Source: https://dojmt.gov/agooffice/attorney-generals-opinions/attorney-generals-opinions-2000/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 06:32:28+00:00

Document:
The light vehicle registration fee established in 1999 Mont. Laws, ch. 515, §§ 1-3, ratified by the voters as L.R. 115, may not be assessed against tribally owned vehicles or vehicles owned by enrolled tribal members residing on their reservations.
The light vehicle registration fee established in 1999 Mont. Laws, ch. 515, §§ 1-3, ratified by the voters as L.R. 115, may not be assessed against non-resident active duty military personnel stationed in Montana.
A county clerk and recorder may not refuse to file a “blanket document” that contains a listing of multiple reconveyances of trust indentures, provided the appropriate fee is paid.
A county clerk and recorder must charge the fee described in Mont. Code Ann. § 7-4-2632 for each page of a blanket document.
The public safety commission in a department of public safety created pursuant to Mont. Code Ann. title 7, chapter 32, part 1, may set the salary of a deputy sheriff employed in the department at any level at or above the amount that would be paid to the deputy under Mont. Code Ann. § 7-4-2508.
The due process provisions of Mont. Code Ann. §§ 7-32-107 to -110 do not apply upon termination of an undersheriff appointed to serve in a department of public safety.
Part-time deputy county attorneys are entitled to longevity pay under Mont. Code Ann. § 7-4-2503(3)(d).
The term “years of service” contained in Mont. Code Ann. § 7-4-2503(3)(d) means a calendar year, not 2080 hours of employment.
The holding in 48 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 10 applies to all marriage applications on file with a clerk of the district court, not only to those filed after the date of the opinion.
Pursuant to Mont. Code Ann. § 50-15-122(5), a clerk of the district court may allow public inspection and copying of the marriage certificate filed pursuant to Mont. Code Ann. § 40-1-321, but not of the marriage license.
Use of a county road right-of-way to gain access to streams and rivers is consistent with and reasonably incidental to the public’s right to travel on county roads.
A bridge and its abutments are a part of the public highway, and are subject to the same public easement of passage as the highway to which they are attached. Therefore, the public may gain access to streams and rivers by using the bridge, its right-of-way, and its abutments.
A member of the public must stay within the road and bridge easement to gain access to streams and rivers. Absent definition in the easement or deed to the contrary, the width of a bridge right-of-way easement is the same as the public highway to which it is attached.
Access to streams and rivers from county roads and bridges is subject to the valid exercise of the county commission’s police power and its statutory power to manage county roads.
Access to streams and rivers from county roads and bridges created by prescription is dependent upon the uses of the road during the prescriptive period.
A city with general government powers may appropriate funds to a private, non-profit corporation for operation of a private museum, if it is determined that the operation of the museum is for a public purpose and if the city enters into a contract with the corporation guaranteeing the public purpose of the enterprise.
Article V, section 11(5), of the Montana Constitution limits only appropriations made by the Montana legislature and does not limit expenditures by local governments.
A substitute city court judge may be selected by the sitting city judge from a list of qualified persons regardless of the availability of another city judge or justice of the peace.
If a sitting justice of the peace has been disqualified pursuant to Mont. Code Ann. § 3-1-803 or -805, the substitute justice must be another justice of the peace and may not be someone who has qualified to act as a substitute justice under Mont. Code Ann. § 3-10-231(2). If the sitting justice of the peace is sick, disabled or absent, the substitute justice may be a person who has qualified under § 3-10-231(2), as long as another justice of the peace or a city judge is not readily available. If the sitting justice of the peace is on vacation or in training, the substitute justice is chosen in the same manner as if the justice were sick or absent, as long as there is not another justice of the peace from the county of the sitting justice.
In determining who is available to act as a substitute justice of the peace, the sitting justice may rely upon letters from other justices and city judges that they are unavailable. Such letters should not be relied upon indefinitely, however. After a reasonable time, as determined by the sitting justice, the justices and judges who wrote the letters should be contacted to determine if they are still unavailable.
Subject to the provisions of Mont. Code Ann. §§ 50-15-121 and -122, applications for marriage licenses should be treated as confidential records once they have been completed and filed with the clerk of the district court.
Once a marriage has been reported to the Department of Public Health and Human Services on the form prescribed by the Department, the Department or the clerk of the district court may disclose to the public the names of the bride and groom, the date and place of the marriage, the name of the officiant and whether the ceremony was religious or civil.
The clerk of court may not divulge or provide copies of applications for marriage licenses under Mont. Code Ann. § 50-15-121(1) unless the requestor is the applicant, the applicant’s spouse, child, parent, or guardian, or an authorized representative. For purposes of this statute, “authorized representative” has the meaning provided in Mont. Code Ann. § 50-5-1103(2).

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