Court Opinion

ID: 9763801
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:56:09.912354+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:49.731915
License: Public Domain

FINCH, Chief Justice
(concurring).
I have concluded to concur in the principal opinion on the basis of the explanatory statement which follows.
In the brief filed herein on behalf of respondents, which include the Commissioner of Agriculture and the Attorney General, appears the following statement:
“The effort of the regulations is to define and identify those activities which, in *203the judgment of the administrative officers charged with the duty of enforcing the Act, are the type of activities prohibited by the General Assembly. The effect of the regulations is that if such activities are engaged in, they will be considered by the Commissioner to be prima facie evidence of a violation of the Act. This does not eliminate the Commissioner’s burden of establishing in any subsequent proceeding that the acts were done with the requisite intent or effect, nor is there any attempted alteration of the statutory burden of proof or risk of non-persuasion, as described in State ex rel. Davis v. Thrifty Foodliner, Inc., 432 S.W.2d 287 (Mo.1968).”
The principal opinion holds that the effect of the rules promulgated by the Commissioner is to create a rebuttable presumption only and that they do not change the burden of proof, including the rule of non-persuasion. In so stating it is my understanding that the opinion holds exactly what respondents have stated above, and that the opinion does not accord any greater effect to the regulations than is contended for by respondents in the foregoing statement.