North Dakota Attorney General Opinions

OPINION 56-208 November 19, 1956 (OPINION) TAXATION RE: Real Property - Liability Between Owner and Seller This is in reply to your letter of November seventh in which you state that the United States became the owner of certain real property in Grand Forks County on December 7, 1955, and that prior to that date the property was owned by individuals and subject to the 1955 taxes. You ask whether April first or January first is the date on which the use and ownership of real property is considered for the purpose of determining whether or not it is exempt from taxation. In Gaar

OPINION 56-78 November 15, 1956 (OPINION) COUNTY MEMORIALS RE: Use of Funds - Selection of This is in reply to your letter of November 7, 1956, requesting an opinion of this office in regard to the use of county memorial funds raised by tax levy pursuant to section 11-3201 of the 1953 Supplement to the N.D.R.C. of 1943 as amended to date. Your specific questions are stated as follows: "1. Is a courthouse a memorial within the meaning of the section as amended.? "2. Is the selection of the type of memorial entirely in the control of the Board of County Commissioners? "3. Has t

OPINION 56-72 November 8, 1956 (OPINION) COUNTY COMMISSIONERS RE: Meeting - Holiday Pursuant to an oral conversation of Wednesday, November 7, 1956, this office has considered the following problem which you then presented: Section 11-1105 of the N.D.R.C. of 1943 requires the board of county commissioners to meet and hold sessions for the transaction of business of certain days and in particular on the first Tuesday of January of each year. The first Tuesday of January, 1957, will fall on a legal holiday and your question is whether the county board should meet on Wednesday,

OPINION 56-140 November 1, 1956 (OPINION) OFFICES AND OFFICERS RE: Sheriff - Levy of Execution - Authority to Enter We are in receipt of your letter of October 29, 1956, in which you request an opinion on the following questions: 1. Where a sheriff has received an execution which commands him to pick up and turn over to the plaintiff a certain cash register which is located inside of a locked building - in this case a service station which has been leased by the defendant from a third person - may he break into the building to obtain possession of the register. 2. If so, i

OPINION 56-88 October 30, 1956 (OPINION) EDUCATION RE: Basis of Need Fund - Priority Your letter of October 11, 1956, with reference to the above matter has been received. Your question is when the fund is insufficient to pay all appropriations therefrom must the basis of need payments be given a preference over other appropriations. Section 15-4024 of of the 1953 Supplement reads as follows: ORDER OF PAYMENT; LIMITATION BY LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS; FRACTIONAL PAYMENTS. The allocations made in this chapter shall be a first charge and claim upon and against all moneys appr

OPINION 56-59 October 29, 1956 (OPINION) COUNTIES RE: Budget - Providing for Safety Council This is in reply to your letter of October 16, 1956, requesting an opinion of this office in regard to making county funds available for the annual budget of a recognized county safety council. Your specific questions are stated as: "1. May the County Commissioners of a North Dakota County make county funds available for the annual budget of a recognized county safety council? "2. If so, may the amount arrived at be paid direct to the council treasurer? "3. Out of what appropriation co

OPINION 56-29 October 29, 1956 (OPINION) CITIES RE: Special Assessment for Sewerage Pump Station We are in receipt of your letter of October 25, 1956, in which you request an opinion on the following matter: You state that the city of Lakota is formulating plans for the extension of its sewer system through the creation of two additional sewer districts, the cost of the same to be defrayed by special assessment. In so doing it will be necessary to install a "lift station", which we understand to be a pump used to raise the sewerage from a lower to a higher level, and your q

OPINION 56-127 October 25, 1956 (OPINION) LABOR RE: Working Hours for Women We are in receipt of your letter of October 19, 1956, in which you request an opinion on the following question: Where a federal statute is silent as to the number of hours that a female may work in any one week while engaged in interstate commerce is our state statute (section 34-0606 of the N.D.R.C. of 1943) which limits the working hours of a female employee to forty-eight hours a week controlling? Enclosed herein you will find two opinions issued by this office dated January 31, 1944, and February

OPINION 56-105 October 25, 1956 (OPINION) ELECTIONS RE: Polling Places - Persons Authorized to be Present This is in reply to your letter of 19 October requesting an opinion of this office in regard to persons authorized to be present in polling places during elections. You inform us that in past years it has been the custom of individuals, not members of the Board of Elections, poll clerks or challengers, to frequent the individual polling places for the purpose of taking down a list of names of those who have voted. There have been instances where such persons have actually g

OPINION 56-96 October 22, 1956 (OPINION) ELECTIONS RE: Absent Voters' Ballots - Delivery This is in reply to your letter of 18 October 1956, requesting an opinion of this office in re delivery of absentee ballots to the elector. Section 16-1809 of the North Dakota Revised Code of 1943 provides insofar as here applicable: Upon receipt of an application for an absent voter's ballot properly filled out and duly signed, or as soon thereafter as the official absent voter's ballot for the precinct in which the applicant resides has been printed, the county auditor shall send to suc

OPINION 56-146 October 17, 1956 (OPINION) PUBLIC WELFARE RE: Recovery From Estate of Recipient This is in reply to your letter requesting information in re burial expenses of persons receiving welfare aid, where such person is found to have money or property, subsequent to his death, with particular regard to the point of whether or not a funeral bill of more than one hundred fifty dollars could be incurred. Section 50-0734 of the 1953 Supplement to the N.D.R.C of 1943 provides: "50-0734. Recovery from the Estate of Recipient of Assistance. On the death of any recipient of o

OPINION 56-103 October 17, 1956 (OPINION) ELECTIONS RE: Nominations - Petitions - Requisites Under date of October 15, 1956, you submitted for our opinion the petition with three hundred signatures of electors of the sixth legislative district of Grand Forks County requesting that the name of James A. Graham of Grand Forks County be printed as the Democratic candidate for the office of senator for said district to be voted on at the special election to be held November 6 of this year. You request an opinion as to the correctness of your views regarding the sufficiency of the

OPINION 56-10 October 16, 1956 (OPINION) AIRCRAFT RE: Spraying - Liability for Crop Damaged We are in receipt of your letter of October 9, 1956, in which you request an opinion concerning the applicability of Chapter 203, Session Laws of 1955, when a person for whom spraying was done brings an action for damage to his crop. Chapter 203 reads as follows: SECTION 1. LIMITATIONS FOR ACTIONS. No civil action shall be commenced arising out of the use or application of any herbicide, insecticide, fungicide or agricultural chemical by aircraft, unless the claimant has filed a ver

OPINION 56-86 October 11, 1956 (OPINION) DRUGS RE: Who May Dispense This is in reply to your letter requesting an opinion of this office in regard to the dispensing of drugs by physicians, in the regular course of their medical practice. Your first question is stated as: Can lay personnel, nurses or doctors' wives dispense drugs from a physician's office for his patients from the original stock bottles of drugs not hitherto relabeled distinctly for a specific patient by either a physician or a pharmacist (a) with the doctor present in his office? (b) with the doctor not prese

OPINION 56-99 October 8, 1956 (OPINION) ELECTIONS RE: Candidates - Failure to File Expense List Under date of October 4, 1956, you wrote a request for an opinion on the following: Are the provisions of Sections 16-2004 and 16-2020 of the N.D.R.C. 1943 applicable to an individual who: 1. Did not file a petition for nomination at the primary. 2. Did incur primary election expenses. 3. Did not file statement of campaign expenses. 4. Did receive enough write-in and sticker votes to be nominated. The above is with reference to a county, no-party office." Section 16-2004 p

OPINION 56-44 October 8, 1956 (OPINION) COMPETITIVE BIDS RE: Certified Check - Voiding Bid This is in reply to your letter of October 2, 1956 requesting an opinion of this office in regard to competitive bidding on certain contracts to be awarded by your board. You inform us that exits and fire escapes were to be constructed on a number of buildings at the State Hospital. The project was advertised for competitive bidding, such notice requesting in effect that Bid No. 1 be a separate bid to cover all of the work to be done on five buildings. Bids No. A, No. B and No. C each

OPINION 56-75 October 5, 1956 (OPINION) COUNTY MEMORIALS RE: Funds - Authority and Liability of County Commissioners - Expend This is in reply to your letter requesting an opinion of this office in regard to authority of particular county officers. The facts as given are substantially as follows: The board of county commissioners has been sued by a resident and taxpayer, concerning legality of particular proceedings involving the county World War II Memorial Fund and contemplated expenditures therefrom. The complaint alleges certain actions they have taken are in contempt of

OPINION 56-195 October 3, 1956 (OPINION) TAXATION RE: Delinquent Real Estate - Foreclosure - Effect on Mineral Rights We are in receipt of your letter of September 15, 1956, in which you request an opinion on the following matters. Are mineral rights and leases affected by a foreclosure action by the county for delinquent taxes on real estate? If such rights are not affected, is it necessary that the Register of Deeds list the names of such mineral holders and leaseholders on the certificate of record owner? It has been held by our Supreme Court in several cases that mineral

OPINION 56-175 October 3, 1956 (OPINION) SCHOOL DISTRICTS RE: Sale of Building - Elector For Under date of September 28, 1956, you request an opinion regarding the removal of a schoolhouse to another site and refer to section 15-2602. Sections 15-2601 and 15-2602 have been amended by the 1951 Legislature. They are found as Chapter 130 of the 1951 Session Laws. Section 15-2601 provides two methods of bringing it to a vote. The first method is where the school board on its own motion finds it necessary to have the election. The second method is where a petition for such an

OPINION 56-154 October 1, 1956 (OPINION) REGISTER OF DEEDS RE: Recording Land - Description - Judgment You desire to know whether it is proper to record the whole judgement including the description of lands in other counties than your county of McLean. It is my opinion that is it proper to record the whole judgment including the description of lands in other counties besides your own McLean County and indeed it is my opinion that it is preferable. There are several reasons for such an opinion. We find the duty of the register of deeds in section 11-1801 of the North Dakota R

OPINION 56-27 September 26, 1956 (OPINION) CITIES RE: Sewer Assessment Warrent - Validity This is in reply to your letter of September 17, 1956 requesting an opinion of this office in re sewer and assessment warrants. You inform us that the City of Mayville created a district for the purpose of extending sewer and watermains. No resolution of necessity was passed as part of the cost was not to be paid by service charges. Apparently someone is questioning the validity of said warrants on the ground that no resolution of necessity was passed. You refer us specifically to sec

OPINION 56-158 September 21, 1956 (OPINION) RESIDENCE RE: Poor Relief - Qualifications We are in receipt of your letter of September 11, 1956, in which you ask for an opinion concerning the residency of a Mrs. Bertha M. Crooker for purposes of poor relief. As we understand it, Mrs. Crooker was a resident of Cass County but entered the North Dakota Soldiers Home at Lisbon, North Dakota, in 1944. She has continued to live there since that time and has at various times voted in the city of Lisbon. Subsection 5 of section 37-1510 of the North Dakota Revised Code of 1943 (1953 Su

OPINION 56-73 September 17, 1956 (OPINION) COUNTY MEMORIALS RE: Authority of County to Equip This is in reply to your letter requesting an opinion of this office in regard to the county's furnishing a piano for use in the Veterans Memorial Room in the Williams County Memorial Court House. You inform us that the general purpose of the Veterans' Memorial Room is to furnish facilities for community gatherings, annual meetings of assessors, township officers, and veterans' organizations, etc. Your specific question is whether the Board of County Commissioners would be authorized

OPINION 56-211 September 14, 1956 (OPINION) TAXATION RE: Sales Tax - Physician Prescribed Drugs This is in reply to your letter of September thirteenth, asking for my opinion on the question as to whether certain retail sales of insulin are exempt from the retail sales tax under subdivision 7 of section 3, Chapter 329, Session Laws 1955, which exempts from the retail sales tax "gross receipts from the sale, by any drugstore, of drugs sold under a doctor's prescription." You state that "while it is clear that insulin purchased under a prescription is exempt from retail sales tax

OPINION 56-74 September 13, 1956 (OPINION) COUNTY MEMORIALS RE: Erection on Leased Premises - Legality This is in reply to your letter of September 13, 1956, requesting an opinion of this office with reference to county memorials. The facts as set out in your letter are as follows: Your Board of County Commissioners proposed to join with an American Legion Post in erecting a memorial on land to be leased from the United States of America to the Legion Post for a term of ninety-nine years. The land is presently held by the United States in trust for an Indian, and is located

OPINION 56-40 September 13, 1956 (OPINION) CITIES RE: Use of Special Funds - General - Funds This office recently directed an opinion to Mr. Carl Peterson, legal counsel for the Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Fargo, in which it was said that a municipality has the authority to make a loan to an urban renewal agency from the city's contingency fund. In your letter of September 12, 1956, you state that you are in agreement with this view but wish to know whether the source of the funds would be limited to the city's contingency fund or whether any other funds which the city

OPINION 56-104 September 12, 1956 (OPINION) ELECTIONS RE: Nominations - Write-ins - Official Newspaper This is in reply to your letter of September 7, 1956. You note that of the two newspapers in your county only one has complied with section 46-0603 of the Code, said section dealing with the application to place a newspaper's name on the ballot at the primary election for official newspaper. You state that the other newspaper which did not comply with the above section received 47 write-in votes at the primary election. You call our attention to section 46-0605 of the Co

OPINION 56-98 September 11, 1956 (OPINION) ELECTIONS RE: Abstract of Votes - Tally Books We have received your letter of September 4, 1956, in which you ask our opinion as to whether or not sections 16-0425, 16-1304, and 16-2313 of the North Dakota Revised Code of 1943 require the printing of separate books for the recording of votes for (1) party ballots, (2) no-party ballots, and (3) measures. Section 16-0425 deals with primary elections and requires that two tally books or two sets of tally sheets shall be provided for each voting precinct. The section continues to refer t

OPINION 56-222 September 8, 1956 (OPINION) URBAN RENEWAL RE: Loan From City Contingency Fund As you know, this office has been requested to render an opinion on whether or not the City of Fargo may properly make a loan of funds out of its contingency fund to the Urban Renewal Agency of Fargo, a public corporation, so that body may pay salaries and expenses that are accruing during the time a contract is being negotiated with the federal government. Chapter 281 of the 1955 Session Laws creates in North Dakota an "Urban Renewal Law." Section 7 of that chapter provides: "Every

OPINION 56-174 September 7, 1956 (OPINION) SCHOOL DISTRICTS RE: Residents - Tuition if Nonresident We have received your letter of recent date with reference to a school residence problem. If the patron you describe moves into town for the sole purpose of sending his children to the town school, the town school is entitled to tuition payments. On the other hand, if he moves into town intending to make his home there he becomes a resident for school purposes in the town. If your school district is furnishing a school in your district and the patron has reasonable access to su

OPINION 56-32 August 30, 1956 CITIES -- Special Improvement Districts - Petitions - Filing We are in receipt of your letter of August 24, 1956, in which you ask the following questions: 1. Can a city create a special improvement district and later “drop out” part of the district if there is objection from property owners to paving portions of the district? 2. If two districts are created, must there be separate petitions from the property owners in each district? 3. Must the petition of the property owners be filed and checked by the City Commission before the special improvement

OPINION 56-157 August 28, 1956 (OPINION) RESIDENCE RE: Poor Relief - Qualifications We are in receipt of your letter of August 20, 1956, in which you ask for an opinion concerning the residence of a certain family for poor relief purposes. The facts, as we understand them, are as follows: The members of the family in question were residents of McIntosh County and were receiving old age assistance from that county when they moved to Burleigh County in 1949. They continued to receive assistance from McIntosh County until the old age assistance grants were cancelled effective

OPINION 56-185 August 27, 1956 (OPINION) STOCKHOLDERS RE: May Not Vote By Mail This is in reply to your letter of August 22, 1956. You ask whether stockholders of elevator companies incorporated as general corporations for profit may vote by mail rather than by proxy or in person on corporate matters. As cited in your letter, sections 10-0504, 10-0510, and 10-0511 of the Code make it clear that voting by mail is not authorized. The statutory language, "represented either in person or by proxy in writing" may not be interpreted to include voting by mail. LESLIE R. BURGUM A

OPINION 56-98 August 25, 1956 (OPINION) ELECTIONS RE: Absent Voters' Ballots - Sent Upon Application We are in receipt of your letter of August 22, 1956, in which you inquire whether or not wives and members of service personnel are required to file an application for an absent voter's ballot or whether they fall under the provisions of section 16-1806 of the 1953 Supplement to the North Dakota Revised Code of 1943. The last paragraph of that section provides: Provided that qualified electors in the military or naval service or the merchant marines of the United States of Ameri

OPINION 56-167 August 22, 1956 (OPINION) SCHOOL DISTRICTS RE: Clerk - Officers - Interest in Contract We are in receipt of your letter of August 17, 1956, in which you ask whether a clerk of the board of education of a school district can enter into a contract with his district for providing vehicular transportation of the pupils. Section 15-3414 of the code prohibits a "member of the board" from entering into such contracts. The clerk, of course, is not a member of the board so this section does not prohibit him from entering into such a contract. However, section 15-4902

OPINION 56-107 August 22, 1956 (OPINION) ELECTIONS RE: Vacancy on Ballot - Petitions We are in receipt of your letter of August 15, 1956, in which you ask for an opinion concerning the number of signatures necessary to place a person's name on the no-party ballot in the general election to fill the "vacancy" that exists for the office of county superintendent of schools. It appears that no one person qualified at the primary election. Section 16-0807 of the 1953 Supplement sets forth the procedure to be used in filling a vacancy that exists in the no-party ballot. But note

OPINION 56-155 August 20, 1956 (OPINION) RESIDENCE RE: Illegitimate Child We are in receipt of your letter of August 13, 1956, in which you ask this office for an opinion on the place of residence of an illegitimate minor child who is evidently a fit subject for admittance to the state school at Grafton. The facts as you state them are as follows: The illegitimate's mother was a resident of Emmons County when the child was born in 1951. Some time later she married a resident of South Dakota and has ever since lived in that state. It is apparently conceded that she and he

OPINION 56-197 August 15, 1956 (OPINION) TAXATION RE: Delinquent - Set Off Against Corporation We are in receipt of your letter of August 10, 1956, in which you request an opinion on Chapter 321 of the 1955 Session Laws. You state that a corporation has a claim against a county and that a person to whom you refer as a partner, and which we assume is a stockholder, is individually delinquent in his taxes. You wish to know whether it is permissible to make a deduction from the warrant payable to the corporation to meet this delinquency. Since a corporation is a separate and dis

OPINION 56-139 August 13, 1956 (OPINION) OFFICES AND OFFICERS RE: Notary Public - Failure to Print Name This is in reply to your letter of August 7, 1956 requesting an opinion of this office on the effect of the provisions of chapter 287 of the 1955 Session Laws that: "Every notary public taking an acknowledgment to any instrument, immediately following his signature to the jurat or certificates of acknowledgment, shall legibly print, stamp, or type his name * * *" on the validity of public documents such as petitions for measures to be placed on the ballot and other public documents. There

OPINION 56-65 August 10, 1956 (OPINION) COUNTIES RE: Insanity Board - Jurisdiction This is in reply to your letter requesting an opinion of this office on whether the county insanity board (or the members thereof) may contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to act as an insanity board in committing wards of the government to the state hospital, the state school at Grafton, and the state tuberculosis sanatorium, and receive pay therefor from the United States government. It is the opinion of this office that a county insanity board, as such, and its members, as such, have no

OPINION 56-63 August 8, 1956 (OPINION) COUNTIES RE: Estate Taxes - Transfer of Probate In your letter of August 2, 1956, you ask for an opinion on which county is entitled to the proceeds of estate taxes when the probate of an estate has been transferred to an adjoining county under the provisions of section 27-0720. Section 27-0720, after setting out the method of transfer, provides: "* * *Thereafter, the county court to which such proceeding has been transferred shall exercise the same authority and jurisdiction over it and over all matters relating to the administration the

OPINION 56-60 August 7, 1956 (OPINION) COUNTIES RE: Conveyance of Armory Site to City This is in reply to your letter of August 1, 1956 requesting an opinion of this office in regard to whether a site now belonging to the County of Traill can be conveyed for armory-auditorium use. You enclose a copy of a memorandum decision of Judge Sad, determining in effect that the complaint of the city of Hillsboro in condemnation did not allege a more necessary public use than the public use to which the premises were already devoted, such premises now being used for a court house lawn and

OPINION 56-81 August 2, 1956 (OPINION) COURTS RE: County - Appointment of Clerk I have read with great interest your letter of July seventeenth with reference to the above captioned matter and have been giving it considerable thought since receiving it. You state that as a judge of the county court of increased jurisdiction in Ransom County you are also clerk of the district court of said county, and by virtue of being clerk of the district court you are also ex-officio clerk of the county court of increased jurisdiction. You state that section 27-0724 of the N.D.R.C. of 1943

OPINION 56-17 July 23, 1956 (OPINION) CITIES RE: Advertising Levy - Proper Use We have received your request for an opinion dated July 13, 1956. The city of Fargo will be host to the International Junior Golf Tournament in August of this year. The city proposes to donate twenty-five hundred dollars to the Chamber of Commerce out of their city fund raised by a levy under authority of section 57-15101 of the 1955 Session Laws to help defray the expenses of this tournament. This section of the law authorizes the governing body of a city to levy not to exceed one-half mill for th

OPINION 56-33 July 19, 1956 CITIES—Special Street Lighting—Bids This is in reply to your letter of 17 July 1956 requesting an opinion of this office in re the necessity of competitive bidding in the construction of a special street lighting system. You inform us that in its budget for the year ending 30 June 1957 your city contemplates an appropriation of general tax moneys to pay for the installation of a new street lighting system, presumably under chapter 40-30 of the North Dakota Revised Code of 1943. Your specific question is whether or not the city need advertise for bids for the wo

OPINION 56-34 July 18, 1956 (OPINION) CITIES RE: Special Street Lighting Payment This is in reply to your request for an opinion on the method of payment for the cost of a special street lighting system. You call our attention to section 40-3002 of the N.D.R.C. of 1943, and in particular, the provision thereof that: "* * * *the city may proceed to provide for the construction of the improvement and to assess the cost thereof or such part thereof as the governing body shall deem proper against the abutting property in the manner and with the notice and according to the forms a

OPINION 56-163 July 18, 1956 (OPINION) SCHOOL DISTRICTS RE: Annexation - Arbitration After We have received your letter with reference to sections 15-4719 and 15-4720 of the 1943 Revised Code which deal with arbitration after school annexation proceedings have been completed. The facts submitted by you are as follows: Recently two school districts were annexed to Drayton Special School District in your county. In 1953 a bond issue was voted and bonds sold in this special school district for the election of a school building. The circulators of the annexation petition verb