Montana Attorney General Opinion 15-182

Opinion No. 182 Fire Departments-Volunteer Fire- men--Exemptions-Road Tax -Poll Tax. HELD: That an ll.cth'e member of an unpaid fil'e del}artment is entitled to the exemptions mentioned in S'ec- tion 5144, R. C, 1\1., 1921, although he ma~' not have served for a period of five years. April 26, 1933. 'Ve are in receipt of lin inquiry from your office as to whether a volunteer fireman is exempt fl'om road and poll tax or whether he must come within the definition of an exempt fireman in order to secure this r1rivilege. Section 5144, Revised Codes, provides in part as follows: "The officers and memhers of unpaid fire companies reg- ularly organized a,nd exempt firemen are entitled to the following privileges and exemptions, viz: Exemption from payment of poll-tax, road-tax, and head- tax of every description, exemption from jury dut~·; exemption from mili- tary duty, except in case of war, in- vasion, or insurrection. Every fireman who has sen'ed fin; years in an or- ganized company in this state is an '-'exempt fireman" and must receive from the chief engineer of the depart- ment to which he belonged a certificate to that effect." The construction of this sentence is rather difficult. The conclusion which I rcach is this: That there are three distinct classes mentioned in the sec- tion which are entitled to the exemp- tions, (1) officers of unpaid fire com- panies, (2) members of same, (3) ex- empt firemen. You are therefore advised that the exemption applies to each of the three classes and that an active member of an unpaid fire department is entitled to the exemption:; mentioned in section 5144 R. C. although he may not ha\'e served for a period of five years.