Montana Attorney General Opinion 16-43

Opinion No. 43. Fish and Game-Statutes, Construc- tion of. HELD: Chapter 1, Laws of 1935, is intended to be a permanent statute and is not restricted to one year only. February 14, 1935. Hon. Bert B. Armstrong The Senate The Capitol You ask for an opinion interpreting Chapter 1, Laws of 1935, which has become a law of this state. The question is whether this act is in- tended to apply only to the current year or whether it is intended as a permanent act applying each year hereafter. The difficulty with the interpreting of this Act is caused by Section 5 thereof, which reads as follows: "This Act shall be in full force and effect from and after the date of its passage and approval and shall apply to the current year." In paragraph 1 of the Act it states that the open season for elk in Park County shall begin Octo- ber 15, and end March I-no year be- ing stated. If Section 5 contained only the words ending with "approv- al," the law would clearly be a per- manent law. The addition of the words "and shall apply to the current year," might seem to limit the act to only one year. However, I believe a more reasonable interpretation of the law is that these words were in- tended only for the purpose of making the law immediately applicable. If it had been intended that the law was to apply for one year the word "only" might well have been added after the word "year," the last word of said Act. If we were to define what is meant by the term "current year," it might be difficult to determine just when the current year ended- whether it ended March 1, 1935, or January 1, 1936. I therefore conclude that this is in- tended to be a permanent statute and is not restricted to one year only.