, in those cases where it is patently clear that the applicant is not required to have a license under such laws and no inspection is necessary, the applicant's fee should not be deposited in general revenue but should be returned to him.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Downing

Opinion letter to Mr. Harold L. Fridkin

Senate Bill No. 123 of the General Assembly, enacting a new Section 306.260 relating to marine toilets on boats, is constitutional.

Interns and resident physicians of the University of Missouri Medical Center who provide medical services on an irregular basis without further compensation under the supervision and direction of the Medical Director of the Missouri Department of Corrections are "employees" or "agents" of the Missouri Department of Corrections as those terms are used in Section 105.710 (Senate Bill No. 428, General Assembly), and those interns and resident physicians are included for coverage under the Missouri Tort Defense Fund.

A county court of a fourth class county is authorized under Section 49.270, RSMo, to accept donations of real or personal property on the condition that such donations be used by the sheriff's office to perform general patrol duties throughout the county.

County local option registration under Chapter 114, RSMo, may begin at any time after the law becomes operative following publication of the adoption of local option registration and must begin by the fifteenth day of September following such adoption. Such registration must be concluded as soon as possible. Voter registration is required for elections covered by Chapter 114 after voter registration is concluded.

An indigent defendant is not entitled to have the cost of a mental examination under Section 552.020, RSMo Supp. 1971 or Section 552.030, RSMo 1969, by a physician "of his own choosing" taxed against the state. However, costs of mental examinations made by "independent" physicians appointed by the court pursuant to such sections are taxable against the state in cases which come under the provisions of Section 550.020, RSMo 1969.

Section 4 of House Bill No. 1280 prohibits a dairy farmer from selling raw milk to the general public from a distribution center set up by the dairy farmer and located away from his farm premises.

County planning and zoning under Sections 64.510 to 64.690, RSMo, adopted by the voters of Marion County, Missouri, on November 3, 1964, cannot be terminated by a vote of the people. A county court cannot abolish the county planning commission after it has been established nor can a county court repeal all planning and zoning ordinances and regulations.

1. Sections 194.120 through 194.180, RSMo 1969, do not require that the State Anatomical Board accept the body of an indigent patient who dies in the State Chest Hospital. 2. When the State Anatomical Board is unable or unwilling to accept such body, the county court of the proper county is required to reimburse the State Chest Hospital for reasonable expenses incurred in the burial of such body. 3. The proper county within the meaning of Section 205.630, RSMo 1969, is that county in which the patient dies.

Opinion letter to the Honorable James I. Spainhower

Opinion letter to the Honorable

Opinion letter to the Honorable Donald L. Manford

Opinion letter to the Honorable Earl L. Schlef

The clerk of the circuit court is not entitled to charge the $25 fee for each civil case instituted in circuit court in a probate case heard by the circuit court because of disqualification of the probate judge.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Cloy E. Whitney

Opinion letter to the Honorable Robert Fowler

The Division of Mental Health has authority under the provisions of House Committee Substitute for House Bill No. 204, General Assembly, Second Regular Session (Section 202.831) to use Division appropriations for the care of patients in their own homes or in the homes of relatives and that such homes are not required to be licensed under Section 2 of the Bill. The Division has no authority to make payments directly to patients for their care.

Opinion letter to Mr. Charles Shaffer

Opinion letter to the Honorable Ralph Uthlaut , Jr.

A person between his sixteenth and twenty-first birthdays has a right, to attend public school in the district of his residence on a part-time basis, and to take any course which he would be entitled to take were he a full-time student. This right may not be denied because the person also attends a private parochial school. A school district has a duty to accept such a student. A school district may make such reasonable rules and regulations governing part-time students as will preserve the discipline, health, and academic standards of the school, but these rules may not be such as to place an unreasonable burden on part-time attendance.

Opinion letter to Mr. Charles Valier

Opinion letter to the Honorable Albert Spradling

Opinion letter to Mr. Joseph Jaeger, Jr.

Opinion letter to Mr. Joseph Jaeger, Jr.

The board of education of a school district has authority under the provisions of subsection 1 of Section 168.106, RSMo 1969 and Section 171.011, RSMo 1969, to adopt a regulation requiring a permanent teacher to retire at sixty-five years of age.

The obligation to provide emergency planning coordination applies to all political subdivisions in Missouri, including constitutional charter cities. Insofar as Section 44.080 designates the executive officer of a political subdivision as the person responsible for civil defense planning, it is inapplicable to constitutional charter cities. Each charter city is entitled to designate the person responsible for supervision of its civil defense obligation. With regard to the city of Springfield, the terms of its Charter presently would appear to empower only the city manager to supervise or carry out these functions, but other provision could be made by amending the Charter.

The General Assembly has not as yet enacted any law prohibiting licensed physicians from prescribing contraceptive medications and devices to persons under the age of twenty-one who have not been emancipated by marriage or other means without obtaining the consent of such person's parents.

A child under the custody of the State Board of Training Schools who has been placed in his own home, a relative's home, a foster home or a group home is entitled to attend the public school district in which such home is located without payment of tuition.

A law calling for an election on the question of whether or not to hold a constitutional convention may be enacted by initiative.

A county of the first class with a charter form of government must comply with Section 50.800, RSMo 1969, relating to county financial statements, and may not modify the form and content of the county financial statement prescribed by that section; but such a county may designate appropriate officers or agencies to perform the duties which that section otherwise imposes on county courts.

School districts may not charge fee for summer or night school to residents under twenty-one; may make charges for damage to school property and for extracurricular activities; must provide band instruments if credit is given for band participation; must furnish gym shoes to indigents; must furnish materials for making products as part of classes; may withhold transcript from student if he fails to pay a legal fee imposed for misuse of school property.

Opinion letter to Herbert R. Domke , M.D.

Commissioners of the probate courts appointed under the provisions of Section 481.115, RSMo, applicable to probate courts of counties having more than 400,000 inhabitants are not entitled to receive any compensation under Sections 476.450, RSMo et seq., which provide for the appointment of retired judges and commissioners as special commissioners or referees.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Donald L. Manford

Opinion letter to Mr. Joseph Jaeger, Jr.

A taxpayer who has a fiscal period which includes any part of 1972 and a part of 1973 may determine his tax and taxable income pursuant to the provisions of Sections 143.011 to 143.996, Senate Bill No. 549, Second Regular Session, General Assembly, if he files an election to that effect with the Director of Revenue as provided in Section B of such Senate Bill.

If a rule of the circuit court requires a deposit to secure a fee of the circuit clerk in civil cases specified in Section 483.540 (H.C.S. S.B. No. 496, General Assembly, Second Regular Session) and the charge has accrued, fifty percent of the clerk's fee must be paid to the director of revenue each month and fifty percent to the county. If a rule of the court does not expressly allocate the deposit, the distribution of the clerk's fees is to be made after the liability for costs has been established and the costs collected in whole or in part. If, when liability has been established, accrued costs cannot be collected in full, charges not having any statutory priority or not allocated under court rule should be prorated.

Opinion letter to the Honorable William A. Peterson

Opinion letter to the Honorable Walter H. Mueller , Jr.

Under Section 1 of H.C.S.H.B. No. 204, General Assembly, Second Regular Session, the Division of Mental Health is required to adopt rules for all institutions accepting the mentally retarded including facilities operated by the Division itself. Homes and institutions which are licensed under the provisions of Chapter 198 as nursing homes by the Division of Health and which come within the provisions of Section 2 et seq., of H.C.S.H.B. No. 204 must also be licensed by the Division of Mental Health and must conform to the rules and regulations promulgated by the respective Divisions.

The magistrate courts, in the absence of express statutory authorization, do not have the authority to, by general rule applicable to all cases, require that a plaintiff make a deposit of $12 when a defendant in a civil case requests a jury trial.

For the calendar year 1970 the recorder of deeds in a third class county which has a separate office of recorder of deeds and circuit clerk was entitled to receive the first $4,750 in fees collected by his office as compensation and $1,000 from the county treasury and his deputies were compensated out of the general revenue fund of the county without regard to the fees received by the office of recorder of deeds.

The disclosure of assets procedure contemplated by Governor-elect Christopher S. Bond complies with the requirements of Section 105.460, RSMo, of the conflict of interest law, which permits filings disclosing substantial interests during each session of the General Assembly in lieu of separate filings of substantial personal or private interests by the Governor in any bill before passing on such bill.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Frank