Missouri Attorney General Opinions

Circuit clerk recorder in third class county not required under Section 137.117 to notify county assessor of court decrees in quiet title suits.

Contract for seal coating state highways with asphalt not subject to Prevailing Wage Law. Contract for application of layer of asphalt and aggregate three-eighths of inch thick subject to Prevailing Wage Law.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Dan Bollow

A city and a county can jointly erect a common jail. A county can house city prisoners and charge the city therefor. The governing body of a county or the sheriff can contract with a town to use the town's jail.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Carl D. Gum

Opinion letter to the Honorable Frank L. Mickelson

The intent of the legislature expressed in Section 380.490, RSMo 1959, is to limit the sale of fire and lightning insurance by Farmers’ Mutual Companies to “. . . . counties in which they are organized, and in adjoining counties and in counties of which a county line of said county is not more than one mile distant from the county line in which said mutual insurance company is organized.” A Farmers Mutual selling fire and lightning insurance in any other county violates such law.

Certification of Application by Missouri State Board of Education for federal grant under Title V, Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, PL 89-10.

Opinion letter to Mr. Joseph M. Rowley

Certification of State Application for Participation in Title Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 as amended by PL 90-247 grants for supplementary education centers and services.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Richard J. Blanck

Opinion letter to the Honorable Clifford A. Falzone

In the absence of a county health commissioner, the county court has no power to prepare regulations with regard to dog control for protection against rabies.

Opinion letter to the Missouri State Board of Accountancy

The order of commitment of a delinquent juvenile must be made in accordance with jurisdiction conferred by the legislature. Such an order seeking to limit the period of commitment to the time when the child committed reaches eighteen years of age is invalid and cannot be applied because the controlling statutes require that all such commitments be for an indeterminate period.

Opinion letter to the Honorable R. D. “Pete” Rodgers

The county court is not authorized to increase the salaries of county officers on the basis of common knowledge of an increase of population in the county since the last decennial census of the United States was taken in 1960. The salaries of such officers must be ascertained solely on the basis of the 1960 decennial census of the United States until January 1, 1971, the date that the 1970 census becomes effective.

Female employees of a business office of a construction company fall within the purview of Section 290.040, RSMo Supp. 1967, prohibiting certain establishments from employing female labor for a longer period than nine hours in one day or fifty-four hours in one week.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Will W. Davis

A fourth class city can legally engage in the operation of an intra-city bus system and can make use of surplus city funds if additional revenue would be required.

County court of non-township organization county cannot, under provisions of Section 231.010, RSMo 1959, change boundaries of the special benefit assessment road districts of county, organized under Sections 233.170 to 233.315, RSMo 1959, taking territory from first district and adding same to common road district of county, and taking territory from such common road district and adding it to said second district.

Board of Election Commissioners of Jackson County not entitled to increase in salary under House Bill 398 (Section 113.690) during their present term.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Robert D. Scharz

Opinion letter to the Honorable Donald L. Manford

An existing hospital facility may be converted into a county nursing home under the provisions of Section 205.375, RSMo., 1959 by the county court with the permission of the hospital Board of Trustees. Also the Hospital Board of Trustees have no statutory authority to continue to control and manage the facility after it has been converted into a nursing home and that the primary duty in regard to this rests in the county court under Section 205.375.

Counties of the first and second class may adopt building codes which include provisions for regulation of plumbing installation and sewage disposal.

Opinion letter to the Honorable James L. Paul

1. A school district authorizing construction of facilities which may exceed an expenditure of twenty five hundred dollars shall publicly advertise for bids on the construction; 2. After advertising for bids, the board in the exercise of sound discretion may reject any and all bids and may proceed with the construction under its own supervision and control without contracting.

State Highway Patrol is without authority to enforce municipal ordinances and a fourth class city cannot confer such authority by ordinance.

A school board may set a tuition rate which is not the actual per pupil cost except as expressly limited by statute. A parent may send his children to a public school in the district in which he pays a school tax. A school board does not have the right to refuse admittance to the child of a school taxpayer in that district.

Opinion letter to Mr. Clyde Burch

Opinion letter to the Honorable John E. Downs

When the boundaries of a public school district which is a component of a junior college district are changed then the boundaries of the junior college district are also changed automatically to coincide with the new boundaries of the component school districts.

No deviations from the voting hour provisions of Section 111.370, RSMo., which are adopted by Section 247.180, RSMo., applicable to public water supply districts, are authorized and that only literal compliance with those provisions constitutes legal compliance.

Sheriffs of third and fourth class counties may under Senate Bill 237 enacted by the Seventy- fourth General Assembly retain all non- accountable civil fees received by them as of October 13, 1967, even though the amounts exceed the annual limits set by Senate Bill 237. Sheriffs who have received fees up to or in excess of the limits set by Senate Bill 237 as of October 13, 1967, are not entitled to retain any civil fees received between October 13, 1967, and January 1 , 1968. Sheriffs whohave not received civil fees up to the limits set by Senate Bill 237 as of October 13, 1967, may retain all civil fees received after that date and up to January 1, 1968 until the limits of Senate Bill 237 are reached.; The expenses that a sheriff of a third or fourth class county may receive under Section 548.241, RSMo 1959, are not received in his official capacity as sheriff and therefore are not subject to the provisions of Senate Bill 237.

The City of Columbia, Missouri, cannot lawfully acquire by purchase or condemnation title to property in Cooper County for the purpose of erecting and maintaining electrical power transmission lines.

Opinion letter to the Honorable E. J. Cantrell

Opinion letter to the Honorable Haskell Holman

Opinion letter to Mr. Joseph M. Rowley

(1) The county courts have no power or authority to provide offices in the courthouse for members of the state legislature, and (2) Cities incorporated under statutes of this state have no power or authority to provide offices for the members of the state legislature.

The phrases “greatest number of votes” and “largest number of votes” under House Bill No. 425, the General Assembly requires candidate for director of Kansas City Public School District to receive plurality but not majority of votes cast.

Opinion letter to the Honorable Jack K. Smith

The St. Louis Housing Authority is a “public body” within the meaning of House Bill No. 166 of the Seventy-fourth General Assembly.

House Bill No. 136, enacted by the Seventy-Fourth General Assembly, signed by the Governor on May 2, 1967, amending Section 117.330, RSMo 1959, to delete the item “White Colored” from the Affidavit of Registration, does not repeal that portion of Section 117.300 which requires the registration officer to note on the Application for Registration whether the applicant is White or Colored without inquiry where such is apparent.

Opinion letter to Major General L. B. Adams, Jr.

Opinion letter to the State Board of Education

A non-resident defendant convicted of any charge for which Chapter 302, RSMo as amended, makes mandatory the suspension or revocation of his privilege to operate a motor vehicle in this State must surrender his license to the Court pursuant to Section 302.225, RSMo Sup. 1965 and the Court must, within ten days thereafter, forward the license, together with the record of conviction, to the Director of Revenue.; The Director should note on the back of the license that the privilege of the non-resident to drive a motor vehicle on the highways of this State is suspended for the required length of time or revoked and return the license as soon as possible to the licensee. The Director also should forward a certified copy of the record of conviction to the motor vehicle administrator in the state wherein the person so convicted is a resident. Section 302.150, RSMo.